Arriva Yorkshire

Arriva Yorkshire is a division of Arriva which operates bus services around West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and the southern areas of North Yorkshire (the northern areas of North Yorkshire, such as Catterick, Richmond, Scarborough and Whitby, are served by Arriva North East) in England.

History
Arriva Yorkshire was formed as a combination of mergers of previous companies based in West and North Yorkshire. One company is Yorkshire (West Riding) Electric Tramways, who formed in 1904, operating tram services in Wakefield before expanding to Castleford in 1906. In 1923, the company was renamed as West Riding Automobile Company when the company started to run road services. Once the company stopped running trams and concentrated on bus services, the company would be renamed as West Riding Buses.

Yorkshire Woollen District Transport is another company that would eventually become part of Arriva Yorkshire. The company operated services mainly in the Dewsbury area. The company later was renamed as Yorkshire Buses.

The two companies were acquired by the National Bus Company, along with Selby and District with the companies maintaining separate identities. The company would also acquire South Yorkshire Road Transport based in Pontefract in 1994. The four companies were taken over by British Bus in 1995 before being taken over by Arriva in 1996. Although the company is officially known as Arriva Yorkshire, the company is split into three sub-divisions with Yorkshire Woollen operating as Arriva Yorkshire West, West Riding and South Yorkshire Road Transport operating as Arriva Yorkshire and Selby and District operating as Arriva Yorkshire North.

Since 2008, there has been a sister company in Huddersfield, Centrebus Holdings in which Arriva holds a 40% stake with Centrebus owning the remaining 60%. This was formed when the Huddersfield operations of Stagecoach Yorkshire was purchased along with the separate K-Line bus company, the K-Line name remains and the Stagecoach operations have been since rebranded as The Huddersfield Bus Company.

Depots

 * Castleford
 * Dewsbury
 * Heckmondwike
 * Selby
 * Wakefield, (Belle Isle)

Services
This is a summary of services run by Arriva Yorkshire:

Discrimination
A widely reported case concerned a gothic couple, Dani Graves and his fiancee Tasha Maltby, who wears a dog collar and lead. A driver had refused them travel and made comments to them, allegedly saying "We don't let freaks and dogs like you on."

Arriva Yorkshire has said "We take any allegations of discrimination very seriously" and is investigating the claims and the couple's complaints.

The company confirmed the couple were refused travel on two occasions due to "fears for passenger safety". In a statement the company addressed the issue, claiming that the dog lead was potentially dangerous. Arriva also said they would be writing to Mr Graves "to apologise for any distress caused by the way this matter was handled".

Fleet
The current fleet is as follows:


 * 21 VDL SB200 Wright Commander bodywork
 * 56 DAF SB220 Bodied, Ikarus Citibus Bodied, Ikarus Polaris Bodied
 * 7 Volvo B10BLE Wright Renown bodywork
 * 41 Dennis Dart, Plaxton Pointer/Plaxton Pointer 2 Bodied
 * 3 Volvo B10B Alexander Strider bodywork(Training Buses
 * 56 DAF/VDL DB250 Optare Spectra/East Lancs Myllennium Lowlander bodywork
 * 40 Volvo B7TL Plaxton President and Alexander ALX400 bodywork
 * 16 Volvo B9TL Darwen Olympus bodywork (high specification with leather seats)
 * 14 Alexander Dennis Enviro400
 * 13 Optare Tempo
 * 17 Alexander Dennis Enviro200
 * 49 VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2

On Friday 9 November 2012 brand new Wright Pulsar 2 1464 was involved in a serious road traffic accident on Doncaster Road in Crofton, Wakefield. 1464 has now been reported as withdrawn with serious chassis damage. The overall damage to the bus cannot be rectified as the front end was completely ripped off.