East Yorkshire operates both local and regional bus services in the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, England. Prior to acquisition by the Go-Ahead Group in June 2018, the company was known as East Yorkshire Motor Services.
History
East Yorkshire Motor Services was originally made up of two companies, Lee & Beaulah (set up by Ernest John Lee) and Hull & District Motor Services (set up by H. A. Harvey). In October 1926, British Electric Traction purchased the two companies.
In 1968, the British Electric Traction group was sold to the Transport Holding Company, which in turn became the National Bus Company in the following year.
Until 1972, the company's livery was dark blue with a primrose band, with a white relief band also applied to the roofline of buses. Shortly after East Yorkshire was brought under National Bus Company ownership, the primrose band was changed to white and buses were given NBC corporate fleet names. This proved to be short-lived, with the adapted livery being replaced by the standard "poppy" red in October 1973.
In 1987, following the deregulation of bus services, East Yorkshire's fleet, which had since dropped to 200 vehicles and shared management with Lincolnshire Road Car, started to grow again. The company was sold in a management buyout, which was led by seven managers. In the same year, the company acquired former United Automobile Services depots in Pickering and Scarborough, with operations rebranded Scarborough & District.
Following the management buyout, East Yorkshire began to expand, acquiring many independent operators in the local area, including Connor & Graham, Cottingham Mini Coaches and Primrose Valley Coaches. The Hardwick's of Scarborough fleet was purchased from Wallace Arnold – this being Wallace Arnold's last bus company.
At the time of privatisation, the livery was silver and blue, with some vehicles branded in the National Bus Company's "poppy" red livery or silver, blue and red minibus livery. The "poppy" red buses were subsequently rebranded into a red and grey livery. In Hull, a number of AEC Routemaster double-deck vehicles entered service in the traditional East Yorkshire livery to compete with Kingston upon Hull City Transport. The company also suffered competition from Appleby's of Conisholme in Bridlington, Hull and Scarborough, prior to the competitor's sale to the Bowen Transport Group in December 2000.
In 1992, the company completed their first out-of-area acquisition with Finglands Coachways, with further purchases that year including Hull-based Metro Citybus, as well as Rhodes Coaches and Thornton Dale Coaches.
By the turn of the decade, the company had made a significant number of acquisitions: Connor & Graham of Easington (1993), Hart Coaches of Stockton-on-Tees (1995), former GM Buses coaching arm Charterplan (1996), Hollings Coaches of North Shields (1996), Armstrong Galley (1997) and Kingstonian Travel Services (1997).
In January 2004, the company proceeded with a second out-of-area acquisition, with the purchase of Whittle Coach & Bus of Kidderminster. In December 2014, the coach operation was sold to Johnsons Coach & Bus Travel.
In March 2009, the company purchased the Hull-based operations of Veolia Transport. The sale saw all driving and engineering staff transferred to East Yorkshire Motor Services, along with services and nine vehicles.
In May 2014, the company's Driffield depot was closed, with most staff, services and vehicles reallocated to nearby depots. In the same month, the company commenced commercial operation of the Moors Explorer ME1 service, which replaced the former Moorsbus M13 and M14 services. The service operates on Sunday and bank holidays between May and August, running between Hessle, Hull, Beverley and Danby via Malton and Pickering – closely following the route of the former services.
In May 2015, East Yorkshire Motor Services was the first operator in the United Kingdom to take delivery of the MCV EvoSeti. Following further deliveries in January 2017 and September 2017, an additional eighteen vehicles were added to the fleet.
In May 2018, the company's Hornsea depot was closed, with the depot's 27 drivers and engineers offered roles elsewhere in the company. The following year, it was announced that the company's Beverley depot was to be closed, with operations relocated to Hull.
Out-of-area acquisitions
Finglands Coachways
The company's first out-of-area expansion was in early 1992, following the purchase of Finglands Coachways of Rusholme. In October 1995, the original operation of Stagecoach Manchester was also purchased.