Third time lucky for Wetherby?

Thursday 3rd July 2025

You’d think in an age when travel between many urban centres is booming, not least by passengers pursuing leisure activities, a bus service between Wetherby (population 11,000) and Leeds, its nearest regional centre lying 13 miles south west, would be prime territory for a successful commercial operation.

All the more so as Wetherby is marooned from the rail network making bus the only public transport on offer.

Yet Transdev Blazefield, the current operator of half hourly routes X98/X99 linking the two locations has given notice it’s pulling out from the end of August.

This comes exactly three years after First Bus also pulled out of the route (in August 2022) which led to Transdev Blazefield stepping in to give it a go.

Not only that, the company gave it a fulsome ‘go’ by using its high quality ‘Sky Class’ branded double deck buses with their ‘wow factor’ specification that had previously been used on the Cityzap branded high profile route between York and Leeds which became a Covid casualty.

I took a ride on route X98 in November 2022, a few weeks after these high profile buses made their debut, and it was certainly an impressive experience.

A more memorable couple journeys than when I’d travelled on the route a few years before that in the First Bus era. On both occasions I recall decent numbers of passengers travelling making me think the route had a commercial base.

As I was in Leeds recently I thought I’d take another trip up and down the route to try and reassess its potential.

I caught the 13:35 X98 from the terminus stop in Boar Lane close to Leeds railway station. Buses pick up at two further city centre stops including one close to the bus station and Victoria Centre.

Having negotiated the many sets of traffic lights for pedestrian crossings along Boar Street, Duncan Street and New Market Street we headed out of the city centre at 13:41 with a decent ‘load’ of 27 on board.

Other than one passenger boarding near Scarcroft (about half an hour later and seven miles from Leeds) the journey to Wetherby bus station only saw passengers alighting including roughly a third within the limits of Leeds City and another third at various stops through to Wetherby where we arrived on time at 14:19. Seven, almost the remaining third, were still on board of whom four alighted and three stayed on the bus, with two more joining, for the 16 minute circuit the bus then does of the residential area in north Wetherby reaching Deighton Bar.

After that, the bus returns to the bus station and heads back to Leeds for another journey on the X98.

That happens hourly, while on the opposite ‘half hour‘ from Leeds, an hourly X99 follows a similar route to the X98 as far as Bardsey where it diverts to serve East Keswick taking 53 minutes to reach the bus station in Wetherby instead of the X98’s 44 minutes.

From Wetherby heading south the quicker X98 leaves for Leeds at 45 minutes past the hour with the X99 leaving at 06 minutes past the hour facilitating an even 30 minute gap where the routes meet up from Bardsey into Leeds.

I caught the 15:06 X99 from Wetherby back to Leeds.

The bus arrived from its previous journey on time at 14:58 and a dozen or so passengers alighted which was impressive to see.

There was a changeover of drivers reminding me this route has its logistical challenges for Harrogate based Transdev Blazefield with Wetherby about 10 miles from its base there making driver reliefs a costly proposition.

We left on time with just five on board, picking up three more in Collingham but losing four by Scarcroft. More passengers joined as we hit the Leeds built up area with total passengers for the journey hitting 18 including only two two travelling the whole way.

As you can see the X98 was operated by double deck buses in generic Transdev Blazefield livery and the X99 had single decks wearing the red Harrogate livery.

They’re not bad buses but are a far cry from the Sky Class buses which were removed from the route and transferred to the Burnley area in early 2024.

I suspect regular passengers must be feeling quite despondent after losing their ‘luxury’ buses and now hearing the route is being abandoned by the second commercial operator in three years.

As I always say, making assumptions based on a very small toe in the water sample travelling is always dangerous but these were off peak journeys on a Tuesday and I would have thought there are many more commuters travelling at peak times as well as students and school children.

I’m surprised it hasn’t proved a commercial success and it’ll be interesting to see if another operator comes forward to take it on commercially. I can’t see Arriva doing so as it’s not in its West Yorkshire ‘territorial waters’ but I noticed Wetherby was well served by Connexions and wondered if Craig Temple is eyeing up the opportunity.

However with Mayor Brabin itching to begin ‘taking back control’ with her new Weaver branded network there’s not really any incentive for an operator to take the route over with the inevitable lead time of rebuilding passenger numbers up to the level needed for sustained commercial success.

Why take that risk when the X98/X99 could instead be a trailblazer for the Weaver network and a bus company gain a no risk contract rather than an at risk commercial venture?

Roger French

Summer blogging timetable TThSSu