East Yorkshire Motor Services

"Whittles" redirects here. For other uses, see Whittle.
East Yorkshire Motor Services

Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TL
in September 2012
Founded 1926
Headquarters Hull
Service area East Riding of Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
Service type Bus & coach services
Depots Hull
Beverley
Bridlington
Elloughton
Hornsea
Pocklington
Scarborough
Withernsea
Fleet 329 (December 2014)
Chief executive Peter Shipp
Website www.eyms.co.uk

East Yorkshire Motor Services[1] (EYMS) is a bus and coach operator operating throughout Kingston upon Hull, the East Riding of Yorkshire, the North Yorkshire coast and the North York Moors. In and around Scarborough, EYMS operates as Scarborough & District Motor Services.[2]

History

East Yorkshire Motor Services buses at Hull Paragon Interchange in May 2008
East Yorkshire Motor Services at Scarborough depot in May 2009
Hornsea depot in June 2012
Finglands Coachways' Northern Counties Palatine bodied Volvo Olympian at Manchester Piccadilly bus station in July 2008

EYMS was originally two companies, Lee & Beaulah, set up by Ernest John Lee, and Hull & District Motor Services, set up by HA Harvey. In 1926 British Electric Traction bought the two and formed EYMS to take them over.[1] In 1968 BET was sold to the Tilling Group and in 1969 Tilling and BET were absorbed by the National Bus Company (NBC). The livery of East Yorkshire was dark blue and primrose until 1972, when it briefly changed to blue with white relief in the NBC corporate layout, but soon this was replaced by NBC poppy red.[3]

In the lead up to privatisation in 1987, EYMS's fleet, which had dropped to 200 vehicles and shared management with Lincolnshire Road Car, started to grow again. United Automobile Services' depots in Scarborough and Pickering were transferred to EYMS and rebranded Scarborough & District.[4][5]

In February 1987 EYMS was sold in a management buyout led by seven managers.[6] EYMS began to expand, purchasing many of the independent operators in its local area, including Connor & Graham,[7] Cottingham Mini Coaches[8] and Primrose Valley Coaches.[9] The liveries at privatisation were silver/blue, NBC poppy red and NBC's minibus livery of silver, blue and red. The red buses soon started receiving red/grey livery.

The Hardwick's of Scarborough fleet was purchased from Wallace Arnold, Wallace Arnold's last bus company. In Hull some AEC Routemasters entered service in traditional pre-NBC EYMS blue to compete with Kingston upon Hull City Transport, and it suffered competition in Hull, Bridlington and Scarborough from Applebys. In 1999 Applebys closed its Scarborough base. Soon afterwards it went into receivership.

Its first expansion outside its home area was in 1992 with the purchase of Finglands Coachways of Rusholme, Manchester.[10] In 1995 the original Stagecoach Manchester operation was added (not to be confused with the present day Stagecoach Manchester, against which Finglands is in competition on South Manchester routes). The next expansion outside Yorkshire was the purchase of Whittle Bus & Coach of Kidderminster in January 2004.[11]

On 1 August 2013, FirstGroup announced that subject to regulatory approval by the Office of Fair Trading, it had agreed to purchase the bus operations of Finglands Coachways. The sale included the lease of Finglands's depot in Rusholme, routes and approximately 100 members of staff, but no buses.[12][13] The deal was approved in January 2014 with First Greater Manchester taking over on 9 February 2014.[14][15][16]

In October 2013 EYMS sold the Fingland's coach charter business to Bullocks Coaches.[17]

In order to cut costs and improve service reliability the depot at Driffield closed at the end of service on 31 May 2014.[18]

In December 2014, the Whittle coach business was sold to Johnsons Coach & Bus Travel with nine coaches.[19][20][21] The National Express services were taken over by National Express subsidiary company, and all the Whittle local bus registrations cancelled from 5 January 2015.[22][23]

Coach operations

Coaches are operated for hire, day trips and short holidays. As well as running under the East Yorkshire Coaches name, EYC traded as Frodingham Coaches from November 2001 until October 2007 after the purchase of that company.[24] The previous coaching operation, East Yorkshire Travel, was once a nationwide operator, but was sold to the Godfrey Burley Group in 1996.

National Express

EYMS are a National Express contractor and operate services on the following routes:

Fleet

EYMS's fleet is dominated by Volvos, but also features other types, including Mercedes-Benz, Dennis and Optares. As at December 2014, the fleet consisted of 329 buses and coaches.[25] They are the first company in the UK to try the new MCV Evoseti. A heritage fleet is maintained consisting of PD2, a Willowbrook bodied AEC Regent with Beverley Bar roof, an open top Bristol Lodekka purchased July 2014 and a Duple Vista bodied Bedford OB.[26]

Acquisitions

EYMS Buses

Out of Area

EYMS Coaches

Moorsbus

East Yorkshire used to operate two Moorsbus duties from its Hull depot. These were normally operated by Wright Eclipse bodied Volvo B7RLEs. These ended in 2013 although the registration was kept until the following year. This was due to the withdrawal of funding from the Moors National Park due to budget cuts.In early 2014, East Yorkshire registered ME1, standing for Moors Explorer 1, which replaced the previous M13 and M14 services from Hull. The new service runs from Hessle Square in Hessle to the park visitor centre at Danby closely following the old route.

This is being run on a commercial basis by EYMS and has proved very popular with both local residents and visitors to the Moors using the previous vehicle arrangement, although two double deck buses have been spotted operating. Because of this the company does not accept disabled or pensioner passes for free travel, but does allow them to be used for discounted travel. Able bodied passengers must purchase a "Go Anywhere" ticket which allows travel over all EYMS services allowing connections to Scarbrough. Intermediate fares are also possible between certain sections of the route. In November 2014, East Yorkshire confirmed they would run ME1 during the summer of 2015.[27]

Documentary

The company was the subject of an eight-part documentary series On the Yorkshire Buses shown by Channel 5 from 11 July 2014.[28] The series was narrated by Simon Farnaby.[29]

References

  1. 1 2 "Companies House extract company no 216628 East Yorkshire Motor Services Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 2133854 Scarborough & District Motor Services Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  3. ↑ "History". East Yorkshire Motor Services. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 2133854 Scarborough and District Motor Services Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "WRAC chases United". Commercial Motor. 10 September 1987. p. 25. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 2065145 EYMS Group Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  7. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 546796 Connor and Graham Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  8. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 2142740 Whittle Coach & Bus Limited formerly East Yorkshire Railways Limited formerly EYMS Yesteryear Travel Limited formerly Cottingham Mini Coaches Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  9. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 2123369 EYMS Bus & Coach Training Limited formerly Primrose Valley Coaches Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  10. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 243051 Finglands Coachways Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  11. ↑ "EYMS to buy Whittle". Bus & Coach Professional. 9 January 2004. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  12. ↑ "FirstGroup plc Agree To Acquire Finglands Bus Operations In Manchester". FirstGroup. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  13. ↑ "Jobs saved as famous bus firm gears up for takeover". Manchester Evening News. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  14. ↑ "End of the road for Finglands as takeover deal reached". Manchester Evening News. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  15. ↑ "First given OFT approval to acquire Finglands bus operations in Manchester". FirstGroup. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  16. ↑ "First take over Finglands bus services". Transport for Greater Manchester. 7 February 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  17. ↑ "EYMS sell Finglands' coaches". Bus & Coach Professional. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  18. ↑ "Driffield bus depot to close on May 31". Driffield Times & Post. 19 April 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  19. ↑ "Johnsons to acquire Whittle's coach operation". Bus & Coach Buyer. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  20. ↑ "Johnsons New Owners of Whittles". Johnsons Coach & Bus Travel. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "Henley's Johnsons to buy Whittles". Route One. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  22. ↑ "Whittle Coach & Bus Future" (PDF). Whittle Coach & Bus. 16 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  23. ↑ "Johnsons acquires Whittle from EYMS Group". Transport News Brief. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  24. ↑ "Companies House extract company no 2288701 A Wilkinson Limited formerly Frodingham Coaches Limited". Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  25. ↑ "Fleet List". East Yorkshire Motor Services. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  26. ↑ "Heritage Fleetlist". East Yorkshire Motor Services. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  27. ↑ "EYMS's Moors Bus Service". 21 December 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  28. ↑ "EYMS filmed for documentary". Driffield Times & Post. 29 June 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  29. ↑ "On The Yorkshire Buses". Ear ache voices. Retrieved 30 August 2014.

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