Tiger bus on journey to new ownership
THE Yorkshire Tiger bus firm is changing hand this summer, it has been revealed.
Public transport giant Arriva has agreed to sell its Huddersfield and Calderdale operations to Transdev, a French-based global firm with UK headquarters in Harrogate.
Transdev says its acquisition of Yorkshire Tiger will not affect local bus services or cost any jobs.
The sale is set to include Arriva’s two depots at Waterloo, Huddersfield, and Elland, near Halifax, as well as 61 buses.
The agreement will also see Arriva’s 163 drivers, engineers, cleaning and support colleagues based at these two depots join Transdev’s family of over 1,200 people at eight operating centres across the region.
The exceptions are the 231 and 232 Huddersfield-Wakefield routes, which are planned to remain within Arriva as part of its Yorkshire business.
Yorkshire Tiger’s current day and season passes are expected to be integrated into Transdev’s flexible range of unlimited travel tickets, while West Yorkshire Metro’s range of multi-operator tickets will continue to be valid on all its services.
Transdev Blazefield CEO Alex Hornby said: “We are thrilled to be growing our team and our company, and are really looking forward to serving this part of West Yorkshire for the first time.
“At this critical time for the bus, we believe it can play a key role in enabling our economic recovery, both locally and nationally.
“We’re looking forward to meeting all our new colleagues and new customers, as well as strengthening relationships with our local authority partners further.
“This presents a hugely exciting opportunity to all work together and improve the quality of bus travel further across Halifax and Huddersfield.”
Arriva area managing director Patrick Sibley said: “Although we will be sad to hand over operations of our Tiger business, we are delighted that it will be in the hands of Transdev, a well-known local bus company, who will take good care of the depots, customers and all employees.”