Harrogate Coach Travel was established in 2002 by Craig and Julie Temple to operate local services in the York area, to Ripon via Great Hammerton, before expanding to operate tendered services for North Yorkshire County Council and the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. Harrogate Coach Travel also operated the X54 service from York to Harrogate, but that service was withdrawn in August 2010, which left the X52 and X53 services to Ilkley and Guiseley as their only Harrogate services. In March 2011, the business was rebranded as Connexionsbuses. In April 2011, route X70 was introduced between Harrogate and Wetherby and several local services in Harrogate under contract from North Yorkshire County Council. At the same time, the North Yorkshire contract to run buses between York and Ripon was lost, and Harrogate Coach Travel commenced operating joint services from York to Ripon and Wetherby in partnership with Eddie Brown Tours. In 2011, Connexionsbuses became involved in a bus war with rival operator Transdev in Harrogate concerning services radiating out of Wetherby bus station.
Services
Connexionsbuses operate services to Harrogate, York, Boroughbridge, Ripon, Ilkley, Otley, Knaresborough and Wetherby. From August 2010, the company expanded more in the Ilkley and Otley areas of West Yorkshire, when they took over the Ilkley and Otley local services from First West Yorkshire and the 940 service to Holt Park from TLC Travel. The company started more services in the Wetherby area in April 2011, linking the town to York. Late 2013 Connexionsbuses took over services 780 from Wetherby to Knaresborough and 923 from Otley to Tadcaster. Late April 2014, Connexionsbuses services 104/110/111/112 were replaced by X4 to Wedderburn X6 to Pannal Ash X6a to Harlow Carr and X12 to Duchy Road all from Harrogate. When Eddie Browns collapsed, Connexions stood in on the 142/143 service until 5 January. The service was then taken over by Transdev York, they also operated the 56/57 Harrogate-Ripon/Roecliffe service which was transferred to The Harrogate Bus Company. They also now operate the 16 Acomb – York and the 13 Copmanthorpe – York – Haxby. In Leeds the operator currently runs service 64 Leeds – Cross Gates – Aberford under contract to First Leeds between Monday and Saturdays, with First Leeds ticket machines used. Previously, route 38 was operated commercially, although this was withdrawn following competition with SquarePeg buses, and the future implementation of a low-emission zone in Leeds.
Alongside its service buses, Connexions also maintain a fleet of heritage vehicles. This consists of 9 vehicles, aging from 1971 to 1999, most of which originally operated in Yorkshire.
