[GB] Company Profile - Yorkshire Coastliner

Sticking at the east coast of England, this week's Company Profile move a little up north to look at Yorkshire operator - Transdev Yorkshire Coastliner.



Yorkshire Coastliner is a small operator owned by Blazefield Holdings - its network is made up of 6 services running between Leeds and the Yorkshire coast, and it has a fleet of just 20 buses. However, each of the services are typically 80 miles (~129km) one way, and takes 3 hours to complete a journey. It is also an extremely popular network for holiday-goers, and Yorkshire Coastliner remains one of the most profitable operators in the country. In 2006, following Blazefield's acquisition by French-owned Transdev, Yorkshire Coastliner is accordingly renamed with a long-winded name of Transdev Yorkshire Coastliner.

As said, Yorkshire Coastliner has a very small fleet. Because of the length of their services, the buses are also heavily used as well. As a result, their vehicles are replaces with new ones after staying in the fleet for a maximum of 5 years, with the displaced buses moving to its fellow Blazefield companies like Harrogate & District, Burnley & Pendle and so on.

This picture predates Transdev's takeover - with 436, one of the last batch of Olympian to enter service in Britain and 438, the first ever low floor double decker in the fleet, both featuring the old livery. 436, then 5-year old, was seeing the final year in service with the company, replaced the following year by new B7TLs. 438, new in 2002, is also replace by new B9TLs this year.



In 2004, Yorkshire Coastliner took a batch of 4 10.6m B7TL/Eclipse Geminis, and at the same time introducing a striking new livery that is inspired by the Harrogate 36 livery.



Another batch of 6 similar vehicles were added to the fleet in 2006, replacing the W-reg Olympians (431-437) that were sold on to First:



441 is a 7-year B7TL still with the fleet - before you say this is older than 5 years though, this is a transfer from Burnley & Pendle, previously spent its life on the busy X43 Burnley - Manchester service:



Up until this year, Yorkshire Coastliner also had a small number of single deckers used specifically on the scenic 840 service to Whitby, which passed through a low bridge. A batch of 5 B7RLEs were acquired in 2005 for this purpose, replacing the then 3-year old B10BLEs in the fleet. The 840, running through the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, is arguably one of the most scenic, and in my opinion, the most breathtaking bus service in Britain, and the exceptional power available on B7RLE proved handy to tackle some of the most formidable hills - up to 1:4 gradient - en-route.



This year though, increased demand has prompted Yorkshire Coastliner to reroute the 840 to allow double deckers to operate, and in turn the B7RLEs, just 3 years old, are replaced this year by these - B9TL/Eclipse Geminis. 10 of these have joined the fleet this year, replacing the President-bodied B7TLs (exc. 441) on top of the B7RLEs.





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