Stagecoach Yorkshire


Stagecoach Yorkshire is an operating division of Stagecoach UK Bus.
It was formed in 2005 to take over the former Traction Group fleets in Yorkshire by Stagecoach Group, which took over Traction from Frank Carter on 14 December 2005; Yorkshire Traction, Yorkshire Terrier and Barnsley & District. Since then the geographical coverage of the division has changed, with the divestment of services in the Huddersfield area, and the addition of Derbyshire operations from Stagecoach East Midlands. The former Yorkshire Traction and Barnsley & District operations are now branded as Stagecoach Yorkshire, whilst services in Yorkshire Terrier's former area are operated as Stagecoach Sheffield, and the Derbyshire operation continues as Stagecoach in Chesterfield. However, following rationalisation, services throughout the division are now registered to Yorkshire Traction.

History

was formed in 1986, when Barnsley-based Yorkshire Traction was sold to its management and employees, led by Frank Carter. In 2000 Sheffield-based Yorkshire Terrier was taken over along with the operations of Andrews, South Riding, Sheffield Omnibus, and Kingsman, all in Sheffield, which all competed with Mainline in the city.
Barnsley & District was formed in July 1990 when Traction bought Tom Jowitt Travel of Tankersley. It was enlarged in 1992 when Pride of The Road, Royston was purchased, and in 1995, when the bus operations of Globe of Barnsley were taken over.
Mainline was sold to FirstGroup, became First Mainline and then First South Yorkshire. It still competes with Stagecoach Yorkshire and Stagecoach Sheffield today, which brings Britain's largest two bus groups into competition with each other.
Following the takeover by Stagecoach, Barnsley & District was closed and absorbed into Yorkshire Traction in July 2006, and three months later the Stagecoach in Chesterfield operation was transferred into Stagecoach Yorkshire from Stagecoach East Midlands.
From Sunday 20 May 2007 the company is operating a brand new bus service across Barnsley and South Yorkshire. There have been a number of changes, presented as a bid to improve the service but really major service reductions. Many cross-border services into West Yorkshire have been withdrawn, especially between Barnsley and the Huddersfield areas, a former Yorkshire Traction stronghold.
In May 2008, following rumours that Arriva would purchase Stagecoach's Huddersfield operations, it was announced that Centrebus Holdings would buy the division. That company was a partnership between the Centrebus owner and Arriva, which held a 40% stake. It is now Yorkshire Tiger, wholly owned by Arriva.
Stagecoach Yorkshire division's first Stagecoach Gold service commenced on Monday 10 November 2014, operated by Stagecoach in Chesterfield and running between Sheffield, Chesterfield and Matlock, more recently extended from Sheffield to Meadowhall and Barnsley.

Depots

Stagecoach Yorkshire's vehicles are varied. Traction Group was known for a lot of variety among its bus fleet; Yorkshire Traction's fleet included the unique KIRN Mogul with East Lancashire Flyte body, a large fleet of Scania buses dating back to the 1990s, which were relatively rare then, and Traction has been the only major buyer of MAN 14.220s, all with East Lancs Myllennium bodies. Many more rare vehicles operate in the fleet, as well as more familiar vehicles, such as Dennis Darts, with Plaxton and Alexander bodies, low-floor Dart SLFs and Volvo B6BLEs with East Lancashire Spryte bodies, plus some ex-Blazefield Volvo B10Bs and B10BLEs with Wright bodies and Alexander ALX200-bodied Volvo B6LEs.
The company's last MCW Metrobuses were withdrawn in the first quarter of 2007.
Terrier's fleet was more standardised, with East Lancashire Spryte-bodied Dennis Darts and Volvo B6BLEs, East Lancashire Myllennium-bodied DAF SB220s, a single low-floor Volvo B6 with Plaxton Pointer bodywork, and 10 Alexander Dennis Pointer Darts. More recently, 25 MAN 18.240s with Alexander ALX300 bodywork joined the fleet, replacing all the remaining Alexander Dash-bodied Volvo B6s, and allowing the single low-floor Plaxton Pointer example to be cascaded.
Since the Stagecoach takeover, 20 new Alexander Dennis Pointer Darts have entered service at Rawmarsh and Ecclesfield, of which 17 were branded for routes 88 and 108/9, along with seven MCV Evolutions at Rawmarsh and 30 Alexander ALX300-bodied MAN 18.240s split between Sheffield and Barnsley depots. In 2009, Barnsley received a number of Enviro400 vehicles, branded for service 66.
In 2010 Sheffield received fifteen brand new Enviro 400s branded for service 88 to replace the previous buses on this route, which moved on to new route 87. More ALX 300 were transferred from Oxford and were placed into service on new service 79. Also three Optare solos were transferred in from Preston Bus to operate new service SL2, linking the Stannington estate with the tram at Malin Bridge. Rawmarsh and Barnsley received seven Enviro 200s each.
In 2011, Holbrook depot received 21 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 Hybrids for service 120, which were later followed with another 19 for service 52 in 2012. Ecclesfield Depot received six Enviro 200s for the enhanced Supertram Link service between Stocksbridge and Middlewood. More Enviro 200s followed in 2012; Barnsley received another six vehicles for the Townlines 1 service, displacing the existing Optare Solos to Holbrook for a new Supertram link service, whilst Holbrook received eight to upgrade service 25.
In October 2017, three Volvo B9R Plaxton Elites were added for the new X10 route between Barnsley and Leeds. These were transferred from National Express and sport leather seating and USB charging.