Leeds City bus station


Leeds City bus station serves the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is owned and managed by Metro. It is situated between the Quarry Hill and Leeds City Markets areas of Leeds city centre. The National Express Dyer Street Coach Station adjoins the bus station. It can be accessed from York and Dyer Streets.

History

The bus station was opened in 1938 and was previously known as Leeds Central bus station. The original bus station was built at the same time and in the same style as the Quarry Hill flats. The original bus station was used as the back-drop for the opening credits of Yorkshire Television sitcom, Queenie's Castle.
The site was refurbished in 1964 and rebuilt, being officially reopened on 25 March 1996 when National Express relocated to the site. Other bus stations on Lady Lane and Wellington Street were closed when the new station opened.
The bus station is situated away from the railway station meaning there is no central transport 'hub' in Leeds. To answer this a small bus interchange was constructed at the railway station in 2005 and linked to the bus station by a Freecitybus zero-fare bus service, which was replaced by the LeedsCityBus service in April 2011.

Architecture

The building replaced a series of steel and concrete bus shelters. In line with most new bus stations in West Yorkshire, Leeds City is fully enclosed. The building is a single-storey brick-built structure with a glass roof that runs the full length of the bus station, allowing the maximum use of natural light. There are two concourses within the station, the bus concourse is situated on the eastern side of the building, while the National Express concourse is situated on the western side.

Operation

The bus station is owned and operated by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. It is the largest bus station of five in the city. There is a concorse for National Express and a bus concorse with 26 stands.
Nearly all buses from the bus station are to destinations out of the city, such as Ripon, Scarborough, Hull, Pontefract, Wakefield, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Halifax and Skipton.
The bus station is some distance from Leeds railway station, but the LeedsCityBus bus service links the two locations.
Most internal city bus services use the city centre roads rather than the bus station, mainly serving the public transport box.
Under the now discontinued scheme of the Leeds Supertram, the bus station would have had its own stop which would be used for access to both the bus station and the adjacent markets.

Services

Bus services

The main operators are Arriva Yorkshire, First Leeds, Harrogate Bus Company, Keighley Bus Company, Megabus, National Express, Stagecoach in Hull, Stagecoach Yorkshire, Yorkshire Coastliner and Yorkshire Tiger.
There are plenty of local services which link Leeds with the surrounding areas of the city such as Bramley, Cross Gates, Garforth, Headingley, Horsforth, Hunslet, Kirkstall, Morley, Rothwell, and Seacroft.
In addition, there are several services that run to other towns and cities in West Yorkshire including Batley, Bradford, Brighouse, Castleford, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Halifax, Heckmondwike, Huddersfield, Ilkley, Keighley, Otley, Pontefract and Wakefield, the White Rose Centre and Leeds Bradford International Airport. Buses also run to places outside of West Yorkshire, such as Harrogate, Hull, Selby, Skipton, Tadcaster and York. On Sundays, some 'DalesBus' services serve the bus station from Wakefield to the Yorkshire Dales via Ilkley and Otley, serving locations such as Buckden, Bolton Abbey, Grassington and Hawes.

Coach services

There are several coach services, which run from the other side of the bus station, the majority of these services being run by National Express with the others run by Eurolines. Stagecoach Group's bus operations also use the coach station. These include services X10 Leeds- Darton- Barnsley & X62 Leeds - Glasshoughton - Goole -Hull. Megabus runs from the bus station.

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