East Yorkshire Motor Services
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East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) operates a fleet of approximately 350 buses and coaches throughout Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire, the North Yorkshire coast and North York Moors. The company also operates buses and coaches in Manchester under the Finglands brand and in Kidderminster with Whittle Bus & Coach.
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[edit] 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) and the livery of East Yorkshire changed in 1972 from the famous dark blue and primrose to EYMS blue with NBC white relief when NBC's corporate liveries (poppy red or leaf green with white relief) first appeared, 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. It was said that had this not happened, EYMS would not have survived as long as it has.
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. It soon went bust later.
Its first expansion outside its home area was the purchase of Fingland's of Rusholme, Manchester in 1992, which added the first Stagecoach Manchester in 1995. The next expansion outside Yorkshire was the purchase of Whittle Bus & Coach of Kidderminster in 2004.
[edit] Coach operations
Coaches are operated for hire, day trips and short holidays. As well as East Yorkshire Coaches it has owned Frodingham Coaches in Driffield since November 2001. East Yorkshire Coaches was once a large coach company running nationwide, but was sold to the Godfrey Burley Group in 1996. National Holidays was also owned but went bust and was sold to Wallace Arnold.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 one B10M Citybus with Northern Counties Palatine body converted to open-top, several B7TLs with either Plaxton/TransBus President bodies or Wright Eclipse Gemini bodies, eight 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.
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 two Dennis Tridents with Alexander ALX400 bodies.
The Leylands are mainly mid-engined Tigers and Leyland Olympians. All the Tiger coaches have Plaxton Paramount bodies. The Olympians have Greater Manchester-style Northern Counties bodies and Northern Counties Palatine bodies, with one Alexander RL. Two Tiger buses are owned, they started life with Plaxton bodies, but were rebodied with new Duple 300 bodies.
Other vehicles are Optare Excels, a Neoplan Transliner, a batch of MAN 18.220s with Alexander ALX300 bodies, and a batch of VDL SB120s with Wright Merit bodies supplied by Volvo.
For an up-to-date fleetlist, see here.
[edit] Acquisitions
EYMS Buses:
1987: Cherry Coaches, Beverley Wallace Arnold Scarborough (including Hardwicks)
1992: Thornton Dale Coaches, Pickering Rhodes Coaches, Wawne (buses) Metro Citybus, Hull
1993/4: Connor & Graham, Easington
1997: Kingstonian Travel Services, Hull (from Stagecoach Hull)
2001: Frodingham Coaches, Driffield
Out of Area:
1992: Finglands, Manchester
2004: Whittle, Kidderminster
EYMS Coaches:
1988: Phillip's Coaches, Shiptonthorpe
1995: Hart Coaches, Stockton-on-Tees
1996: Charterplan (from Stagecoach Manchester) Hollings Coaches, North Shields
1997: Armstrong Galley (from Stagecoach Busways)
