Yorkshire Traction

Alexander PS bodied Scania N113 at Meadowhall Interchange in 2005
Founded	March 1902
Ceased operation	December 2005
Headquarters	Barnsley
Service area	Yorkshire
Service type	Bus operator
Hubs	Barnsley and Rotherham
Fleet	66

Yorkshire Traction was a bus operator in Yorkshire that operated from 1902 until 2005.

In March 1902 the Barnsley & District Electric Traction Company Limited was formed. It operated trams around the Barnsley area until around 1930. In 1928, prior to the trams being withdrawn, the company was renamed from the Barnsley & District Traction Company Limited (the 'electric' part of the name being dropped some years earlier). The company was affectionately referred to as 'Tracky'.

In October 1968, Yorkshire Traction purchased Mexborough & Swinton Traction Company and County Motors.

As part of the privatisation of the National Bus Company, Yorkshire Transit was sold in January 1987 to a management buyout. The business subsequently expanded through purchasing other operators including:

In December 2005, Yorkshire Traction was sold to Stagecoach Yorkshire. In May 2008, Stagecoach sold its Huddersfield operations to Centrebus Holdings and is now operated by Arriva Yorkshire as Yorkshire Tiger, while the part of the business remaining with Stagecoach was renamed Stagecoach Sheffield.

The company operated services across Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and into Leeds, Huddersfield and eventually, Sheffield. From the 1974 merger of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster municipal bus companies until the mid-1990s, the operating area of South Yorkshire was split between South Yorkshire Transport and Yorkshire Traction with the former dominating Sheffield and Rotherham. Through the acquisitions of Sheffield Omnibus, South Riding, Andrews and Yorkshire Terrier in the early 1990s, the company gained a significant foothold in Sheffield.