Stagecoach Yorkshire

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Stagecoach Yorkshire
Stagecoach Chesterfield bus 22650, MAN 18, Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 YN58 CFE.jpg
Alexander Dennis Enviro300 bodied MAN 18.240 in Clay Cross in 2008
ParentStagecoach Group
Founded14 December 2005
HeadquartersBarnsley, South Yorkshire
Service areaYorkshire
Service typeBus
HubsBarnsley Interchange
Chesterfield coach station
Frenchgate Interchange
Meadowhall Interchange
Rotherham Interchange
Sheffield Interchange
Depots5
Fleet385 (February 2021)[1]
OperatorStagecoach Group
WebsiteOfficial Website

Stagecoach Yorkshire is an operating division of Stagecoach Group.

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.

Stagecoach Sheffield services are marketed alongside the Sheffield Supertram, operated by Stagecoach since 1997. Stagecoach Sheffield also operate the related SupertramLink bus.

History[]

The Yorkshire Traction Group was a large independent bus operator that had grown out of bus deregulation in the UK. It was formed in 1986, when Barnsley-based Yorkshire Traction was sold to its management and employees, led by Frank Carter. Yorkshire Terrier was an independent post-deregulation bus company that had been formed in 1988 operating in Sheffield, and had also expanded itself with acquisition of some smaller operators within Sheffield; in 2000 Yorkshire Traction purchased Yorkshire Terrier 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. The Chesterfield operation had been founded in 1987 as East Midland Motor Services and, at the time of the takeover by Stagecoach Yorkshire, employed 320 people and carried around eight million passengers every year, an increase of 10% over the previous year.[2]

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 became Yorkshire Tiger, wholly owned by Arriva in September 2013. In July 2021, Yorkshire Tiger was taken over by Team Pennine, owned by Transdev Blazefield.

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.

SupertramLink[]

Not to be confused with Sheffield Supertram.

Stagecoach in Sheffield operate a SupertramLink bus that extends the Stagecoach Supertram yellow route during the day. SupertramLink 1 (SL1/SL1A) runs from the Middlewood park and ride site at the northern Yellow route terminus, to Stocksbridge approximately 5 miles away, via Oughtibridge and the A6102. The service links with the yellow tram terminus at Middlewood, and buses run at the same frequencies as the tram during the daytime, however the service is reduced to an hourly rate in the evening, despite the tram running every 20 minutes.[3] The SL1 service was withdrawn on 1 June 2020, with local bus service 57 being enhanced to provide better links with the tram from Hillsborough instead of Middlewood. [4] The services have since been reinstated.

Additionally, two former SupertramLink bus services have previously operated; Supertram Link 2 (SL2) ran from the Malin Bridge tramstop to Stannington, whilst the SupertramLink3 (SL3) operated between Crystal Peaks and Killamarsh in south Sheffield. Both of these routes have since been discontinued.

Depots[]

Stagecoach Yorkshire operate services from five bus depots across South Yorkshire and North East Derbyshire, listed below.

The former depot in Holmfirth was transferred to Centrebus Holdings as part of the sale of the division's West Yorkshire network of services in May 2008.

Fleet[]

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 , all with East Lancs Myllennium bodies. Many more rare vehicles have operated 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.[5]

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 (first to Doncaster, then to Barnsley where it currently resides).

In June 2006, fourteen new buses arrived in Sheffield and entered service in July. These included ten brand new Dennis Dart SLF vehicles with pink "Route 88" branding, along with four other Dart SLFs from Stagecoach Manchester. Buses on routes 52, 83 and 120 also received the new style route branding, in sky-blue, blue and lime green respectively. Six more Dart SLFs entered service at Rawmarsh depot around the same time, branded for services 108 and 109, along with seven MCV Evolution-bodied MAN 14.240s at Barnsley.

Commencing in spring 2007, a batch of MAN 18.240 buses with Alexander ALX300 bodywork arrived at the Ecclesfield depot to work the 83 and 88 routes, followed by further examples for Barnsley and Chesterfield depots; thirty buses were delivered in total. In September 2010, a number of older MAN 18.220 vehicles arrived in Sheffield from Stagecoach Oxford, for use on new service 79 between Batemoor and Ecclesfield.

In 2009, Barnsley received a number of integral Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double-deckers, branded for service 66 (Barnsley – Elsecar). In 2010 Sheffield received fifteen brand new Enviro400s on Scania N230UD chassis branded for service 88 to replace the previous buses on this route, which moved on to new route 87 (Lowedges – High Green). More ALX 300 were transferred from Oxford and were placed into service on new service 79 (Batemoor – Ecclesfield). 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 (Halfway/Crystal Peaks – Royal Hallamshire Hospital/Fulwood), 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.

A batch of 18 hybrid Euro 6 Wright StreetLite Max HEV vehicles arrived in 2018, for use on service 1 between Batemoor and High Green.[6] Late 2019 saw the introduction of Euro 6 Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC single-deckers for the 25 service from Woodhouse to Bradway. These have been branded with Buses for Sheffield livery.

Gallery[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Fleet Lists". Sheffield Omnibus Enthusiasts Society (SOES). Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Stagecoach in Chesterfield". Transportweb. 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
  3. ^ SupertramLink bus official site, accessed 9 September 2008
  4. ^ "'Is this some sort of bad joke?' - fury as popular Sheffield bus service is scrapped". Sheffield Star. 29 May 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  5. ^ Goodbye to the double-deckers Sheffield Today by the Sheffield Star (Retrieved 23 January 2007)
  6. ^ Stagecoach places £70 million vehicle orders

External links[]

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