A NEW DalesBus service will launch on the Easter weekend to take Keighley people to an extra area of the Dales.

The 821 service will run direct in Keighley, Bingley and Shipley to the Washburn Valley, Pateley Bridge, Lofthouse and Scar House in Upper Nidderdale.

Keighley Town Council is subsidising the bus, which will run on weekends from April 20/21 to ‘Reservoir Country’.

Colin Speakman, vice-chairman of the Friends of DalesBus, said Keighley and District Travel would operate the service with grants from various sources.

He said: “It will enable people from the Keighley area to reach and enjoy part of the Yorkshire Dales otherwise inaccessible without a car.”

DalesBus, which has just unveiled its summer timetable, is celebrating 70 years since the 1949 National Park and Access to the Countryside Act.

As part of the celebrations the organisation said it was operating several new and improved Sunday and Bank Holiday bus services to the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Nidderdale AONB.

Highlights include a new Saturday DalesBus 74 bus from the centre of Bradford to Bolton Abbey, Burnsall and Grassington, partly financed by contributions from the Bradford Sikh community to improve access to the Dales for people from all cultures and backgrounds.

There is a new circular sightseeing DalesBus 857/830 through Wensleydale and Swaledale over Buttertubs Pass, and links to Castle Bolton, Richmond and Masham. The service will connect at Ribblehead Station with trains from Keighley, Skipton and Settle.

Other services:

• A direct new service from Malham on DalesBus 881, meeting bus and trains from Skipton at Settle to serve Slaidburn in the Forest of Bowland AONB.

• A new direct Sunday service on Craven Connection 580/581 from Skipton, Gargrave, Hellifield and Long Preston to Settle, Clapham, Ingleton, Kirkby Lonsdale and Lancaster.

• A unique double deck sightseeing bus 822 from Grassington (connections form Skipton on service 72) and Upper Wharfedale, crossing the Kidstone Pass to Hawes – offering magnificent panoramic sightseeing from the top deck.

Friends of DalesBus chairman Paul Harrison said: “DalesBus in 2019 is enabling people living in many congested towns and cities of Northern England to enjoy exactly what Parliament intended – weekend access opportunities to the wonderful countryside and open spaces of the Yorkshire Dales for walking and sightseeing.”

The Summer Metro DalesBus timetable is available from bus and rail stations, libraries and main visitor and community centres, together with more local service guides.

Visit dalesbus.org to download any of the timetables and guides.