The renowned UK route between Leeds – Harrogate – Ripon has been upgraded. Fourteen new luxury buses have been introduced to the Transdev Harrogate service.
The new buses boast leather upholstery, drop-down tables, 2+1 seating upstairs, screens showing whether free seats are available upstairs, USB charging points, audio-visual next stop announcements, a small library, and 4G Wi-Fi.
The latest developments follow an extensive refreshing and rebranding in 2003, and an upgrade in 2010 which included the introduction of free onboard Icomera Wi-Fi. The new Volvo B5TLs chassis with Wrightbus Gemini 3 bodywork houses Icomera’s X6 router. At present, Transdev are only using this router for Passenger Wi-Fi, but the connectivity box has the capacity to run other Icomera solutions, such as CCTV, ticketing, passenger displays and infotainment.
Transdev’s move to provide an elite fleet of buses on the 36 route has started a revolutionary trend in the industry. This £3.3m upgrade was the result of passenger surveys to investigate what they valued about the current service, and what would improve it. This elite fleet is incredibly popular; since 2003 there has been year-on-year growth in passenger numbers of around 10%.
