First York

First York

Wright bodied Volvo B6BLE in York in June 2006
Parent	FirstGroup
Founded	1932
Headquarters	York
Service area	York
Service type	Bus services
Fleet	107 (July 2017)
Chief executive	Ben Gilligan
Website	www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/york

First York is a bus operator operating services in York. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.

In 1932 the York-West Yorkshire Joint Committee was formed as a joint venture between West Yorkshire Road Car Company and York City Council. The Transport Act 1985 banned such joint ventures, and thus West Yorkshire Road Car Company took full ownership before being rebranded as Yorkshire Rider in October 1986. In January 1991 it was rebranded as York CityRider. In April 1994 the Rider York business was included in the sale of the Yorkshire Rider business to Badgerline. Following Badgerline merging with GRT Group to form FirstBus in April 1995, Rider York was rebranded as First York.

There are sixteen colour-coded Overground routes numbered 1-13 and other services numbered as 5A and 10A which operate at weekday frequencies of between eight and thirty minutes.

On 27 February 2007 First York introduced an hourly service linking York with Leeds Bradford Airport. Branded as route 120 York Aircoach, it was based on a model and brand successfully used by Aircoach, a sister FirstGroup company operating to and from Dublin Airport. Four Volvo B10M-62 coaches previously operated by First Coaches and First Trafford Park were acquired for this operation. All used First Excel coach branding with additional York Aircoach branding applied. The service was later rebranded as York Airlink 787, with the coaches replaced by buses. It was withdrawn on 26 April 2009.

In 2009, First York commenced operating route X64 to Leeds in competition with Yorkshire Coastliner. It ceased in August 2010.

Route branding is not common on First York buses, apart from the park & ride brand. In the past route branding existed on services 1, 4, 5, 6, 10 and 12. The branding depicted the line colour, frequency of vehicles and main stops along the route.