Calderdale JOC 7 (UJX 917M) in Rochdale – Mar 1974

March 1974 - Calderdale Joint Omnibus Committee had been created in September 1971 by the merger of the Halifax Joint Omnibus Committee and Todmorden Joint Omnibus Committee. The JOCs were part owned by their respective municipality and part owned by the local railway company. With regard to the Halifax JOC, the Corporation owned buses (‘A’ fleet) carried fleet numbers below 200 and the railway owned buses (‘B’ fleet) above 200.

The Calderdale Joint Omnibus Committee was absorbed by the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) on 1 April 1974.

One of the last vehicles to be added purchases to the ‘A’ fleet before the formation of the WYPTE was this rather nice Plaxton bodied Leyland Leopard which was new in December 1973. 7 (UJX 917M) became WYPTE 3007. It was seen in Smith Street, Rochdale having just arrived from Leeds and was about to do a U-turn in order to return there via Halifax.

The Rochdale-Halifax-Leeds service had been operated by Hebble Motor Services as their service 28 which travelled hourly via Ripponden. In early 1971 Halifax JOC took over the service and continued to use service number 28 for journeys via Ripponden. The JOC also introduced service 27 which omitted Ripponden to serve Mill Bank and the rural communities in the hills above that town. Each service operated every two hours but combined to maintain an overall hourly frequency between Rochdale and Halifax.

The bus behind is a former Salford City Transport Metro-Cammell bodied vehicle now in the SELNEC PTE fleet. In 1964 Salford bought their first rear engine buses for evaluation, three Daimler Fleetlines (ARJ 206-208B) and three Leyland Atlanteans (ARJ 209-211B). It may be one of the Fleetlines which was working service 24 to Manchester (Stevenson Square).