ALL aboard - the York Pullman Bus Company is being relaunched today, after a break of more than 17 years, with the announcement of new routes.

The famous brand, with its gold and burgundy livery, which in the 1970s carried about a million passengers every year before going into decline and dying in July 1990, has been revived by Rufforth-based firm K&J Logistics with a ten-vehicle fleet.

After a reception at Bootham Tower by York's Exhibition Square, into which the York Pullman Bus Company moved in 1951, more than 200 specially invited guests from York Tourism Bureau will this evening and tomorrow be taken on 45-minute guided city tours.

Both Tom James the managing director of K&J Logistics, and his wife, Maxine, accounts manager, both used to work for the York Pullman Company in its heyday.

Maxine said: "It was a fantastic business then, and when the lease came up for grabs at Bootham Tower that settled any doubts we might have had. We had to revive it.

"So confident are we in its future success that we took the lease out for 15 years."

The York Pullman service will offer what its new owner calls a "comprehensive day excursion programme", with journeys to Castle Howard, plus areas of outstanding beauty or interest which are difficult to reach by public transport.

These include Fountains Abbey, The Black Sheep Brewery in Masham, Beningbrough Hall, the Lake District, and destinations in the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

The new service is also offering half-day shopping trips to places like Thirsk, Sheffield Meadowhall, the Trafford Centre, Manchester, and Hornsea Freeport.

The buses will attend agricultural shows in Driffield, Thornton-le-Dale and Rosedale, and new open-top tours of York will be available every weekend until June 12, after which they will run daily until the end of October.

Recent acquisitions include two new Routemaster buses, one open-deck and one closed-deck, both of which carry the company's historic insignia.