Yorkshire Traction was a bus operator in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

that operated from 1902 until 2005.

History

Yorkshire_Traction_706_D706_NKY_MCW_Metrobus_-_Flickr_-_bowlagoogly

In March 1902 the Barnsley & District Electric Traction Company Limited was formed. It operated trams around the

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...

area until around 1930. In 1928, prior to the trams being withdrawn, the company was renamed from the Barnsley & District Traction Company Limited (the 'electric' part of the name being dropped some years earlier). The company was affectionately referred to as 'Tracky'. In October 1968, Yorkshire Traction purchased Mexborough & Swinton Traction Company and County Motors. As part of the

privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the National Bus Company, Yorkshire Traction was sold in January 1987 to a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena o ...

.YTC set to win Strathtay
''Commercial Motor'' 16 May 1991 page 20 The business subsequently expanded through purchasing other operators including: *Ridings Travel *Barnsley & District formed in July 1990 when Yorkshire Traction bought the bus business of Tom Jowitt Travel, Wombwell * Lincolnshire RoadCar Company * Lincoln City Transport * Yorkshire Terrier *

Andrews Andrews may refer to: Places Australia *Andrews, Queensland *Andrews, South Australia United States * Andrews, Florida (disambiguation), various places *Andrews, Indiana * Andrews, Nebraska *Andrews, North Carolina *Andrews, Oregon *Andrews, Sout ...

(merged with Yorkshire Terrier in 1998) * Sheffield Omnibus (merged with

in 1996) * South Riding (merged with

in 1995) * Strathtay Scottish in May 1991 *Meffans Coaches (a subsidiary of Strathtay) * London Traveller 35% shareholding, sold in to

Thorpes Thorpes was an English bus operator. It operated services under contract to Transport for London. History Thorpes was a coach operator that diversified into operating bus services under contract to Transport for London in the 1990s. Their St ...

in October 2001 In December 2005, Yorkshire Traction was sold to Stagecoach Yorkshire. In May 2008, Stagecoach sold its

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence i ...

operations to Centrebus Holdings, it was then subsequently passed to Arriva Yorkshire as Yorkshire Tiger, and then to Transdev Blazefield in 2021, who operate as

Team Pennine Team Pennine operates both local and regional bus services in West Yorkshire, England. It is a subsidiary of Transdev Blazefield, which operates bus services across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. History Sta ...

. The part of the business remaining with Stagecoach was renamed

Stagecoach Sheffield 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 ...

.Arriva unleashes its Yorkshire Tiger
''Bus & Coach Professional'' 9 October 2013

Operations

The company operated services across

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 ...

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

and into

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

and eventually,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

. From the 1974 merger of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster municipal bus companies until the mid-1990s, the operating area of South Yorkshire was split between South Yorkshire Transport and Yorkshire Traction with the former dominating Sheffield and Rotherham. Through the acquisitions of Sheffield Omnibus, South Riding, Andrews and Yorkshire Terrier in the early 1990s, the company gained a significant foothold in Sheffield. Yorkshire Traction had for decades been a major regional operator of National Express services covering nationwide routes in addition to its regular and long established services in and out of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to Yorkshire towns and cities. It had also operated alongside ''National Travel'', the short break holiday arm of National Bus Company. Upon privatisation, YTC launched "Yorkshire Traction's Coachlink" which became a popular choice for the short break coach holidaymaker within the region. In 1989, neighbouring operator West Riding Automobile Company left the coaching industry and sold the name "Ridings Travel", the order book and the goodwill, but no vehicles, to YTC. They merged this operation into their existing coaching unit and painted several coaches in full Ridings Travel livery.

References

*John Banks ''Prestige Series No.36 Yorkshire Traction 2''
Venture Publications
*John Banks ''Prestige Series No.5 Yorkshire Traction '

External links

Flickr galleryStagecoach YorkshireCompanies House extract company no 02065401
{{Defunct British Bus Companies 1902 establishments in England 2005 disestablishments in England Companies based in Barnsley Former bus operators in South Yorkshire

History

Operations

See also

References

External links