Team Pennine Bus

Team Pennine is a bus operator based in Waterloo, Huddersfield ,West Yorkshire. It contains 61 out of 64 vehicles from the takeover from Yorkshire Tiger, a bus company owned by Arriva. The bus company has 2 bus depots located in Huddersfield and Elland. All routes are handed over from Yorkshire Tiger except for the 231/232 Huddersfield to Wakefield services which will remain with Arriva buses and run buses in and out of the depot on Barnsley Road in the city of Wakefield.

History

The company started off as Stagecoach Yorkshire when they purchased the Huddersfield operations and depot of Yorkshire Traction. In March 2008, it was reported that Arriva were in discussions with Stagecoach to purchase their bus operations in Huddersfield. Arriva Yorkshire already operated services in the town, so purchasing Stagecoach's operations would enlarge their presence. At the time Arriva registered a trading name of K Line, registered on the Arriva Yorkshire licence. In May 2008 Centrebus Holdings purchased the business. Centrebus Holdings was owned by three directors of Centrebus who together owned 56% and Arriva the remaining 44%. Despite the common name and livery, Centrebus Holdings has never been owned by the Centrebus company.

Centrebus Holdings

With the purchase of both Stagecoach and K-Line, Centrebus Holdings became the second largest bus operator in Huddersfield after First West Yorkshire. Centrebus decided to retain the K-Line brand, and operate the former Stagecoach services under the Huddersfield Bus Company name, although the Centrebus name was used for the rest of the West Yorkshire operations.

In January 2010 Centrebus Holdings took over some contracted services previously run by First West Yorkshire in the Calderdale area, including Greetland, Halifax, Ripponden, Sowerby Bridge and Stainland. Unlike services in Huddersfield, most of the Calderdale services began to run under the Centrebus brand, while routes 536 and 537 were operated by Huddersfield Bus Company from their Waterloo depot and route 343 was operated by K-Line.

As a result, a new depot was established in Elland for the Calderdale operations.

The services that Centrebus Holdings obtained were:

343 Halifax-Huddersfield (operated by K-Line)
528 Halifax-Rochdale
531 Halifax-Ripponden via Copley
534 Halifax-Northowram
Yorkshire Tiger 1602 seen at Huddersfield bus station on route 233.
536/537 Halifax-Huddersfield (operated by Huddersfield Bus)
557 Halifax-Ripponden/Rishworth (Commons also on last run)
559 Halifax-Dean Head
560 Halifax-Commons (early morning only)
574 Halifax-Booth/Midgeley
577 Halifax-Hubberton
579 Halifax-Sowerby (evenings only; daytime services operated by First)
832 Halifax-West End

In April 2010, Centrebus Holdings obtained another service under the Huddersfield Bus Company division, taking over routes 435/436 from Arriva Yorkshire. They also extended further by obtaining three Leeds Bradford Airport bus services that were previously run by First, routes 737 and 747 to Bradford and 757 to Leeds. Like the Calderdale operations, these services operated under the Centrebus name, with a depot on Kirkstall Road.

The company would face competition as First continued to run the 757 service between the airport and Leeds railway station, while Centrebus ran to Leeds City bus station. However, from July 2010 Centrebus were the only operator of route 757 after First withdrew their service. At the same time, Centrebus began to operate many more services in the Bradford and Leeds areas, winning contracts from Metro for services previously run by First, while some services are jointly operated by the two companies.

In October 2010 Halifax Joint Committee's routes 28A, 34 and 36 were taken over by Centrebus's Elland depot while K-Line took over route 31. The A99 service, which runs during term time between the University of Bradford and Bradford University School of Management campuses, was taken over by Centrebus in 2012 having previously been operated by First. At the same time the service was made free to use for university students.

Yorkshire Tiger

In September 2013, a new company of Yorkshire Tiger was formed. The company's parent owner was Arriva. Yorkshire Tiger revised the network in January 2016 on the Calderdale services so that all route numbers would match with the current corridor of routes. Yorkshire Tiger also purchased six brand new 15 plate Optare Solo SR buses for the new Calder Cubs network. Along with this the other Optare Solos on the 59 plates that Centrebus bought were also fitted with USB chargers to join the Calder Cubs fleet. In September 2020, the Bradford operations were cancelled and sent off to TLC Travel who previously owned the tenders to the services. The Flying Tiger network joined Transdev Blazefield earlier than the rest of the Yorkshire Tiger network and was called Flyer.

In July 2021, Team Pennine bus was started by Alex Hornby the CEO of Transdev Blazefield. to take over Arriva's Yorkshire Tiger's business.

Brands

Denby Darts

Denby Darts is a brand of Team Pennine bus that replaced Yorkshire Tiger's 233 service between Huddersfield , Kirkburton and Denby Dale. The Denby Darts are ran by a fleet of Alexander Dennis Enviro200s fitted with USB Sockets, Free WiFi, E-lether head boards and next stop displays/announcements. The bus runs every 30 minutes as service D1 and has some quite interesting landmarks along the way such as Shelley College.

Holmfirth Explorer

Holmfirth explorer is a brand of Team Pennine buses that replaced Yorkshire Tigers's 435/436/436A/437/437A services between Holmfirth and Wakefield, also serving areas such as Denby Dale, Skelmanthorpe, Clayton West, Clayton West Green (Off Peak Hours) and Calder Grove. The Holmfirth Explorer runs every hour as service X1 and is rran by some refurbished Optare Tempo buses. The buses feature Next Stop Announcements, Free WiFi, USB Power and Pink E-Leather Headboards on seats.

HuddsQuick

HuddsQuick is a brand of Team Pennine that runs local services that are easy to bring you from the local area in to Huddersfield Town Centre. The brand is served by some Enviro200MMC buses with Next Stop Announcements, Free WiFi, USB Power and Pink E-Leather Headboards on seats. The brand runs every 30 minutes between Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Brackenhall as route 327A/360 and then between Huddersfield and Newsome every 15 minutes on route 319. The bus also serves many places such as Sainsbury's in Huddersfield, Huddersfield Railway Station, Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, Piazza Centre and Queensgate Market. Also service 319 does not run on a Sunday so the alternitive option is route 306 with First West Yorkshire.

KirkheatonQuick

KirkheatonQuick is a brand of Team Pennine that runs between Huddersfield and Kirkheaton. The brand is served by a fleet of some 18 and 68 plate Enviro200MMC. This bus is disguised as route 262 which is a faster alternative bus route, compared to route 261 with Arriva Yorkshire. It runs a direct route on to Wakefield Road (A642) and provides and old long lost link between Huddersfield and Waterloo.

Calder Country

Calder Country is a brand of Team Pennine bus replacing the Calder Cubs brand. Calder Country is a rural network of buses in Calderdale. It will be a fleet of six brand new 71 plate Mellor Strata vehicles on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. These buses will feature USB Sockets, Free WiFi, E-lether head boards and next stop displays/announcements.

Pride of the North

Pride of the north are spare vehicles used for school contracts or other reasons across the Transdev Blazefield network.

Depots

Team Pennine currently operates out of two depots, which are at Lowfields Business Park (in Elland) and the Penistone Road depot on the outskirts of Huddersfield.

Before Transdev Blazefield tookover Yorkshire Tiger, there was 3 depots that was shut down.

Idle Depot for local routes in Bradford and Shipley.

Honley Depot for the Tiger Blue Network

Wombwell Depot for the local routes in Barnsley, Cawthorne and Penistone.

Fleet

As of August 2021, there are 72 buses on the fleet.

The fleet contains several vehicles such as ADL Enviro200, ADL Enviro400, Dennis Dart, Optare Tempo, Optare Solo, Optare Versa, Plaxton Centro, Wright Cadet, Wright Commander, Wright Eclipse Gemini, Wright Eclipse Urban 2.

Referances

Companies House extract company no 6544272 Centrebus Holdings Limited
^ Stagecoach buys Yorkshire traction Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Bus & Coach Professional 15 December 2005
^ Companies House extract company no 4166041 Yorkshire Tiger Limited formerly Huddersfield Bus Company Limited formerly Arriva Southern Limited
^ "Stagecoach discusses possible Huddersfield depot sale to Arriva" Buses April 2008
^ Completed acquisition by Arriva Passenger Services Limited of the remainder of the entire share capital of Centrebus Holdings Limited Competition & Markets Authority 6 May 2014 page 1
^ "Centrebus teams up with Arriva to rival First in Huddersfield" Buses June 2008
^ Centrebus Herts & Beds Oxford & Chilterns Bus Page 31 August 2008
^ Hinckley Bus Arriva
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^ Jump up to:^a ^b
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^ Jump up to:^a ^b
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Centrebus (Holdings) Limited Arriva 9 September 2013
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Arriva takes joint venture control Archived 22 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Bus & Coach Professional 12 September 2013
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Arriva unleases its Yorkshire Tiger Archived 18 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Bus & Coach Professional 9 October 2013
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^ In the pink – Team Pennine tame the (Yorkshire) Tiger Huddersfield Times 23 July 2021
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^ [1]^{[dead link]}
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^ Airport Direct becomes Flying Tigers Bus & Coach Buyer2 May 2014
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^ Companies House extract company no 3287940 Teamdeck Limited
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^ "Centrebus teams up with Arriva to rival First in Huddersfield" Buses June 2008
^ "Yorkshire Tiger" Buses issue 715 October 2014 pages 28–31
^ Yorkshire Tiger launches Tiger Blue service Coach & Bus Week issue 1162 4 November 2014 page 12
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^ "Huddersfield freetownbus". Metro. Retrieved 2 February 2010.