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S4
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| Overview | |
| Operator | Uno |
| Garage | [HF] Hatfield Business Park |
| Vehicle | Mini Pointer Dart |
| Peak vehicle requirement | 1 |
| Predecessors | Centrebus, Sovereign Buses, London Country |
| Route | |
| Start | Mile House |
| Via | City Centre, Cottonmill Lane, Maynard Drive |
| End | Cottonmill |
| Length | 5.4 miles |
| Service | |
| Frequency | 30 mins at all times (0630-2230 daily) |
Uno bus route S4 is a local bus service in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, linking Cottonmill to St Albans city centre (and at business hours St Albans railway station). It operates together with route S5.
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S4 was one of six new local routes introduced in St Albans by London Country Bus Services in October 1976[1]. They replaced a variety of earlier routes and were unusual for the time in being numbered with a lettered prefix (S) to designate the town or city they operated in rather than in the 3xx or 8xx series normally used for services in the area.
Upon the privatisation of London Country Bus Services in September 1986, the St Albans area network passed to successor company London Country North East. London Country North East was in turn divided into two companies, with Sovereign Bus & Coach acquiring the St Albans, Welwyn Hatfield and Stevenage local networks and various rural services connecting these towns. Bus deregulation a month later largely left the network unchanged with the daytime services being registered commercially and the evening services being tendered.
Sovereign itself was acquired by Blazefield Holdings and significant investment in the St Albans network was undertaken with a new fleet of Dennis Dart buses. During this period the services underwent frequent changes until the current pattern of the S4 (and its sister route S5) only serving the area to the south west of the City Centre (in place of providing cross-City links) was established. However, Blazefield could not make an adequate financial return on its Hertfordshire operations and began to dispose of them in favour of concentrating on its core Lancashire and Yorkshire businesses in late 2003/2004.
The St Albans local network, along with various services connecting St Albans to other Hertfordshire towns, was sold to Leicestershire firm Centrebus who already had a small presence in the town on rural services run from its Luton base. Services largely remained unchanged and Centrebus kept all of the S4's designated vehicles (KC03 PGK and KC03 PGU), albeit repainting them a few times.
However, the City network remained problematic both operationally and financially and Uno took over all services operated from Centrebus' St Albans depot on 4 March 2008. Initially the fleet retained Centrebus livery, but during summer 2008 they were repainted into the Best Impressions designed livery to match the rest of the Uno buses.
S4 operates every 30 minutes on Monday to Saturday daytimes and is jointly timetabled with Uno buses route S5 to provide a combined 15 minute frequency.
Back to St Peters Street.
On evenings and Sundays, a half hourly service operates but operates across St Albans linking with route sections served by routes S2 and S3 during daytimes. The evening and Sunday services are financially subsidised by Hertfordshire County Council.