Transport in Doncaster

Doncaster's geographical location gives it some of the best transport facilities for a town of its size. Road links to the A1(M) motorway and the M18 motorway and M62 motorway allow fast and easy journey times to many area of the UK and surrounding cities and towns including London. The UK's newest International Airport, Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield opened in April 2005 and offers flights to destinations in Europe, and the United Kingdom.

Road

The town is located close to the M18 and A1(M) motorways, with access to both from the town centre. South of the town, the M18 and A1(M) cross at an interchange. The A638 runs through the town itself, from north to south. This follows the line of the old A1, before the Doncaster bypass in 1960. The A19 road to Newcastle and York also starts in Doncaster.

Bus

Doncaster bus transport runs under the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. The largest operator in the town (as well as South Yorkshire) is First, who are closely followed by Stagecoach and Arriva Yorkshire Other companies who operate in and around the town include Wilfreda Beehive, Veolia Transportation and Travel South Yorkshire who are in close partnership with First. Currently, all bus companies make use of the Frenchgate Interchange next to the station.

South Yorkshire Transport

South Yorkshire Transport (SYT) was formed in 1986, as a result of deregulation of bus services in the UK. The South Yorkshire PTE was no longer allowed to operate buses itself, so an arms length operating company was created.

SYT operated buses in and around Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield.

The company was eventually sold to its employees in 1993, and it became Mainline Group Limited. It was bought by First Group in 1998, at first operating as First Mainline but now operating as First South Yorkshire.

SYT's head office was located on Amos Road in Meadowhall and at the time of the company's formation its central works was located on Queens Road in Sheffield, although this later closed.

Buses in Doncaster were based at two garages in the borough.

The main depot was the former Doncaster Corporation garage on Leicester Avenue, close to Doncaster Racecourse. In the 1980s, a new workshop building was erected at the rear of the yard behind the garage. In the early 1990s, the main depot building was demolished and the land sold. This made way for a new Wickes DIY store. The new workshop, yard and small section of the old garage building, which contained a bus-wash facility, remained. The only access to the smaller depot was now on Leger Way also nearby to Doncaster's Racecourse.

The second garage, which was much smaller, was on Bootham Lane in Dunscroft. This has been sold off and cleared to make way for a housing estate.

Doncaster Mainline

Doncaster Mainline buses were represented in a silver grey and red livery relieved by a light yellow band and in 2014 has had one newer bus refurbished by First Group to this fleet colour but isn't exact to the former fleet colours. The company was generally popular with passengers, and boasted an extensive network with low fares and modern vehicles. Mainline was sold to its employees in 1993, though Stagecoach bought a 20% stake in the company not long after. This had to be sold off in 1995, at which point the newly created FirstBus took the 20%.

First South Yorkshire

Mainline was taken over by First Group in 1998, and became First Mainline. The livery became just red and yellow, a reminiscence of the original 1989 Sheffield mainline livery. The name was altered again to First South Yorkshire. Since about 2000, vehicles began being repainted in First Group corporate livery (nicknamed "Barbie"). There are three versions of the "Barbie": Barbie 1 was the main corporate livery used across South Yorkshire, Barbie 2 was a livery intended for buses pre 1998 but this livery has almost been phased out and Barbie 3 is a revised version of Barbie 1.

Stagecoach Yorkshire

Stagecoach Yorkshire Services in Doncaster:

Note: Some services may be operated by Stagecoach in Lincolnshire

Other companies include Stagecoach in Bassetlaw, Stagecoach in Lincolnshire, Isle Coaches, Veolia, Arriva, Wilfreda Beehive, Tate Travel and South Yorkshire Motors.

Train

Doncaster railway station is situated on the East Coast Main Line, allowing fast and frequent access to all parts of Great Britain including Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central and London Kings Cross in roughly one hour and a half. The station is served by the largest number of train operators in Britain and Doncaster PSB is one of the largest signalling centres on the network, controlling hundreds of miles of railway. Also part of the history at this station was the old plant works, one of the largest in the country at its time with thousands of workers and machinery. It is the home of where the Mallard and Flying Scotsman were created but is just partly working at the moment and being taken over by Doncaster's largest rail works Wabtec who mainly repair or refurbish trains if given the job. Services calling at Doncaster are operated by Virgin Trains East Coast, Northern Rail, East Midlands Trains, First TransPennine Express, Hull Trains and CrossCountry.

Air

Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport commenced operation on April 28, 2005. The airport was created following the redevelopment of the former RAF station RAF Finningley, that had closed in 1994. The airport previously served many destinations through partners like Monarch and Ryanair but both companies withdrew their flights from the airport due to their not being enough passengers as prices were too high according to many in the area so now only serves few specific areas of the world through principal carrier Thomson Airways as well as other carrier including Wizz Air And Thomas Cook only serving in the summer seasons. During its first year of operation, at the airports peak in 2007 in handled 1,078,374 passengers.In 2010 it handled 876,153 passengers. In 2014, airline Linksair also began flights to Belfast and the Isle of Man.

The town also lies within reasonable driving distances of Manchester International Airport, Leeds Bradford International Airport, East Midlands Airport and Humberside Airport.

Sea

Ferries to Europe from Hull

With the good rail links from the Network Rail cargo depot situated near the south of Doncaster and on the East Coast Main Line as well as many options of road links from the town, travel time to the Port of Hull can be achieved in under an hour. From Hull, P&O Ferries run services to Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Zeebrugge in Belgium.

See also

• Trolleybuses in Doncaster

External links

• South Yorkshire Public Transport map