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East Yorkshire Motor Services

East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) operates a fleet of approximately 350 buses and coaches throughout Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, the North Yorkshire coast and the North York Moors. The company also operates buses and coaches in Manchester under the Finglands brand and in Kidderminster with Whittle Bus & Coach.

History

EYMS was originally two companies, Lee & Beaulah set up by Mr Ernest John Lee and Hull & District Motor Services Ltd set up by Mr H. A. Harvey. In 1926 the British Electric Traction Group (BET) bought the two and formed EYMS to take them over. In 1968 BET was sold to the Transport Holding Company (Tilling Group) and in 1969 Tilling and BET were absorbed into 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.

Coming up to privatisation, EYMS's fleet, which had dropped to 200 vehicles and shared management with Lincolnshire Road Car, suddenly started to grow again. United Automobile's depots in Scarborough and Pickering were transferred to EYMS under the title of Scarborough & District.

In 1986 NBC started its privatisation process and in early 1987 EYMS went to a management buyout led by seven managers, narrowly beating Road Car's management and an 11th hour bid from Applebys of Conisholme. EYMS was soon put through a period of expansion, mopping up many of the independents in its local area, including Connor & Graham, Cottingham Mini Coaches and Primrose Valley Coaches. 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, it started buying AEC Routemasters in traditional pre-NBC EYMS blue to compete with Kingston-upon-Hull City Transport in the city, 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 the purchase of Finglands of Rusholme, Manchester in 1992, to which the original Stagecoach Manchester operation was added in 1995 (not to be confused with the present day Stagecoach Manchester, against which Finglands is in competition). The next expansion outside Yorkshire was the purchase of Whittle Bus & Coach of Kidderminster in 2004.

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. The previous coaching operation, East Yorkshire Travel, was once a nationwide operator, but was sold to the Godfrey Burley Group in 1996. National Holidays (Coaches) was also owned but was declared bankrupt under Burley ownership and was sold to Wallace Arnold.

National Express

EYMS also provide vehicles for a selection of National Express services, including the 322 (Scarborough-Brecon, South Wales), the 562 Hull - London, and the 390 Hull - Manchester.

The fleet

EYMS's fleet is mainly Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Leyland and Dennis dominated.

Amongst the Volvos in the fleet are Volvo Olympians, a Volvo B6 and Volvo B10Ms. The Olympians have Alexander Royale and Northern Counties Palatine bodies, there is just one Volvo B6, with Northern Counties Paladin body. The B10Ms are either coaches with Plaxton, Van Hool or Berkhof bodies or buses with Alexander PS bodies. Other Volvos are B10M Citybuses, several B7TLs with either Plaxton/TransBus President bodies or Wright Eclipse Gemini bodies, several B9TLs with Wright Eclipse Gemini bodies, ten Volvo B10BLEs with Alexander ALX300 bodies and a few Volvo B7RLEs with Wright Eclipse Urban bodies and B12M/B12B coaches with Plaxton and Berkhof bodies. Delivered at the end of 2007 were 5 Alexander Dennis Enviro400 bodied Volvo B9TLs, the first of this combination to be delivered to a UK operator. Delivered in late 2008 were 6 Plaxton Centro bodied Volvo B7RLEs for Scarborough Park and Ride, thus making East Yorkshire one of the few operators to have bought both Centros and ADL Enviro 200 Darts.

The Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the fleet are O814Ds with Plaxton Beaver 2 bodies, O405s with Optare Prisma bodies, a 711D with Beaver body and two low-floor O405 integrals.

The Dennises are Dart midibuses with 10.6-metre long Plaxton Pointer and UVG UrbanStar bodies and 8.8-metre Mini Pointer bodies. Along with some Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts. At Finglands are 5 Alexander Dennis Enviro300s and 4 Alexander ALX400-bodied Dennis Tridents.

The Leylands are mainly mid-engined Tigers and Leyland Olympians. All the Tiger coaches have Plaxton Paramount bodies. The Olympians have Leyland, Northern Counties Palatine and Alexander RL bodies.

Other vehicles are Optare Excels, Optare Solos, a batch of MAN 18.220s with Alexander ALX300 bodies and East Yorkshire was an early customer for the Plaxton Primo, taking 6 in 2006.

For an up-to-date fleetlist, see here