First South Yorkshire is a major bus operator providing bus services within and across

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

. It is a subsidiary of

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 1989, South Yorkshire Transport introduced the ''Mainline'' brand on certain bus routes around

. Buses operated with ''Sheffield Mainline'' names in a bright red and yellow livery, replacing the previous "coffee and cream" livery. It was followed by ''Doncaster Mainline'' in a silver grey and red livery relieved by a light yellow band and finally ''Rotherham Mainline'', whose buses were painted blue and yellow. In 1992, the local brands were dropped and ''Mainline'' became the standard fleetname across the company's operating area. A common red and yellow livery with silver and blue bands was introduced. In November 1993, Mainline was sold to its employees in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

. Shortly after, Stagecoach Holdings purchased a 20% stake in the company, however this stake was ordered to be

divested In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...

by the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economi ...

in 1995. The stake in Mainline would be purchased from Stagecoach by FirstBus for £1.6 million in January 1996. In 1998, FirstBus purchased the remaining 80% shareholding and renamed the business ''First Mainline''. Buses were repainted in a simplified red and yellow livery, reminiscent of the original 1989 ''Sheffield Mainline'' livery. In 2000 ''First Mainline'' was rebranded as ''First South Yorkshire'' and the corporate light grey, blue and pink livery introduced. In 2013, First South Yorkshire began to paint buses into First's new ''Olympia'' corporate livery, which is an updated version of the former livery. At the same time, the individual ''First Sheffield'', ''First Rotherham'', ''First Doncaster'' and ''First X78'' brands were introduced. The ''First X78'' brand was superseded by the ''Steel Link'' brand in 2015, while the ''First Rotherham'' brand was retired with the closure of the Rotherham depot in 2017. The operations of First South Yorkshire and First Midlands, consisting of First Potteries, First Leicester and First Worcester, merged on 1 June 2020 to form First South Yorkshire & Midlands. The new company would be managed by First Midlands CEO, Nigel Eggleton. The aim of this merger was to revitalise bus services in both merger regions, following a period of poor customer service by First South Yorkshire.

Services

First South Yorkshire operate services in

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. Due to bus services history and number changes, some routes share service numbers within

. Route X78 is an express service which runs from Sheffield Interchange to Doncaster Frenchgate Interchange via Meadowhall,

and

Conisbrough Conisbrough () is a town within the City of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is roughly midway between Doncaster and Rotherham, and is built alongside the River Don, South Yorkshire, River Don at . It has a ward population (Conisbrou ...

. In 2016, 22

Wright StreetDeck The Wright StreetDeck is an integral double-decker bus manufactured by Wrightbus since 2014, originally delivered as standard with a Daimler OM934 diesel engine. Hybrid-electric, full-electric and hydrogen-powered variants have subsequently be ...

s, some of which were originally intended for the ''Steel Link'', were placed in service on the X78 as part of an initiative to improve Rotherham's bus services. In September 2016, ''Steel Link'' X1 express route commenced operating from Sheffield to Maltby via the Bus Rapid Transit North scheme. Eighteen Wright StreetDecks with high-specification interiors were purchased for the service. First South Yorkshire also operate

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...

services 271 and 272, from Sheffield, across the South Yorkshire boundary and into

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

in the Peak District. In 2021, a double-decker bus was branded in green 'Peak Link' livery for these services.

Fleet

As of December 2024, First South Yorkshire's fleet consists of 332 buses. Following the First South Yorkshire and Midlands merger in 2020, new liveries and brands were introduced for the First Sheffield and First Doncaster fleets. The first to be introduced was ''Doncaster's Clever Buses'' in August 2020, utilising eight acquired Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse Urban buses on the 66 route in Doncaster, with the 'clever' aspect of the name referencing new

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) for making sec ...

systems that were being introduced across the fleet. In December 2020, two new liveries to be applied across the Sheffield and Doncaster fleets were revealed. The new First Sheffield livery is predominantly blue and cream with chrome elements referencing Sheffield's steel heritage, with some buses carrying livery variants referencing Sheffield's

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

and music heritage. First Doncaster's new livery follows a similar layout with red and cream with purple elements. Both liveries reference the former liveries of Sheffield and Doncaster's municipal bus companies before they were absorbed into the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive in 1974.

Depots

First South Yorkshire vehicles operate from two depots. These are Olive Grove in

, and Leger Way in

. Sheffield's Olive Grove depot is the second biggest bus depot in the UK after First Glasgow's Caledonia depot, which can hold 450 buses. As of May 2017, 318 buses are based at Olive Grove depot. Bus services in

and surrounding areas were previously operated out of the former Midland Road depot in east Rotherham. Having previously been contracted with refurbishing over 200 of

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...

AEC Routemaster The AEC Routemaster is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport Executive, London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The ...

s when operated by South Yorkshire Transport, the engineering works of this depot was used as the FirstGroup's Commercial Unit following the company's purchase in 1998. Buses and coaches across the group would be sent to the Midland Road works for refurbishment, repairs and repainting. In 2016, however, it was announced that the depot and Commercial Unit were to close in February 2017, with Rotherham's bus services being relocated to Olive Grove and Leger Way depots. At the time of closure, 90 buses were based at Midland Road.

References

External links

Company website
{{FirstGroup Bus transport in Doncaster Bus operators in South Yorkshire Bus transport in Sheffield FirstGroup bus operators in England Rotherham