Transdev Blazefield

Transdev Blazefield is a bus group, serving Lancashire, North & West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. Formed in 1991, it has been a subsidiary of Transdev since January 2006.
History.
Blazefield Travel was formed in 1991, following the sale of Alan Stephenson's "AJS Group", along with seven bus operations, 300 vehicles, and 12 depots to former directors, Giles Fearnley and Stuart Wilde, in a management buyout.
Initially, there were seven operating subsidiaries: Keighley & District, Harrogate & District, Yorkshire Coastliner, Harrogate Independent Travel, Sovereign Bus & Coach, Welwyn Hatfield Line and Sovereign Harrow.
"AJS Group" had purchased West Yorkshire Road Car and London Country North East from the National Bus Company in 1988. Prior to the sale, the latter was broken in two, Country Bus & Coach and Sovereign Bus & Coach, with only the latter becoming part of Blazefield Travel.
West Yorkshire Road Car operations were divided into six depots: Bradford, Leeds, Harrogate, Keighley, Malton and York.
Leeds and Bradford depots passed to the Rider Group (then owners of Yorkshire Rider) in August 1989. The remaining four depots became Harrogate & District, Keighley & District, York City & District and Yorkshire Coastliner. The York operation was later taken over by the Rider Group in July 1990.
Expansion soon followed, with the purchase of Cambridge Coach Services in November 1991, along with 14 vehicles, and Watford-based Lucketts. Ingfield of Settle was purchased in April 1992, and was merged with Keighley-based Northern Rose to form Ingfield-Northern Rose.
Harrogate Independent Travel was set up as an independent in 1986, following the deregulation of bus services, by a number of West Yorkshire's Harrogate drivers to challenge their employer. This company was purchased in 1993, and absorbed into Harrogate & District.
In 1994, Blazefield purchased Borehamwood Travel Services, along with 43 vehicles (22 of which were AEC Routemasters). The company was renamed London Sovereign. By this time, the Blazefield group owned around 380 vehicles.
In 1994, Ingfield-Northern Rose bought Whaites Coaches of Settle. At the same time, Sovereign was locked in battle with Universitybus. Blazefield was also supposedly behind Petlen Travel, trading as Noddy Bus, using old Sovereign buses.
In 1996, Harrogate & District grew again, following the acquisition of Cowie Group's "United" operation in Ripon. In 1998, Huntingdon & District was created with the operations of Premier Buses, owned by Julian Peddle, but was sold to Cavalier of Sutton Bridge in 2004. Cambridge Coach Services was sold to National Express-owned "Airlinks" in 1999.
In April 2001, four garages, along with 230 vehicles were purchased from Stagecoach in Lancashire. Two new subsidiaries were formed, Burnley & Pendle with depots in Burnley and Pendle, and Lancashire United with depots in Blackburn, Bolton and Clitheroe. The depot at Bolton was subsequently sold on to Blue Bus of Horwich.
Between 2002 and 2005, Blazefield withdrew from its operations in the south of England. London Sovereign was sold to Transdev in 2002, with Huntingdon & District sold to Cavalier Travel in 2003, and operations in St. Albans sold to Centrebus in 2004. In early 2005, the Competition Commission cleared Blazefield's deal to sell what was left of Sovereign to Arriva Shires & Essex.
In January 2006, the Blazefield Group was sold to Transdev, along with 305 vehicles. In 2007, Transdev Blazefield purchased Accrington Transport, Blackburn Transport and Northern Blue.
In 2008, Transdev Blazefield purchased Top Line Travel, and Veolia's York operation, both based at the Fulford depot.
In December 2017, Rosso was purchased from Rossendale Borough Council.
Operations.
As of March 2020, Transdev Blazefield has six operating subsidiaries:
In April 2021, Transdev Blazefield agreed terms to purchase Yorkshire Tiger from Arriva. The sale includes depots at Elland and Waterloo as well as over 150 staff members and 60 buses. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of August 2021. Services 231 and 232 (between Huddersfield and Wakefield) are not part of the acquisition, and are planned to be operated by Arriva Yorkshire instead.
Blackburn Bus Company.
The Blackburn Bus Company, formerly branded as "Lancashire United", operates services in and around the boroughs of Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley.
Burnley Bus Company.
The Burnley Bus Company, formerly branded as "Burnley and Pendle" operates services in and around the boroughs of Burnley and Pendle, and into the surrounding areas including Accrington, Keighley and Manchester.
In 2004, the company introduced the flagship "Witch Way" service which links Burnley and Rawtenstall with Manchester. They also operate "Mainline", a group of services linking Burnley with destinations including Colne, Nelson and Padiham. Introduced in 2020 is Pendle Wizz. Pendle Wizz replaces the section of service between Burnley & Skipton, this had previously been part of both the "Mainline" & "Witch Way" networks.
Yorkshire Coastliner.
The "Coastliner" brand encompasses a group of long-distance services linking the cities of Leeds and York with the towns and villages of Malton, Pickering and Thornton-le-Dale in the North York Moors, as well as the coastal resorts of Scarborough and Whitby.
York & County, CityZap, York "City Sightseeing", and Flyer also operate under this subsidiary.
Harrogate Bus Company.
The Harrogate Bus Company operates local bus services in and around the town of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, with some services operating with fully electric Volvo 7900E vehicles.
The company also operates the flagship "Riding Redefined" 36 service, using high-specification Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5TL vehicles, providing a frequent service linking Ripon and Harrogate with Leeds.
Keighley Bus Company.
The Keighley Bus Company operates services in and around the towns and cities of Bradford, Leeds, Hebden Bridge, Ilkley, Keighley and Skipton.
Flagship services include "Aireline" 60 linking Keighley and Shipley with Leeds, "Dalesway" 66 linking Keighley with Skipton, and "theSHUTTLE" 662, linking Keighley, Bingley and Shipley with Bradford.
Rosso.
Rosso was acquired by Transdev in December 2017 from Rossendale Borough Council. The company operates services within the Borough of Rossendale, including the towns of Bacup, Haslingden, Rawtenstall and Whitworth, as well as in to surrounding areas, including Accrington, Blackburn, Burnley, Bury, Rochdale and Todmorden.
Former Operations.
Cambridge Coach Services.
Cambridge Coach Services was an operator of inter-urban and airport coach services based in Cambridge, England.
History.
The company began operations on 20 May 1990 as a spin off of Premier Travel Services' scheduled coach operations when that firm was sold by its parent, AJS Group, to Cambus Holdings. Cambridge Coach Services were operated by Blazefield Holdings from August 1991 and sold to that firm in November 1991.
On 30 October 1999, the operations were taken over by National Express owned Airlinks. Cambridge Coach Services Limited was retained as the name of a subsidiary company until it was renamed National Express Operations (Stansted) Limited on 7 May 2003, but integration with the new parent's network and rebranding of the services occurred in the months following the takeover. The airport services were renumbered in the 7x7 series in early 2000 under the Jetlink brand.
The company's vehicles were initially based at a depot in Waterbeach, later moving to King's Hedges Road, Cambridge and finally to Kilmaine Close, Cambridge. National Express continued to use the Kilmaine Close site until 2005, when they applied for it to be converted to other uses
Services.
The network changed over time. In autumn 1998, the following services were operating:
There was also a service no.38 from Cambridge to London via Haverhill and Saffron Walden but that passed to Biss Brothers of Stansted Airport on 24 October 1998 and was truncated to start from Linton.
Service no. 70 from Cambridge to Birmingham and seasonal service no. 72 from Cambridge to Bournemouth/Weymouth had ceased before this time.
Additionally, the company operated day tours, short breaks and charters.