Yorkshire Traction
Encyclopedia
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
. Between 1986 and 2005 it was a key part of the Traction Group. In December 2005 it was sold to the Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...
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History
The Yorkshire Traction Company Limited was formed in 1902 as the Barnsley & District Electric Traction Company Limited. It operated trams around the BarnsleyBarnsley
Barnsley is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Dearne, north of the city of Sheffield, south of Leeds and west of Doncaster. Barnsley is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, of which Barnsley is the largest and...
locality 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 In 1928, prior to the trams being withdrawn, the company was renamed from the Barnsley & District Traction Company Limited (the 'electric' part of the name being dropped some years earlier).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'.
Yorkshire Traction was sold by the Government in 1986 to a management team led by Frank Carter. Until selling the business to Stagecoach
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...
on 14 December 2005, Carter expanded the business by purchasing other operators including:
- Barnsley & District (formed in July 1990 when Traction bought the bus business of Tom Jowitt Travel of Tankersley)
- Lincolnshire RoadCar CompanyStagecoach in LincolnshireStagecoach Lincolnshire is a bus company, formerly known as Lincolnshire RoadCar, which runs services throughout Lincolnshire.Stagecoach in Lincolnshire is the trading name of the Lincolnshire RoadCar Company Limited, which is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and part of its East Midlands...
- Lincoln City Transport
- Yorkshire Terrier
- Andrews (Sheffield) Ltd (merged with Yorkshire Terrier in 1998)
"Sheffield Omnibus (Merged with Andrews (Sheffield) in 1996)
- South Riding (merged with Andrews (Sheffield) in 1995)
- Strathtay ScottishStrathtay ScottishStagecoach Strathtay is a Scottish bus operating company which covers the Dundee and Angus areas, and parts of Grampian. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, which bought Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses Ltd from Traction Group in 2005...
- Meffans Coaches (a subsidiary of Strathtay)
- London TravellerLondon TravellerLondon Traveller was the trading name of Metropolitan Omnibus, a bus operator in Greater London in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The company was partially owned by Yorkshire Traction, and was sold to Thorpes in October 2001.-History:...
(35% owned by Traction, sold in 2002)
Yorkshire Traction and its subsidiaries were owned by The Traction Group, which was owned by Frank Carter, together with small shares owned by the Carter Family Trust and employees who worked for the company at privatisation.
In December 2005 Stagecoach acquired Yorkshire Traction, at the time the largest privately owned bus operator in th United Kingdom. In May 2008 Stagecoach sold the Huddersfield
Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
operations to Centrebus Holdings
Centrebus Holdings
Centrebus Holdings is a bus company in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. It is a partnership between Arriva and Centrebus, created in May 2008 to purchase both K-Line Travel and Stagecoach Yorkshire's Huddersfield operations.-Stagecoach:...
which now operate under the name 'Huddersfield Bus Company' while the part of the business remaining with Stagecoach was renamed Stagecoach Sheffield
Stagecoach Sheffield
Stagecoach Sheffield is a bus operator based in Sheffield, England, a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group. It was formed from the Sheffield based operations of the Yorkshire Traction Group, purchased by Stagecoach in 2005...
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Operations
The company operated services across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and into Leeds, Huddersfield and eventually, Sheffield. From the 1974 merger of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster bus companies until the mid-1990s, the operating area of South Yorkshire was split between South Yorkshire TransportSouth Yorkshire Transport
South Yorkshire Transport was formed in 1986, as a result of deregulation of bus services in the UK. The South Yorkshire PTE was no longer allowed to operate buses itself, so an arms length operating company was created....
(SYT) and Yorkshire Traction with SYT 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 which has today led Stagecoach to compete directly against First Group.
Yorkshire Traction had for decades been a major regional operator of National Express
National Express
National Express Coaches, more commonly known as National Express, is a brand and company, owned by the National Express Group, under which the majority of long distance bus and coach services in Great Britain are operated,...
services covering nationwide routes in addition to its regular and long established services in and out of London to Yorkshire towns and cities. It had also operated alongside 'National Travel', the short break holiday arm of NBC. Upon privatisation, YTC launched 'Ridings' Travel and became a popular choice for the short break coach holidaymaker within the region.