Buses - Bus services in Harrogate and Districts

Looking for a new career in 2025?

We are looking for people with a passion for providing the best customer service to our customers in Harrogate, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire.

… and if you don’t know how to drive a bus, we can show you how at our award winning Academy facility.

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Since the beginning of 2023, our fares have been capped at just £2 per trip in line with the national fare cap. For 2025, the Government has announced that this cap will change to £3 per trip.

We’re here to help you double check that you’re getting the best value ticket – and we’re freezing all our bundle, day tickets and period tickets to help you get best value into the New Year.

If you’ve bought your £2 ticket on the app already, please bear in mind that this ticket will expire at the end of December, or 1 month after the date of purchase, whichever comes first.

Travelling in North Yorkshire?

Most of our single tickets will be £3, but we’ll have a new £2.50 fare for shorter journeys. Your driver will be able to let you know if your journey is classed as a short one. These prices will be for cross boundary journeys between West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire too.

Travelling in West Yorkshire?

The Mayor has pledged to keep fares at the current level of £2 per journey until the end of March.

Fares for Under 19s

Under 19s still get a great deal with us. The £1 Under 19s fare in North Yorkshire is here into the New Year. In West Yorkshire, Under 19 fares will change – most journeys will be £1.20 with a £1.80 fare for longer journeys. Due to the nationwide price cap, there won’t be a discounted fare for Under 19s travelling cross-boundary between North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.

Beat the increase and get one of our bundle or period tickets from the Transdev Go app.

If you’re making a few trips around Harrogate, grab a Harrogate 1 (£6) which gives you full flexibility if you want to jump back on the bus later on. With a bundle of 10 (£48), it works out at just £4.80 per day.
If you’re heading further afield, such as to Leeds or Ripon, our Gold 28 (£150) may be best value if you’re catching a few buses in a day.

We’re here to help if you need a hand finding the right ticket for you. Give our team a call on 01422 553 576 or email us on customer.services@transdevbus.co.uk.

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Harrogate Bus Company (Transdev) Acquires Reliance Motor Services Buses and Routes

The Harrogate Bus Company, a key member of the Transdev group, has announced a major acquisition of routes and buses from Reliance Motor Services, a well-established operator based in Sutton on the Forest, near York. This change will officially take effect on Sunday, 19 January 2025.

Integration of Buses and Routes

As part of the deal, Transdev’s York & Country division will incorporate 11 buses from Reliance Motor Services, a family-run business with an impressive 94-year history. Along with the buses, Transdev will also take over Reliance’s core network of routes that serve areas across Easingwold, Thirsk, Helmsley, and numerous villages north of York.

New Routes Joining the Transdev York & Country Network

Effective from 19 January 2025, the following routes will become part of Transdev’s York & Country operations:

Routes 30, 30X, 30XS, and 30SE
Serving Thirsk, Sowerby, Raskelf, Easingwold, Shipton, Skelton, and York.
Route 31X
A joint route with East Yorkshire Buses, connecting Kirkbymoorside, Helmsley, Ampleforth, Coxwold, Easingwold, Shipton, Skelton, and York. Passengers will benefit from reciprocal ticket acceptance, with return tickets valid across both operators’ services.
Route 40
Linking Easingwold, Stillington, Huby, Sutton on the Forest, York Hospital, and York city centre.
DalesBus Route 74
Operating on Saturdays, this scenic service connects York, Harrogate, Otley, Ilkley, Bolton Abbey, Burnsall, and Grassington.
School Routes 155R and 162R
Focused on school travel, these routes provide reliable transport for students with travel permits between Huby, Alne, and Outwood Academy Easingwold.

Reliance Retains Some Services

Reliance Motor Services will continue to operate other school and college routes under a contract with North Yorkshire Council, ensuring continued service in key areas.

Strengthening North Yorkshire’s Transport Network

This acquisition represents a significant expansion for Transdev, reinforcing its presence in North Yorkshire and ensuring uninterrupted transport links for passengers. The transition ensures the preservation of essential bus services, providing both local communities and regular travelers with enhanced connectivity and convenience.

Passengers are encouraged to check updated timetables and ticketing details as the integration approaches.

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Harrogate Bus Operator Wins Prestigious Green Award for Electric Bus Initiative

Harrogate’s premier bus operator, Transdev, has achieved a significant milestone in sustainability, earning The Environment Award at the renowned Routeone Awards in Birmingham. This accolade acknowledges Transdev’s substantial investment in a fleet of electric buses and the development of an advanced green depot.

This award, highly coveted in the transport industry, underscores Transdev’s innovative approach to reducing its carbon footprint while enhancing the region’s public transport infrastructure. Judges praised the company’s comprehensive sustainability initiatives, positioning it as a trailblazer in environmentally conscious transit solutions.

Henri Rohard, Managing Director of Transdev Blazefield, shared his enthusiasm for the recognition:

“Winning this award is a significant moment, especially at a time when the transition to electric buses is so important for our industry. I am delighted and very proud of our team.”

A Greener Future for Harrogate’s Public Transport

Transdev’s electric buses are progressively replacing diesel-powered vehicles on key routes, including route 7 between Harrogate, Wetherby, and Leeds, and route 24 connecting Harrogate to Pateley Bridge. This transition is part of a broader £21 million programme to introduce an entirely electric fleet of double- and single-deck buses in the Harrogate area.

Highlighting this commitment, a fully electric double-deck bus, destined for the award-winning route 36 linking Harrogate, Leeds, and Ripon, was showcased at the Euro Bus Expo at the NEC in Birmingham. This biannual event celebrates innovation in the bus industry and demonstrated Transdev’s leadership in adopting cutting-edge green technologies.

With these advancements, Transdev is not only setting new benchmarks for sustainable transport but also enhancing the passenger experience, firmly positioning Harrogate as a pioneer in eco-friendly public transit.

These new buses are now in service on the busy route 1, connecting Harrogate and Knaresborough with buses running as frequently as every eight minutes.

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Plan Your Festive Travels with Harrogate Bus Company! 🎄🚌

The festive season is almost here, and we’re here to make your travel planning easy and affordable! With fares no more than £2 until the end of 2024, there’s never been a better time to hop on the bus and explore all the exciting activities and destinations just a ride away.

Our Christmas Travel Guide is now online, featuring special holiday schedules, event ideas, and more. Here’s everything you need to know about our services during the holiday season:

Service Schedules

Sunday 22 December: Sunday service.
Monday 23 December: Saturday service (except the 59) with extra buses on route 6 at 7.15am and 7.45am from Harrogate.
Tuesday 24 December (Christmas Eve): Saturday service (except the 59), with early finishes on most routes. Extra buses on route 6 at 7.15am and 7.45am.
Wednesday 25 December (Christmas Day): No buses – time for our staff and buses to rest!
Thursday 26 December (Boxing Day): Special Boxing Day services on routes 1A, 1C, 36, and X98. Timetables will be available soon.
Friday 27 December – Monday 30 December: Saturday service (except the 59) with extra buses on route 6 at 7.15am and 7.45am.
Tuesday 31 December (New Year’s Eve): Saturday service (except the 59) with early finishes on most routes. Extra buses on route 6 at 7.15am and 7.45am.
Wednesday 1 January (New Year’s Day): No buses.
Thursday 2 January: Back to normal service.

Early Finish Times

For Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, some routes will finish earlier than usual. Here are the last bus times:

1A:
- 7.40pm Harrogate → St James Retail Park
- 8.01pm St James Retail Park → Harrogate
1B:
- 8pm Harrogate → Eastfield
- 8.24pm Eastfield → Harrogate
1C:
- 7.20pm Harrogate → Carmires
- 7.42pm Carmires → Harrogate
2:
- 7.45pm Harrogate → Bilton
3:
- 8.20pm Harrogate → Jennyfield
36:
- Last departures:
  - 7.15pm Leeds → Ripon
  - 8.10pm Harrogate → Ripon
- Adjusted final trips:
  - 7.45pm Leeds → Starbeck
  - 7.45pm Ripon → Harrogate
7:
- 6.20pm Harrogate → Leeds
- 7.20pm Harrogate → Wetherby
- 6.55pm Leeds → Harrogate
X98 & X99:
- 6.52pm Deighton Bar → Leeds
- 7.05pm Leeds → Deighton Bar

Customer Services

Our friendly customer services team will be available during these festive hours:

23 December – 1 January: 9am – 4pm.
Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day.
Back to normal hours from 2 January.

Concessionary Bus Passes

Concessionary passes will be valid as usual, including free travel after 9.30am (9am in North Yorkshire) on weekdays and all day on weekends and bank holidays.

Things to Do This Festive Season

Why worry about driving? Let us get you there while you enjoy the festive spirit. Check out our travel inspiration online and follow us on social media for updates. Just search for Harrogate Bus Company.

Travel, explore, and enjoy – all for just £2 each way! 🌟

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Harrogate Bus company. We’ve launched the first of 20 all-new Mercedes-Benz eCitaro fully electric single deck buses into service on our ever-popular route 1, linking Harrogate and Knaresborough up to every eight minutes – with more new buses to follow shortly.

The first five vehicles from the impressive new fleet of 20 buses, resplendent in our bright red livery and fresh designer logo, are now on the road – supported by two demonstrator electric buses to boost the immediate zero emission benefits before more newly built buses join us in the coming days.

Our Operations Director Vitto Pizzuti says: “We’re excited to introduce the first five of these stunning new zero emission buses today on our route 1, delivering a revolution in quality for our customers while dramatically cutting our carbon footprint.

We received valuable feedback from you, our customers during trials of new electric bus designs, and several of your ideas have been built into our finished product.

Our interior features fast and free Wi-Fi and USB device charging, custom-designed seating in a part leather, part moquette design unique to us, a hearing loop and two colour audio-visual information screens, one facing the wheelchair space, giving constantly updated journey information. Each bus also features extensive safety systems, including electronic pedestrian and cyclist detection and automatic collision avoidance technology.

Under the surface, there’s a powerful, zero emission electric motor which can provide all-day battery life – important for our busy routes. We know you’re going to love your new electric buses, and we’ll continue rolling them out for you in the weeks to come.

A total investment of around £9 million secured in partnership with North Yorkshire Council from ZEBRA, the Government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas fund, is supporting our own investment in your new electric buses … with more to come as our exciting new all-electric double deckers for route 36 are expected to join us very soon!

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From Monday 28 October, until further notice, we will not be able to serve Ripon Bus Station on the 36, due to the closure of Market Place East.

Buses will depart at the same times as now, but from Fishergate, outside The Original Factory Shop. This change also affects the S36 school bus.

We’re really sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Please keep up to date by checking the service updates on our website.

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Harrogate’s Bus company news. Our moving gesture to support those who serve.

Together with all Transdev local bus companies across the North of England, we are making our own moving gesture of support to current and former Forces personnel as the nation prepares to remember those who defended our freedom.

We will be providing free travel on Remembrance Sunday (10 November 2024), and on Remembrance Day (Monday 11 November 2024) to all current service personnel with forces ID, and to veterans in uniform or with their medals.

Our bus network stretches across dozens of routes serving a wide area of Yorkshire and Lancashire, from Scarborough and Whitby in the east to Preston and Bolton in the west.

We hope our free travel offer will help to ensure those struggling with the cost of living can still attend events to remember those who gave their lives in war.

Our Managing Director Henri Rohard says: “As many veterans and their families continue to face financial challenges, it is more important than ever that we offer our support wherever we can.

“We want to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom, and to support those living with the impact of conflict today.”

On both Remembrance days, where it is safe to do so, our buses will pause at 11am to observe two minutes’ silence in memory of those who gave their lives in defending our nation.

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Exciting Improvements to Your Harrogate Bus Services from 27 October

We are making some key changes to our bus services in Harrogate to offer you better connections and more reliable timetables. Here is what is new:

Route 1: Harrogate – Knaresborough

In collaboration with North Yorkshire Council, we are adding more buses during peak times and improving the overall timetable for reliability. Additional drivers and buses will help manage increasing traffic on Knaresborough Road.

Route 1C/1D Update: We are merging the 1C and 1D into one route. The 1C will now extend to the Bar Lane roundabout, near The Pastures development, every 30 minutes, replacing the 1D. This means more frequent buses, as well as evening and Sunday services for residents of The Pastures and Castle Locke, both within walking distance.

Sunday Evening Buses: We are adjusting Sunday evening times to improve connections in Harrogate and introducing evening services on the 1B as well.

Download the new timetable.

Route 2: Harrogate – Bilton

To enhance reliability, we are adjusting the timetable and evening service times to improve connections with other Harrogate buses.

Download the new timetable.

Route 3: Harrogate – Jennyfield

We are refining the timetable for better reliability and improving evening service times across all days to support smoother connections with other routes.

Download the new timetable.

Route 6: Harrogate – Pannal AshChanges will be made to the timetable to improve service reliability.

Download the new timetable.

Route 7: Harrogate – Wetherby – Leeds

We are enhancing reliability on this route and adjusting the peak-time service through Thorp Arch Trading Estate. The updated route will serve more businesses, running along Wighill Lane, Street 5, Avenue C West, and Avenue C East.

Download the new timetable.

Route 24: Harrogate – Pateley Bridge

We are making timetable adjustments to ensure more dependable service.

Download the new timetable.

Route 36: Harrogate – Leeds or Ripon

Improvements for greater reliability are on the way, including new early Sunday morning trips:

Departing Starbeck at 7:32 am

Departing Harrogate Bus Station at 7:45 am towards Leeds

Departing Leeds at 8:40 am heading towards Harrogate.

Download the new timetable.

Routes X98/X99: Wetherby – East Keswick – Leeds

We are making changes to enhance reliability and introducing a new late-night journey at 11:10 pm from Wetherby, running as an X99 to East Keswick and Keswick Lane before returning to Wetherby along the A58. This will provide a late-night service for East Keswick and Collingham.

Download the new timetable.

For any assistance or further information, feel free to contact us at customer.services@transdevbus.co.uk or via X (@harrogatebus).

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TRANSDEV NEWS Many of you are using Transdev Go to plan your journey, track your bus and buy your ticket. We know having a really reliable and easy to use app is key to having a great journey with us, which is why we’re building on the success of Transdev Go and launching a new app.

The new app is now ready to download and you must make sure you download it as soon as possible for a seamless transition. The old app will be switched off at the end of the month, and over the next few days some of our tickets will be taken out of the old app.

Our new app is full of the features you have come to love with Transdev Go, including journey planner, bus tracker and a way to buy your tickets before you board. We’re working hard in the background to improve the app based on your feedback over the coming days, weeks and months and welcome any comments – drop us an email to appfeedback@transdevbus.co.uk and let us know your views – we want to continuously improve our service with you. Our new app gives us a platform to deliver some of the most anticipated features from you and we look forward to sharing more soon.

What do you need to do next?

It’s time download the app! Use the download links below or head into the Google Play store or Apple App Store and search for Transdev Go – you’ll notice our nice colourful new icon so it’s bound to stand out on your home screen. If you don’t buy a ticket on the app, you can start using the new app straight away – just delete the old one when you’re all used to the new app. You’ll need to register on the app so you can buy your tickets, even if you’ve registered on the old app – we can use push notifications to send important updates for your journey too.

Download for Android

Download for iPhone

If you buy a single, 1 day or 7 day ticket, you can continue to use up your tickets until the end of March on the current app. Please buy any new tickets on the new app.

If you have a bundle of days/trips. 28 day, term or annual ticket, the remainder of your ticket balance will be transferred to the new app in the coming days. Please remember to use the same email address for the new app as you did on the old app! You can check the email address you’ve used in the old app by going to Settings > Account Details. If you use a different email address, we can’t guarantee your tickets will transfer across.

Customers who are part of Commuter Club will need to re-verify in the new ap. Go to Tickets > Ticket Schemes, choose your employer and upload your ID. It may take up to 48 hours to verify your details, but you can buy your ticket straight away. If you don’t have the correct ID to prove you work at the company, you may lose access to your ticket.

If you go to a college which issues your ticket for you, the college will be in touch to confirm more detail.

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions…

Do I need to create a new account? Yes please – you’ll need to create an account on the new app using the same email address as you have on the old app.

Why haven’t my tickets transferred across? Your tickets will move across by the end of March.

Why do I need to upload a photo? This helps us to check that the correct customer is using the ticket, we ask for you to upload a photo. As long as your face is visible and clear in the photo it’s fine, so feel free to upload a fun selfie!

Do you need more help? Our team are on hand to assist – drop an email to customer.services@transdevbus.co.uk or give us a call on 01422 553 576. You can also check out our handy videos below with top tips on using the app.

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New and improved links for housing developments and business parks from Sun 7 April

NEW 4 to King Edwin Park and Harrogate West Business Park

In partnership with North Yorkshire Council, with funding from the housing developer, the new 4 will link King Edwin Park, the Army Foundation Park and Harrogate West Business park with the town centre. It will run every hour 7am to 7pm Monday to Saturday and also serve Skipton Road and Ripon Road.

6 and X6 will merge to provide an all day service to Pannal Ash, RHS Harlow Carr and Beckwith Knowle. It will run every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and hourly on Sundays. At peak times, there will be extra buses so we’re running every 20 mins. The route will change on Otley Road and in Pannal Ash so we pick up on the opposite side of the road – this follows customer requests.

It’s so important that we can run as reliably as possible for you – so we can do this, we’ll be changing some of our other timetables too, also from Sunday 7 April.

1 Harrogate – Knaresborough

There will be a full timetable change from Monday to Saturday – buses will still run every 10 minutes.

2 Harrogate – Bilton

We’ll be making a few changes to our buses at peak times on weekdays.

3 Harrogate – Jennyfield

We’ll be making a few changes to our buses at peak times on weekdays.

8 Harrogate – Knaresborough – Wetherby

This route will be run by 21 transport from this date on behalf of North Yorkshire Council. Transdev tickets will now longer be valid. Please see the North Yorkshire Council website.

21 Knaresborough – Boroughbridge