Bullock & Sons were the first company to run omnibuses along the entire route of Leeds to Scarborough. The seasonal service began in February 1927, following licencing by the
Watch Committee. Prior to this, the Leeds to York section of the route is thought to have been first operated by
Dibbs & Warnes of
Tadcaster on 10 July 1922. The company was later acquired by the
Harrogate & District Road Car Company in July 1926, who then later extended their service to Scarborough in 1928, running every 2 hours at a total journey time of 3 hours and 55 minutes. The route was further extended to start from
Manchester in January 1929. Additionally,
Yorkshire Traction began a service from
Huddersfield to Scarborough on 29 July 1929.
Riley & Hawkridge of
Wetherby are thought to have run the first service from York to Scarborough with service starting prior to the mid-1920s. The first buses to run from Leeds to Bridlington began service in 1930, jointly operated by the
West Yorkshire Road Car Company and
East Yorkshire Motor Services. In 2004, an order was placed for six
Wright Eclipse Commuter bodied
Volvo B7RLE single-deck vehicles, however this order was later modified for the buses to feature
Wright Eclipse Urban bodies instead. In January 2006, the French-based operator
Transdev acquired the Blazefield Holdings Group – the parent company of Yorkshire Coastliner and the current operator of the routes. In Summer 2011, four
Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied
Volvo B9TL double-deck vehicles were delivered and entered service on the routes. bodied
Volvo B10BLE in
York, operating the service in June 2016 Following the partial collapse of
Tadcaster Bridge in December 2015,
North Yorkshire County Council committed up to £20,000 to establish a
shuttle bus service, named
Tadfaster, to connect
Tadcaster and
York during the bridge's reconstruction. The service commenced in February 2016. In 2016, a fleet of ten
Wright Gemini 3 bodied
Volvo B5TL double-deck vehicles were unveiled, representing an investment worth £2.34 million. These buses featured a new two-tone blue livery, and were launched at an event at
York Minster in December. The vehicles entered service in early 2017, with an additional three joining the fleet in September 2018. In Summer 2018, a range of
limited-stop services named
Coastliner Express were introduced. These services initially only called at Leeds, Seacroft and York, with route X40 running fast to Whitby, and route X43 to Scarborough and Bridlington. The routes operated only during the summer season (July–September), and improved journey times by up to an hour. However, the routes were axed in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Also in 2018, the 845 service from Leeds to
Filey and
Bridlington was withdrawn, with the company claiming staff wages and low passenger numbers during winter had made running the service unsustainable, with the route being replaced by the (pre-2020) X43. As with the pre-2020 timetable, the route only runs during the summer season, and makes one return journey a day. In 2023, the route was extended to start from Leeds, and was cut to terminate at Scarborough. In April 2023, the 840 was among eighty bus routes in North Yorkshire facing potential cancellation due to rising fuel prices, increased wage bills, higher costs for engineering materials and low passenger numbers which had rendered running the route unprofitable. However, the route was subsequently saved due to the success of the UK government's newly introduced financial support scheme for buses, which capped all single fares at £2. In October 2024, the frequency of buses between Leeds and York was increased from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes. == Route Description ==