MASS Engineering and BrightBus, which is officially MAS Special Engineering Ltd, is a Sheffield-based company engaged in the manufacture of bodies (coachwork) for motor vehicles and school bus operation. The company, currently based at North Anston between Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 and Worksop

Worksop

Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated to be 39,800...

, was originally founded in 1998, by Michael Strafford.

Current operations

MASS carry around five thousand school children twice a day on a mixture of contracted and commercial work. They were the first operator to 'go live' on the Yorkshire-based 'YorCard' project, an ITSO Smart Card ticket system, and are one of the chief architects of the South Yorkshire Home to School Transport Protocol.

The company is one of the largest dedicated school bus operators in England. It runs a fifty-vehicle fleet of mainly double deckers including fifteen DAF DB250s with Optare Spectra

Optare Spectra

Launched in 1991, the Optare Spectra is a double-decker bus body built on the DAF DB250 chassis.The vehicle was developed as a joint project between Optare and DAF; based on the designs of the successful MCW Metrobus which Optare had purchased, but they are no means a restlyed Metrobus...

 bodywork (two SLF's) and ex-Hong Kong tri-axle Leyland Olympian

Leyland Olympian

The Leyland Olympian was a double-decker bus built by British Leyland/Leyland Bus in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production before the demise of Leyland Bus.-Construction:...

s and Dennis Dragon

Dennis Dragon

The Dennis Dragon is a 3-axle double decker bus built by Dennis of the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s....

s. The Company also owns 12 Scania N113DRB

Scania N113

The Scania N113 was a transverse-engined bus chassis built by Scania AB of Sweden between 1988 and 2000.Like its predecessor, the N112, the N113 had an 11-litre engine mounted at the rear, coupled to either a Scania or Voith gearbox...

 deckers with Northern Counties bodywork and four further ex-Hong Kong 11m Leyland Olympian/Alexanders with air-conditioning as replacements for its fleet of Leyland Titans

Leyland Titan (B15)

The Leyland Titan was a model of double-decker bus produced by the Leyland Truck & Bus division of British Leyland from 1977 until 1984, almost exclusively for London Transport.-Development:...

. They have been bought from the dealer Ensignbus

Ensignbus

Ensignbus is a Purfleet-based bus and coach dealer, open top bus tour operator and bus service operator. Ensignbus has amassed 20 ex-London vehicles of various ages and conditions in a ....

 who took them in from Stagecoach

Stagecoach Group

Stagecoach Group plc is an international transport group operating buses, trains, trams, express coaches and ferries. The group was founded in 1980 by the current chairman, Sir Brian Souter, his sister, Ann Gloag, and her former husband Robin...

. Two 12m Dennis Condors were procured from Stephensons of Essex

Stephensons of Essex

Stephensons of Essex is a privately owned bus company based in south Essex, in England, operating local bus and contract services in the same areas as Arriva Southend, Ensignbus, First Essex, NIBS, and Regal Busways. It also runs private hire coaches, and has a bus and coach dealership and sales...

.

The ex-Hong Kong vehicles are unusual in that they are officially the largest seated 'rigid' (i.e. non-bendi) buses in the Western World carrying up to 126 seats on the largest 12m Dragons. The company imported the vehicles during 2003 and went through a lengthy process involving in-house tilt test work to gain Certification for three types of vehicle: 12 metre long Leyland Olympian/Alexander and both 12m and 11m Dennis Dragon/Duple MetSec. They also recently imported what is believed to be the only example of a Crown Coach American school bus in the UK that is converted to provide PHSE lessons in schools throughout South Yorkshire.

Former operations

Between 2001 and 2005, MASS had a substantial presence in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, following the acquisition of the bus operations of Applebys Coaches, Reliance Travel of Great Gonerby and the Grantham depot of RoadCar. The Grantham operations were sold to Centrebus

Centrebus

Centrebus is a privately owned company that operate a number of services around Leicester and Leicestershire, Grantham, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, mainly in areas where Arriva has scaled down its bus operations. Centrebus also competes with Arriva on some routes in Leicester, Luton and Stevenage...

 and the Lincoln area operations to Dunn-Line

Dunn-Line

Dunn-Line is a bus operator based in Nottingham, England, with services throughout Nottinghamshire worked from its home base in Nottingham and a secondary base at Tuxford...

 in 2005.

The company also purchased the long established company, Leon Motors

Leon Motors

Leon Motors was a bus company based in Finningley, it operated buses in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Formed in 1922, it was taken over by MASS Engineering of North Anston during 2004....

 of Doncaster, but by 2008 the companies stage-carriage work passed to First South Yorkshire

First South Yorkshire

First South Yorkshire is the largest bus operator in South Yorkshire, England. As a division of FirstGroup the company's legal name was, for a time, Mainline which operated it between 1993 and 1998, following the sale South Yorkshire Transport to its employees.-History:SYT was eventually sold to...

and the remaining operations were integrated into the main BrightBus depot at North Anston.

The management team at MASS have a long track record in operations across South Yorkshire. This includes time served as drivers for the long established A&C Wigmore bus company, then onto the successful Northern Bus Company. The latter being formed by takeover of A&C Wigmore in 1987. (Source SYPTE).