Yourbus

History

Yourbus was founded by former Dunn-Line managing director Scott Dunn in May 2009. From a depot in Hucknall in May 2009 two services from Nottingham to Bulwell and Hempshill Vale commenced.

In October 2009, Yourbus commenced operating routes 140, 141 and 142 under contract to Derbyshire County Council. In February 2010 Yourbus commenced operating route Y36 in competition with Nottingham City Transport. At this stage the Hucknall depot was relocated to Heanor and following some routes commencing under contract to Nottingham City Council in Retford and Tuxford, another opened in Tuxford. In August 2010, routes 228 and 229 commenced, again under contract to Nottinghamshire Council.

In February 2011, route Y100 Nottingham – Southwell – Newark (peak time only) commenced. The service was withdrawn on 16 April 2011 following an increase in activity from the other operator along the route.

In January 2011, Yourbus were awarded a contract to operate services from the East Midlands to Bradford, London Heathrow Airport and London Victoria Coach Station on behalf of National Express. In June 2011, a number of National Express contracts including a depot in Durham were purchased from Veolia Transport.

In January 2012, further National Express contracts were won, by this stage Yourbus were operating 55 coaches on express services. In July 2013, a depot was opened in Bradford, primarily to stable coaches on National Express work. Yourbus ceased operating services for National Express on 31 May 2015.

In September 2015, the Y4 bus was launched on a 15-minute service from Sandiacre, competing with Trentbarton's popular i4 service on the same route. It briefly became the fourth Y series bus to serve Nottingham, the others being the Y36, Y28 and Y5. However, the Y28 and Y4 were both withdrawn in mid 2016, the latter having been in service for just 10 months.

In February 2017, the Y36, which formerly served Chilwell, was also withdrawn, citing a decrease in passenger numbers. Chilwell was among the areas connected by Phase 2 of the NET Tram, which opened in 2015. For the last six months of its service, the Y36 had been using a shortened version of its original route, avoiding the Chilwell loop altogether. The last Y36 ran to Beeston Interchange on 11 February 2017, leaving the Y5 as the only remaining Y series bus to serve Nottingham. The Y5 was rerouted in stages to cover parts of the former Y36 route not served by the tram.

Since the second half of 2016, Yourbus has been ramping up competition with rival bus operator Arriva Derby. Responding to what it called an "undercurrent of negative feedback" from people in Derby, Yourbus announced the 20 and 26 buses to compete with the Arriva services of the same names. They aimed to run buses every 15 minutes, in between Arriva's timetable, while also undercutting them on price (a day return cost £4 from Yourbus, compared to £4.20 for the equivalent ticket from Arriva). One day later, Arriva Derby rolled out an upgraded fleet to its 20 and 26 services, apparently in response to the increased competition.

This strategy continued in February 2017, when Yourbus launched the 1 and 1A services in Derby, reusing vehicles from the Y36 fleet which had been withdrawn from service a day earlier. As with the 20 and 26, Yourbus aimed to compete with Arriva's 1 and 1A services by staggering the timetables, while also offering a slightly lower ticket price.

Services

As of February 2017, Yourbus operates 23 route and school services in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Livery

Old Fleet livery is all over maroon. The new livery is similar to that of Lothian Buses of mainly white with a maroon swoop along the side.

Australia

In May 2014, Yourbus diversified into Australia, when it purchased Sydney charter operator Telford's Bus & Coach. Yourbus had previously lodged a tender to operate a Sydney Metropolitan Bus Contract in August 2012. In May 2015, Sydney charter operator Tiger Tours was purchased with 11 vehicles.