An Arriva Shires & Essex VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar 2 in service in Stevenage. |
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| Parent | Arriva |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Service area | Greater London Essex Hertfordshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Berkshire |
| Service type | Bus |
| Routes | 45 |
| Fuel type | Diesel |
Arriva Shires & Essex is a division of Arriva, with operations in Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London. It is one of many private operators of London Buses. Until 2002 its operations included Colchester. In February 2006, the company bought MK Metro.
Operations are split between two registered companies, Arriva East Herts & Essex and Arriva The Shires.
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Arriva East Herts & Essex Ltd is based in Harlow, and operate two bus garages in Harlow (Forth Avenue) and Ware (Marsh Lane).
Arriva East Herts & Essex emerged from London Country North East, one of the successor companies of London Country Bus Services. LCNE was broken in two. One of the successor companies, County Bus & Coach, with depots at Harlow, Hertford and Grays, was bought by its management in 1990. In 1994 County was sold to West Midlands Travel, itself bought by National Express Group in 1995. The Cowie Group (which became Arriva in 1997) bought County from National Express Group in 1996.[1] County Bus & Coach was renamed Arriva East Herts & Essex Ltd in 1998.[2]
Cowie had also acquired Southend Transport and Colchester Borough Transport with its acquisition of the British Bus group in 1996. Both companies became part of Arriva East Herts & Essex, but in 2002 were transferred to Arriva Southern Counties together with the former County depot at Grays.
Harlow garage was opened by London Transport on 22 May 1963 to serve Harlow New Town and also to replace Epping Garage. Harlow was allocated 25 RTs, 16 RMCs (to operate Green Line routes 718, 720 & 720A), seven RFs and two coach RFs. London Country North East and County Bus used the garage until Arriva (as Cowie Group) bought County Bus in 1997.
The Ware garage replaced the Hertford depot in 1993. It runs part of Green Line route 724 along with Harlow garage. Operation of London bus route 327 was transferred from Ware to Arriva London North at Enfield garage on 3 January 2009. Ware did briefly become an Arriva The Shires garage in late 2010, before transferring back to Arriva East Herts & Essex. On 4 September 2010, routes 250 and 251 transferred from Harlow to Ware.
Arriva The Shires Ltd is based in Luton and operates bus garages in Luton, Watford, High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Stevenage, Hitchin and Hemel Hempstead.
Arriva the Shires evolved from the purchase of the Luton, Aylesbury and Hitchin depots of United Counties by Luton & District Transport in a management buy-out in 1987.[3] Depots at Watford, High Wycombe, Hemel Hempstead, Amersham and Slough were acquired with London Country North West in 1990,[4] although Amersham has since closed and Slough was later sold to BeeLine (now First Berkshire & The Thames Valley.[5] LDT was bought in 1994 by British Bus Group, itself bought in 1996 by T. Cowie (renamed Arriva in 1997). LDT's name was changed to Arriva the Shires in 1998.[6]
The Aylesbury depot was a depot of United Counties acquired by LDT in 1987.
Later in 1987, LDT also acquired the long-established Aylesbury independent company, Red Rover.[7]
Hemel Hempstead was a depot of London Country Bus Services (North West) (one of the companies into which London Country Bus Services was divided in 1986), acquired by Luton & District Transport in 1988.[6]
High Wycombe was another depot of London Country Bus Services (North West), acquired by LDT in 1988.
In 2000 Arriva also bought the High Wycombe depot of the Go-Ahead Group's Oxford Bus Company (which had bought it from the Bee Line in 1994).
In 2005, High Wycombe garage relocated to a new purpose built depot following the closure of the old bus station in the town, where the previous garage was. High Wycombe operate a number of services, including the town's Park and Ride system.
On 31 December 2011, Abellio London gained the contract to operate route U9, and are operating it from their Hayes (WS) garage.
Bus routes:
The Hitchin depot was a depot of United Counties acquired by LDT in 1987.
Hitchin services have been worked from Stevenage garage since January 2007 following the closure of the old former United Counties garage in Fishponds Road. Services around the Hitchin area have been reduced, and many are operated by other contractors including Centrebus.
Luton depot is purpose built and is located at 487 Dunstable Road.
It replaced the previous depot at Castle Street.
It also houses the Head Office for Arriva The Shires & Essex Ltd as well as the UK bus team.
Luton operate the Green Line 757 group of routes as well as local bus services, Luton also has an outstaion at Stansted Airport which operates the EB2 an easyBus contract.
Bus types at Luton include
Dennis Darts Scania/Wrights Leyland Olympians DAF Vanhool Coaches Volvo B6 Mercedes Scirrocos
The Hitchin depot was a depot of United Counties acquired by LDT in 1987.
Hitchin services have been worked from Stevenage garage since January 2007 following the closure of the old former United Counties garage in Fishponds Road. Services around the Hitchin area have been reduced, and many are operated by other contractors including Centrebus.
Arriva is the main operator in Stevenage. They operate most services in the town, along with Green Line route 797.
There are two depots at Stevenage; Babbage Road (ex Sovereign) and Norton Green Road.
When London Country Bus Services was broken up in 1986, the Stevenage depot passed to London Country North East, sold in 1988 to AJS Group who established the Sovereign brand. Most of the operation was sold in 1990 to Luton & District Transport, and therefore became part of Arriva in 1996. In 1996 Arriva took over several vehicles and routes from Sovereign, by then owned by the Blazefield Group, in exchange for the London Green Line Route 797.[8] In 2004 Arriva acquired the last remaining Sovereign operation. Blazefield had already sold its London operations to Transdev and its St Albans depot & routes to Centrebus.
Increasing competition in Stevenage has seen Centrebus win Herts CC contracts as well as expanding Uno bus running services around Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage as commercial and contracted routes.
Other operators have competed in Stevenage including Transit trading as London or Stansted Transit & Shephall Express but all competition has now ended with the exception of some services operated by Centrebus.
In January 2007, all Hitchin services were transferred to Stevenage depot and the old United Counties garage closed. This mirrored the London Country depot situation in 1959 when the overcrowed garage at Hitchin closed and was replaced by the now demolished Stevenage Garage, the last owners of this site was Luton & District who kept the travel shop open after the garage was replaced by the Norton Green depot.
Stevenage services operated by Arriva have recently been rebranded as the "SB network" and renumbered accordingly.
Routes;
Watford was a depot of London Country Bus Services (North West) (one of the companies into which London Country Bus Services was divided in 1986), acquired by Luton & District Transport in 1988.[6]
The Watford garage runs London bus routes 142, 258, 268, 288, 303, 305, 340, H2, H3, H18, H19, LSP route 8, and school routes 640, 642 and H1.
Watford garage also run local bus routes
Routes 319,320,500 and 550 are operated from Hemel Hempstead Bus Garage
In February 2006, the operations of MK Metro were purchased by Arriva for £5.6 million,[9] and operational control transferred to The Shires & Essex. The purchase was subsequently considered by the Office of Fair Trading for possible referral to the Competition Commission, but it decided not to.[10] Vehicles and publicity for the Milton Keynes operation continued to use the MK Metro name until April 2010, when they were rebranded as Arriva Milton Keynes (temporarily using the brand name MK Star). The change of name coincided with a number of controversial service changes.[11] Many services were improved in frequency as part of the rebranding but others were reduced or even eliminated,[12] and some journey times were increased.[13]
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