BrightBus was a bus operator in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

that traded from 1998 until 2017.

History

BrightBus was founded in May 1998 by Michael Strafford as an engineering business, performing contract maintenance for other operators. It also specialised in the conversion of buses for non-passenger use. It then diversified into the operation of school bus services. It ceased trading in July 2017 when the owner retired suffering ill health. At the time operations ceased it operated 86 routes serving 32 schools.BrightBus to close in structured way
''Route One'' 4 May 2017

Former operations

Between 2001 and 2005, Brightbus, then known as Mass Transit, had a substantial presence in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, following the acquisition of the bus operations of Applebys Coaches, Reliance Travel of

Great Gonerby Great Gonerby is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 2,200. It is situated less than north from Grantham. To its north is Gonerby Moor, ...

and the

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

depot of RoadCar. The Grantham operation failed under Mass ownership and was sold to

Centrebus Centrebus is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. Centrebus have a 51% shareholding in High Peak Buses and since December 2019 through c ...

, and the Lincoln area operations to

Dunn-Line Dunn-Line was a bus operator based in Nottingham, England, with services throughout Nottinghamshire operated from depots in Nottingham and Tuxford. The company also had a presence in the Lincoln area, largely through County Council contracted ope ...

in 2005. In 2004, BrightBus purchased the long established Leon Motors of

Finningley Finningley is a village and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Historically in Nottinghamshire, it lies on the A614 road between Bawtry and Thorne, about 6 miles south-east of Doncaster, at , and around 23 feet ab ...

that was formed in 1922 and operated buses in

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

. By 2008 the company's stage-carriage work had passed to

First South Yorkshire First South Yorkshire is a major bus operator providing bus services within and across South Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. History In 1989, South Yorkshire Transport introduced the ''Mainline'' brand on certain bus routes aro ...

and the remaining operations were integrated into the main BrightBus depot at

North Anston Anston is a civil parish in South Yorkshire, England, formally known as North and South Anston. The parish of Anston consists of the settlements of North Anston and South Anston, divided by the Anston Brook. History Anston, first recorded as ...

Fleet

As at May 2017, BrightBus operated a fleet of 73 buses, including many English built three-axle

Dennis Dragon The Dennis Dragon (also sold as the Dennis Condor) is a three-axle step-entrance double-decker bus manufactured by Dennis in England between 1982 and 1999. History The Dennis Dragon was originally built for Kowloon Motor Bus. In Hong Kong t ...

s and

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as t ...

s repatriated from Hong Kong.Brightbus
Sheffield Omnibus Enthusiast Society

References

External links

{{Defunct British Bus Companies, state=collapsed Companies based in Rotherham Transport companies established in 1998 1998 establishments in England 2017 disestablishments in England Former bus operators in South Yorkshire