In this next Bus Station adventure, I make my first visit to Bradford Interchange, which I found to be a rather interesting transport hub due to the way the bus and railway facilities are integrated together. Bradford Interchange Railway Station sits directly beneath the Bus Station, with the bus facilities effectively positioned above the mainline railway platforms, making it quite an unusual arrangement compared with many other interchanges I have visited. I always enjoy discovering different layouts and designs when visiting bus stations around the country, and Bradford certainly offered something a little different. I spent around half an hour here photographing the buses and taking in the activity around the interchange, which gave me plenty of opportunities to see the different operators using the station throughout my visit.

The main operator I came across was First Bus, part of FirstGroup, with a number of their services operating around Bradford and the surrounding area. I also spotted Arriva buses operating in Yorkshire, alongside a few smaller independent operators, including TLC, which added a bit more variety to the fleet I was able to photograph. Overall, I really enjoyed my time exploring Bradford Interchange and it was certainly an interesting addition to my growing collection of Bus Station adventures. If you haven’t already seen my previous post, where I visited Ilkley Bus Station just outside Ilkley Railway Station, be sure to check that one out as well. There are plenty more transport adventures still to come, so I hope you enjoy following along with my journeys.

Bradford Interchange has a wide variety of bus services, with around 60 different services operating from the Bus Station and connecting Bradford with places such as Keighley, Huddersfield, Leeds, Dewsbury and many other destinations across the surrounding area. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time during this visit to check out or sample any of the bus routes myself, as I needed to be back in Leeds for around 19:00 to catch my train home to Chester. The main reason I was in Bradford in the first place was because I was travelling with Northern Trains using one of their £2 Flash Sale tickets, which were available during the sale between 2nd and 4th September 2026. This has been a really enjoyable little mini-series of trips for me, allowing me to visit different places while also ticking off more stations along the way. I still have one final trip planned as part of the Flash Sale, with my next adventure taking me to Sheffield on Monday 14th September, so I’m looking forward to seeing what that trip has in store!

To date, I have visited around 30 different Bus Stations, mostly across England, but I have also visited Cardiff Bus Station and a handful of Bus Stations in Glasgow, including Buchanan Street and Hamilton Bus Station, which also has a Railway Station right next to it. This is something I have noticed quite often when travelling around the UK, with many Bus Stations and Interchanges being closely connected to Railway Stations, making it much easier to travel between different forms of Public Transport.

My aim is to visit as many Bus Stations as possible and document them here on my blog, sharing my thoughts and opinions on the services, facilities and overall experience at each location. So, getting back to Bradford Interchange, the main facilities here include around 29 Bus Stands, Toilets, Ticket and Information Desks, while down on the ground floor, shared with the Railway Station, there are additional facilities including a small shop where you can pick up snacks and drinks for your journey. One thing I did notice, however, was that there didn’t appear to be a huge amount of Step-Free Access around the Interchange, with much of the access between the different levels relying on Steps and Escalators, which is something worth considering when travelling through Bradford.

Let’s now focus on the fleet that serves the local area, with First Bus being the major operator across West Yorkshire, providing services to places such as Ilkley, Bradford, Leeds and the surrounding areas. It was really nice to see some variation in the buses compared with what I am used to back home in Merseyside, where Stagecoach and Arriva are the main operators I regularly come across. I also recently found out that the local Metro Mayor has plans to bring bus services back under public control, following a similar model to what has been introduced in Greater Manchester through the Bee Network, and what is now being rolled out across Merseyside through the Metro scheme. The idea is to franchise services to operators such as Stagecoach while bringing everything together under one more cohesive network and brand, which I think will be really interesting to follow as these changes continue to develop across the region.

As you can see from some of the buses I managed to photograph during my visit, the fleet around Bradford has a really interesting mixture of ages, with some of the older vehicles still making their way around the local network alongside much newer buses. One thing I particularly enjoyed was seeing a number of Wright StreetDecks dating from around 2018, which are now becoming a little less common to see as operators across the country continue to introduce newer vehicles. First West Yorkshire has also invested heavily in the Bradford area in recent years, with 39 new buses introduced in 2022, including new StreetDeck double-deckers and StreetLite single-deckers. These newer buses were introduced as part of an £8.1 million investment aimed at improving the fleet and reducing emissions across Bradford.

Personally, I quite like seeing a mixture of older and newer buses when I visit somewhere, as it gives you a better idea of how a local fleet has developed over the years. The 2018 StreetDecks I spotted are still relatively modern compared with some of the older vehicles that can be found around the UK, but they already have several years of service behind them. Fleet information also shows a number of 2018-built StreetDecks allocated to Bradford, so it was nice to see some of these vehicles in service during my visit. Compared with what I am used to back home in Merseyside, where newer buses are becoming increasingly common, Bradford offered a slightly different experience and gave me the opportunity to photograph a few buses that I don’t normally come across in my local area.

Above are a few photographs of the different operators I managed to capture during my visit to Bradford, and one of the things I really enjoyed was seeing a bit more variety than I am normally used to back home in Merseyside. TLC in particular caught my attention, as they are an independent operator in the Bradford area, and I always enjoy spotting smaller operators when I visit somewhere new. Alongside TLC, I also noticed that Arriva has quite a noticeable presence around Bradford and West Yorkshire. It was actually quite strange but also quite nice seeing Arriva buses operating here, especially knowing that Arriva is due to leave my local area in Merseyside in October 2026. For me, it was a reminder that although operators can disappear from one area, they can still be a very familiar sight elsewhere around the country.

I have to admit that I have quite a mixed relationship with Arriva, mainly because of my own experiences with them back home. They have been a familiar part of the Merseyside bus scene for as long as I can remember, but I also remember the disruption caused when Arriva Merseyside drivers went on strike for around a month in August 2023. During that time, I had no Arriva services from Wallasey into Liverpool and ended up relying on the train quite heavily for most of the month, which certainly wasn’t ideal. Despite that, I know I am still going to miss seeing Arriva buses around Merseyside when they eventually leave, simply because they have been such a big part of the local network and my own journeys over the years. I certainly won’t miss every single bus they operate — especially the StreetLites, which I have never been a huge fan of — but there are other vehicles and liveries that I will genuinely miss seeing on my local roads. Seeing Arriva again in Bradford therefore felt a little nostalgic for me, but at the same time it was nice to photograph them somewhere completely different from home.

With that said, I am going to bring this post to a close, and I hope you have enjoyed coming along with me as I explored Bradford Interchange and took a closer look at the different buses and operators serving the local area, including Arriva, TLC and First Bus. I had such a fun day travelling around West Yorkshire, visiting some of the stations towards Ilkley before moving on to explore the Bus Stations in both Ilkley and Bradford. It was a really enjoyable part of my trip and gave me the chance to see a completely different bus network compared with what I am used to back home in Merseyside.

My next and final post from this trip to Leeds will take us into Leeds city centre, where I will be exploring a local Bus Hub located not too far from the main Railway Station. If you have enjoyed reading this post and following along with my latest transport adventure, I would really appreciate hearing your feedback, and please do consider giving the post a Like, as it really does help my blog reach even more people and encourages me to continue sharing these adventures with you all!