100 British Bus Routes: Route 60
Keighley to Leeds
19 February 2022
ABOVE: Volvo B7TL PJ05ZWF on route 60 at Shipley Market Square, on Wednesday 11th August 2021
Operator: The Keighley Bus Company (Transdev)
Runs: Daily, including evenings
Weekday frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 6 buses
Off-peak journey time: 80-85 minutes
Estimated route length: 23 miles
Runs: Daily, including evenings
Weekday frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: 6 buses
Off-peak journey time: 80-85 minutes
Estimated route length: 23 miles
Keighley Railway station is partly Northern Rail and partly the preserved Keighley and Worth Valley (KWVR) Railway. The KWVR is perhaps best known as the location for 'The Railway Children', much of which is based around Oakworth, just up (or should that down?) the line.
Keighley’s main KWVR platform, number 4, is worth a visit in itself. Full of preserved features and looking much as it probably did 60 or more years ago (at least if one ignores the contactless card machines in the ticket office, and the face coverings). As I’m short of pictures for this article, I hope you don’t mind me dropping one of the platform in here.
Keighley’s main KWVR platform, number 4, is worth a visit in itself. Full of preserved features and looking much as it probably did 60 or more years ago (at least if one ignores the contactless card machines in the ticket office, and the face coverings). As I’m short of pictures for this article, I hope you don’t mind me dropping one of the platform in here.
ABOVE: Platform 4 at Keighley station, Wednesday 11th August 2021.
I haven’t come to Keighley specifically to ride the KWVR – that’s just a bonus. I’m really here for the buses.
Just down the road from the railway station is the bus station. A properly-enclosed facility with 17 stands, most of which seem to be served by routes of the Keighley Bus Company, a part of Transdev. There’s a pretty extensive network from here and I might come back to discuss some of the options available at some point.
This is a bus company that oozes quality, even though some of its vehicles are quite old. My first ride on route 60, from Leeds, is on a Y-reg Volvo B7TL Plaxton President; yet it is smart and clean, looks like it has just been repainted, and has audio announcements on board. Most other vehicles on the route are slightly-newer 2005 Volvo B7TL Wright Eclipse Geminis.
My journey is the Wednesday evening 2010 departure, which may be why there are only a handful of passengers on board. There’s less traffic as well, so this journey is scheduled to take just 71 minutes (the longest journey in this direction takes 109). Still light (for most of the way) on this late summer’s evening.
From Keighley town centre the bus heads through some of the industrial territory to the north of the town before joining the fast dual carriageway A650 Aire Valley Road for a mile or two’s non-stop drive to Crossflatts.
The first sizeable town out of Keighley is Bingley; famous for the Bradford and Bingley Building Society (now a bank based down the road in Shipley). Another non-stop run down the Bingley Relief Road brings us to Saltaire and then Shipley, where the service takes a few minutes’ break at its Market Square. Although several buses serve these stops, there’s nothing else in evidence at gone eight-thirty in the evening. Not many people around either.
Just down the road, near Shipley station, a man in a KWVR uniform boards for a ride of a few stops. Perhaps he caught a train as far as he could from Keighley before switching to the bus for the last bit, or maybe he’s been visiting friends.
We’re on the edge of a valley, I think, as we head through the likes of Thackley, Greengates and Calverley. We’re close to the River Aire all the way, which is why this route is branded as Aireline. In fact, curiously, the route number 60 doesn’t appear anywhere in the route leaflet as far as I can see.
The scenery in this area is stunning – deep, rolling hills and views for miles. The top of a double-decker bus is by far the best way to see this, even though it is spitting with rain.
ABOVE: Volvo B7 Wright Eclipse Gemini 2793 (X3 VTD) in Aireline livery at Albion Mills, Greengates on Wednesday 11th August 2021
Into Rodley, with luxurious houses on one side and continued beautiful views on the other. But the territory is changing now. After we cross the Rodley Roundabout / City Ring Road, things become noticeably more built up.
By the time we reach Kirkstall, we’re exploring the various out-of-town shopping facilities; the largest of which is called Cardigan Fields. Soon after that, one can’t help but notice a vegan restaurant called Meat is Dead – a striking name on a striking building, but not for me, I’m afraid.
We’re now on the approach to the City Centre. The road has got much wider, and much busier. The bus is getting busier as well as it heads for the City Centre, past the ITV Yorkshire Studios. Finally we are heading down Headrow and into Eastgate, towards the City Bus Station.
There’s a young man stumbling about in the street, intoxicated. He is edging slowly towards the road and the bus, and falls away from the pavement just as we enter a road junction ahead of the penultimate bus stop. The man collides with the (closed) door of the bus, but it’s only a glancing blow. I suspect he will have a headache in the morning.
I vacate one stop before the Bus Station, as this is more convenient for my hotel. Even midweek, there are lots of people milling around. When I make the same trip two days later, both the bus and the streets of Leeds are noticeably busier.
There are extra late night buses out of Leeds on Fridays and Saturdays, leaving at 2340 and not reaching Keighley until 0051. Judging from the numbers coming into town mid-evening, that feels like a sensible facility.
I do like a fast ride through the countryside on a double-decker bus, and I suspect that’s why I like this route so much. There are other lovely runs in this region, but those are to talk about another day…