Yorkshire Terrier (bus company)

Infobox Bus transit
name = Yorkshire Terrier

logo_size = 150px


image_size = 200px
image_caption =
company_slogan = Sheffield's friendly buses
parent = Yorkshire Traction
founded = 1988
headquarters = Sheffield
locale = Sheffield
service_area = UK
service_type = Urban bus service
alliance =
routes = 30
destinations = Bradway, Crookes, Woodhouse.
stops =
hubs =
stations =
lounge =
fleet =
ridership =
fuel_type =
operator = Stagecoach Sheffield
ceo =
website =

Yorkshire Terrier was a post-deregulation bus company operating in Sheffield, England. The company was part of the Yorkshire Traction Group which is now part of Stagecoach Sheffield.

History

Foundation

The company was founded in 1988 to compete against South Yorkshire Transport, the dominant operator in Sheffield. The three main people involved were Messrs Baldwin, Keeling and Dixon; all three were former managers from South Yorkshire Transport's East Bank depot which was closed in early 1988.

Services were started using a fleet of 10-year-old plus Mark 1 Leyland Nationals from the Keetona Works on Greenland Road, Darnall. This depot was right next door to South Yorkshire Transport's Greenland Road depot.

Initial routes operated were:
*13 Sheffield - Malin Bridge
*25 Bradway - Woodhouse
*36/43 Sheffield - Batemoor Circles
*52 Crookes - Ballifield

The livery was initially green, white and yellow which was retained more or less throughout the company's existence although later vehicles received livery less the white portion.

Expansion

The company increased in size and quickly outgrew its depot moving to the former Central Works of South Yorkshire Transport on Queens Road (itself a former Sheffield Tramways depot). Here the company expanded to over 50 vehicles.

By this point it had purchased the remnants of the Darley Dale based Silver Service bus company (which it renamed Kingsman) and a minority share in Sheffield based operator Rotherham and District.

Vehicles purchases remained broadly the same with a mixture of mid-life and elderly Mark 1 Nationals being the mainstay. However several Scanias were acquired from British Airways which were converted for operation.

Independent consolidation

By 1992 the company was relatively secure. It had chosen to rationalise its interests; the coaching operations (which had been concentrated in Matlock with the Kingsman licence were transferred to a new purpose built depot at Holbrook on the outskirts of Sheffield along with the main fleet.

The transfer to Holbrook saw the end of the association with Rotherham and District, although three buses were taken over by Yorkshire Terrier.

In 1993 the company bought its first new vehicles with the purchase of 5 Dennis Darts. These were to be the only new vehicles for the fleet. Apart from these, two minibuses and the Kingsman coach fleet, the company continued to operate the reliable National as standard.

Traction Group ownership

In 1995 the company was bought by local company Yorkshire Traction, which had been busily buying up other independent operators Andrews, Sheffield Omnibus and South Riding.

Consolidation followed with Andrews merging with South Riding and then Sheffield Omnibus whilst Kingsman was consolidated into Yorkshire Terrier.

The two companies remained separate entities until 1998 when Yorkshire Terrier was merged into Andrews (Sheffield). However in a strange twist the Yorkshire Terrier fleetname was retained by Andrews as it was seen as the one with the better marketability. Thus, whilst Yorkshire Terrier ceased to exist as an operating company, the fleet name continued and was applied to the entire Andrews fleet.

The fleet itself had seen a dramatic improvement, with many new vehicles coming in and the retirement of a lot of the (by now very) elderly Nationals.

Remnants of the company today

December 2005 saw the Traction Group taken over by Stagecoach Group, and six months later the Yorkshire Terrier name disappeared from vehicles and was replaced by Stagecoach in Sheffield (under Stagecoach Yorkshire). The last buses carrying green and yellow livery are being withdrawn in March 2007.

Two of the original routes operated by Yorkshire Terrier survive today, the 25 and the 52 (which was progressively extended to Woodhouse and Hillsborough). Later addition, route 120, itself having been relatively unchanged for nearly 15 years, is also still a key route.Most of the vehicles operated by Terrier have been scrapped, the odd National passed onto other operators or even into preservation, but these were in their former operators' liveries rather than Yorkshire Terrier's.

The only buses new to the company are in the process of being withdrawn and scrapped by Yorkshire Traction.Of the depots, the site of Keetona Works is now a giant B&Q, the site of the old Central Works is now a Netto, but the depot remains in Holbrook, and apparently has a rosy future under Stagecoach.