Transdev Blazefield

Transdev Blazefield is a bus group in England. It owns six bus companies in the Lancashire and Yorkshire regions. Formed in 1991, since January 2006 it has been a subsidiary of Transdev.

History
In 1991 Blazefield Travel was formed when Alan Stephenson's AJS Group sold seven bus operations with 300 buses and 12 depots to two of its directors, Giles Fearnley and Stuart Wilde in a management buy out.

At its inception there were seven operating subsidiaries:
 * Harrogate & District
 * Harrogate Independent Travel
 * Keighley & District
 * Sovereign Bus & Coach
 * Sovereign Buses
 * Welwyn Hatfield Line
 * Yorkshire Coastliner

AJS Group had purchased West Yorkshire Road Car and London Country North East from National Bus Company in 1988. Prior to the sale the latter was broken in two, County Bus & Coach and Sovereign Bus & Coach; only the latter becoming part of Blazefield. West Yorkshire was broken into its six depots, Leeds, Bradford, York, Malton, Harrogate and Keighley.

Leeds and Bradford passed to Rider Group on 13 August 1989, which owned Yorkshire Rider, while the remaining four depots became York City & District, Yorkshire Coastliner, Harrogate & District and Keighley & District respectively. The York operation was taken by Rider Group on 29 July 1990.

Expansion soon followed with the purchase in November 1991 of Cambridge Coach Services from AJS with 14 buses, 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.

In 1993 Harrogate Independent Travel, which had been set up as an independent in 1986 by a number of West Yorkshires Harrogate drivers to challenge their employer, was absorbed into Harrogate & District. In 1994 Blazefield purchased Borehamwood Travel Services, with 43 vehicles, 22 of which were AEC Routemasters for London Buses route 13 (Golders Green - Aldwych). It was renamed London Sovereign. By this time the Group owned 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 when it acquired Cowie'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.

On 15 April 2001, Stagecoach Ribble's East Lancashire operations were acquired. Two new subsidiaries were formed, Burnley & Pendle with depots in Burnley and Pendle and Lancashire United with depots in Blackburn, Bolton and Clitheroe. Bolton was quickly sold on to Blue Bus of Horwich.

Between 2002 and 2005, Blazefield withdrew from its operations in south England. Sovereign London was sold to Transdev in 2002, the Huntingdon & District business to Cavalier Travel in 2003, and the St Albans operation 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, Blazefield Group was sold to Transdev with 305 buses. In 2007 Transdev Blazefield purchased Accrington Transport, Blackburn Transport and Northern Blue.

In 2008 Transdev Blazefield purchased two bus operations in York: City Sightseeing franchise Top Line Travel, and Veolia's bus operation, both based in Fulford.

Current Operations
Blazefield operates Yorkshire Coastliner and Harrogate & District, both of which operate into York. In April 2002 Top Line Travel was established and took over from Guide Friday open-top bus tours in York. Veolia moved into York towards the end of 2006 after it won the contracts to operate a number of local bus routes; it is administered by Top Line Travel.

As at October 2013, Transdev Blazefield had six operating subsidiaries:
 * Lancashire United
 * Transdev in Burnley & Pendle
 * Transdev in Harrogate
 * Transdev in Keighley
 * Transdev York
 * Yorkshire Coastliner

Transdev York
Top Line Travel was established in May 2000 by former York Pullman manager Peter Dew. As well as operating the City Sightseeing franchise in York, in 2002 it took over Guide Friday's York operations. In October 2000 Top Line Travel commenced operating two routes to service the University of York. In June 2008 Top Line Travel was purchased by Transdev Blazefield with 10 open top buses and several school buses.

In 2006 Veolia Transport successfully tendered to operate some services in York. It agreed a deal with Top Line Travel to share their depot in Fulford. In August 2008 Transdev Blazefield purchased Veolia Transport's York operations. In October 2008 both were combined under the Transdev York name. All buses operate with Yorkshire Coastliner accreditation.

In February 2012 Transdev York purchased the Unibus service and open top services of York Pullman, expanding the fleet to 49.

Transdev York operate DalesBus route 823 and 825.

Yorkshire Coastliner
Yorkshire Coastliner is based in Malton. It operates services between Leeds, Tadcaster, York and Malton, and also serve the coastal resorts of Scarborough, Whitby, Bridlington and Filey, as well as the inland town of Pickering and the village of Thornton-le-Dale in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

As at January 2012, Yorkshire Coastliner operated a fleet of 18 Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TL and B9TLs.

Yorkshire Coastliner participates in the Moorsbus scheme.