Late-night Bradford-Leeds bus service?

[SF07]

Article in the Bradford Telegraph & Argus from the weekend is talking about a Facebook campaign to get late-night weekend trains from Leeds to Skipton and in it, it mentions about how 'transport chiefs were exploring the possiblity into a late-night bus service between Bradford and Leeds to operate when the trains stop running.'

Not sure whether this will happen or if it's just Friday/Saturday nights or all 7 nights or not. Could be a start to getting night buses back to Leeds following the withdrawl of the 921 and 928.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/4713429.Call_for_more_train_services/

[glennh2]

Can't see it given that there are no other night buses running other than the 95 nowadays

[B521UWW]

Didn't they have the nightrider years ago? I assume it was dropped due to low revenue & the fact it was nicknamed the FightRider!

[danielnew]

Leeds is a poor relation with nightbuses, we should have a comprehensive network like the other cities namely Manchester, Bristol, Southampton, London, Bournemouth, Poole, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Wigan, Hull, Brighton, Newcastle, Durham, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Reading which all have several night routes!!! I'm sure there are more that I'm unaware of.

To make a complete mockery of Leeds, a small town in Somerset - Yeovil has FOUR night routes (one of which served my house on the outskirts of the town) as opposed to just TWO here? and there are many other individual inter-urban routes eg goPronto Nottingham-Mansfield. Many airports facilitate night services as well eg. 510 Harlow-Stanstead Airport (via Bishops Stortford & Sawbridgeworth)

Perhaps there should be night services on the 2, 4 (not with ftr vehicles), 12, 16, 33A, 37, 42, 49, 50A, 51, 56 (to Whinmoor), 71, 72, 110, 163, 229, 268, 508, 757, 770 based on the frequent services but also serving the Airport, St. James's Hospital and Bus Stations/interchange points to allow connections. Aiming at the Inter-Urban Market, Low-Car Areas, Presence of Pubs, routes with a high number of villages too expensive by taxi to reach Leeds eg. 770. The 95 already covers the student market.

[westyorkshirebus]

There is no way First will do anything commercially, either now or before the recession, and I can't see it being the best use of Metro's limited funds either.

[northerner]

Obviously it can't be commercially viable otherwise other operators besides First would have given it a go. Also, looking at it from a safety aspect would you want to be the driver of a bus going round some of the estates after midnight on a Friday/Saturday night?

[kendall17]

My proposal for an east leeds night bus would be the 4 to whinmoor from boar lane. As the bus gets to Whinmoor, it changes to the 56 and it covers the route back into the centre. I think it would work but you'd have to inform people that it'd enup being a 56. I know it'd be abit long winded but the only viable way to do it imo.

[www.buseireann.ie]

Only areas where you know you won't have troublemakers on board should have a night bus. I used the 927 every 2nd weekend a few years ago for around 18 months and I can say for certian you had hardly any trouble, only the odd argument here or there. The demise of the 927 seemed to correspond to the decline in the number of people out in Leeds on a night, you can sometimes walk into a bar in Leeds and count the number of people in it on your fingers!

[timelesstable]

Nov 6, 2009 0:04:26 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

My proposal for an east leeds night bus would be the 4 to whinmoor from boar lane. As the bus gets to Whinmoor, it changes to the 56 and it covers the route back into the centre. I think it would work but you'd have to inform people that it'd enup being a 56. I know it'd be abit long winded but the only viable way to do it imo.

Sorry back to the drawing board, this was tried years ago where I lived and it only lasted a few weeks. The local ***** from the the "linked" communities didn't like each other during the day you can imagine what happened when it became dark and they had all had a few.

[rwilkes]

Remember we have CCTV on buses now, the trouble makers could be dealt with and us sensible people could have an all night bus service - they have them in many cities why not here?

[Jack]

But in other cities, haven't they seen their nightbus network significantly reduce over the years? I know in Liverpool in the past 12 months, the N86 has completely gone and used to run every night providing a 24 hour service to John Lennon and the rest of the services stop running on Friday nights.

[kendall17]

maybe the council, metro, the bus companies and the police should try and work something out. Maybe put 2members of the 'safer leeds' teams on the bus or the odd pcso.

[Jack]

Nov 6, 2009 12:10:13 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

maybe the council, metro, the bus companies and the police should try and work something out. Maybe put 2members of the 'safer leeds' teams on the bus or the odd pcso.

But wouldn't having so many resources being pumped into the service be wasteful and make the operation of it uneconomic?

[danielnew]

Night buses in London have expanded significantly in scope, without extra police resources. Buses in Leeds are no different to those in London in terms of assault screens and CCTV.

[kendall17]

Nov 6, 2009 12:32:44 GMT 1 Jack said:

Nov 6, 2009 12:10:13 GMT 1 kendall17 said:

maybe the council, metro, the bus companies and the police should try and work something out. Maybe put 2members of the 'safer leeds' teams on the bus or the odd pcso.

But wouldn't having so many resources being pumped into the service be wasteful and make the operation of it uneconomic?

If you can have a few safer leeds people on each taxi rank on a night i'm sure you can draft in more for bus journeys. Increase the fares on the routes but make it viable to compete with 4 mates who'd normally get a taxi home.

[glennh2]

think it comes down to money and it being cheaper and often safer for groups to use taxis

[timelesstable]

Nov 7, 2009 14:03:35 GMT 1 glennh2 said:

think it comes down to money and it being cheaper and often safer for groups to use taxis

You can choose your friends in the taxi, it's down to chance on the bus. How often can reasonably behaved individuals have a darker side on a full tank late at night!

[Steve Macz403]

You do get rowdy individuals on a night bus. Im in Manchester Met Uni and when im on the bus with other flatmates, it is generally noisy. with other students and such. We shouldnt have done this but there was one bus journey when we were the loudest , singing songs while drunk, we even tried how many people could fit on the back of the bus challenge. We managed 17, impressive capacity seating on a Stagecoach Magic bus Olympian. .

I honestly think they should be a night bus in Leeds, other cities can do it or at least First bus can extend end running times. I have cut my night early in Leeds to catch a bus, towards Burmantofts/St James and i find that the last bus is the 49 journey 23:20 from eastgate. If ive missed that then its walking all the way there. I think buses could first be extended in running times, maybe last bus 00:30 , or if not create a night bus service last bus 2:30.

[www.buseireann.ie]

I suppose you could have a handful of late journeys leaving from one of the Rail Station stops and not stopping elsewhere except to drop off passengers. Two members of the safer Leeds team together with a police officer or two would need to be present to spot and bar potential troublemakers from boarding, for example a roudy group.

[danielnew]

I think we are missing the point here! If London can do it where trouble is just as bad at night if not worse (speaking as someone who has lived there) then are we suggesting that people in Leeds are more dangerous to fellow passengers and drivers than in London???

[Burnside]

Not necessarily. Could be that no company wants to put their vehicles or drivers at risk, not enough drivers would do it, or simply they are not willing to try and make a profit out of it.