page_title: First South Yorkshire
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: First South Yorkshire / History
caption_attribution_description: British English: Mainline Dennis Dominator DDA133 Alexander at Sheffield bus station. Fleet number: 2191, registration number: NKU 191X. Scanned from a Fujichrome 35mm slide
context_page_description: First South Yorkshire is the largest bus operator in South Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
context_section_description: In 1989 the Mainline brand was introduced by South Yorkshire Transport. Buses operated with Sheffield Mainline names in a bright red and yellow livery, replacing the previous "coffee and cream" livery. It was followed by Doncaster Mainline in a silver grey and red livery relieved by a light yellow band and finally Rotherham Mainline, whose buses were painted blue and yellow.
  In 1992 the locality was dropped when Mainline became the standard fleetname across South Yorkshire. A common red and yellow livery with silver and blue bands was introduced.
  In November 1993 South Yorkshire Transport sold Mainline in a management buyout. Shortly after Stagecoach purchased a 20% stake in the company, however this was sold in 1995 to FirstBus.
  In 1998 FirstGroup purchased the remaining 80% shareholding and renamed the business First Mainline. Buses were repainted in a simplified red and yellow livery, reminiscent of the original 1989 Sheffield Mainline livery. In 2000 First Mainline was rebranded as First South Yorkshire and the corporate light grey, blue and pink livery introduced.
  In 2013, First South Yorkshire began to paint buses into First's new Olympia corporate livery, which is an updated version of the former livery. At the same time, the individual First Sheffield, First Rotherham, First Doncaster and First X78 brands were introduced. The First X78 brand was superseded by the Steel Link brand in 2015, while the First Rotherham brand was retired with the closure of the Rotherham depot in 2017.
  It was announced on 27 May 2020 that First South Yorkshire and First Midlands will be merged to form the operating company First South Yorkshire and Midlands, under the management of First Midlands CEO, Nigel Eggleton.
caption: Alexander bodied Dennis Dominator at Sheffield bus station, 1998
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