It is a subsidiary of the FirstGroup, and is made up of three sub-division brands: First Bradford, First Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield and First Leeds.

In April 1974, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive was formed, with the municipal fleets of Bradford, Calderdale, Halifax, Huddersfield and Leeds combined.

[12][13][14] In September 1995, Yorkshire Rider was split into four separate divisions: Bradford Traveller, Calderline, Kingfisher Huddersfield and Leeds City Link.

[15] However in February 1998, all these were respectively renamed First Bradford, First Calderdale, First Huddersfield and First Leeds as part of the rollout of the FirstGroup brand.

Named Hunslet Park, the new depot was opened with a capacity of 200 buses with room for additional expansion.

[20] First's Todmorden outstation was partially demolished in 2015, converting the site into an open-air yard housing 24 vehicles.

[21] The operations of First West Yorkshire and First York are to be remerged into a First North and West Yorkshire business unit on 1 October 2022, with current Managing Director Paul Matthews temporarily overseeing operations of the new business unit until a new Managing Director can be recruited.

[22][23] As of June 2022, excluding First York, the company operates from five depots in the region: Bradford, Bramley, Halifax, Huddersfield and Hunslet.

[35] These were withdrawn in July 2016 and replaced by a fleet of double-deck Wright StreetDeck vehicles delivered in both Olympia for route 72 and the distinctive Olympia-Express livery the X6.

This was followed by 11 new City of Bradford-branded Wright StreetLite Max Ultroliners entering service in the summer, whilst some pre-existing fleet vehicles based at Bradford Bowling Back Lane depot were painted in the 2-tone blue livery.

This service is now operated by Stagecoach Manchester due to Tranche 2 of Bee Network bus franchising.

As a result, First Halifax decided to route-brand some of their existing fleet vehicles with Elland Lines to represent the Halifax/Huddersfield corridor.