History

Yorkshire Rider was formed in 1986, as a result of deregulation of bus services

Bus deregulation

Bus deregulation in Great Britain came into force on 26 October 1986, as part of the Transport Act 1985.The 'Buses' White Paper was the basis of the Transport Act 1985, which provided for the deregulation of local bus services in the whole of the United Kingdom except for Northern Ireland and...

 in the UK. The West Yorkshire PTE

West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive

The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive is the Passenger Transport Executive for the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the executive arm of the West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority and was originally formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport...

 was no longer allowed to operate buses itself, so an arm's length operating company was created. In 1988 the undertaking became fully privatised when it was subject to an employee buy-out. In 1989 it acquired the Leeds and Bradford based operations of the West Yorkshire Road Car Company

West Yorkshire Road Car Company

The West Yorkshire Road Car Company Ltd was a major bus operator covering North and West Yorkshire. The company was generally referred to as West Yorkshire...

. In 1990 it acquired WYRCC operations in the city of York. Yorkshire Rider itself was taken over in 1994 by Badgerline which in turn soon afterwards merged with the Scottish based Grampian Regional Transport bus group to form FirstBus. Former Yorkshire Rider operations now operate as First West Yorkshire

First West Yorkshire

First West Yorkshire is the trading name of the four First bus companies serving the area of West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of FirstGroup, a company operating transport services across the British Isles and in North America...

 and First York

First York

First York is the largest bus operator in York, England. It is part of First Group, a major bus and train operator with a turnover of nearly £2.5 billion a year and 62,000 employees across the UK and North America...

.

As a footnote the Yorkshire Rider Social Club still exists in Leeds although it now has no formal connection with any bus operator and no longer receives any financial subsidy from such. It is one of the few remaining buildings where the Yorkshire Rider logo is still on display.