Arriva Shires & Essex

Arriva Shires & Essex is a division of Arriva and one of many private operators of London Buses. It has operations across Essex, and until recently Colchester and Southend, which were moved to Arriva Southern Counties. In September 2005, they bought MK Metro. Operations are split between two registered companies, Arriva East Herts & Essex and Arriva The Shires.

Arriva East Herts & Essex

Arriva East Herts & Essex Ltd are based in Harlow, and operate two bus garages in Harlow and Ware.

Harlow

The Harlow garage runs Harlow local services and bus routes 500 (Harlow to Ongar), route 501 (Harlow to Brentwood, Essex bus route 510 (Harlow to Stansted Airport) and LSP Clarifyme|date=March 2008 routes 505 (Harlow to Chingford) and Green Line route 724 (Harlow to Heathrow Airport via Ware, Hatfield, St Albans, Watford, St Albans). The garage was opened 22 May, 1963 to serve Harlow New Town and also replace Epping Garage. Harlow was allocated 25 RTs, 16 RMCs (to operate Green Line routes 718, 720 & 720A), seven RFs and two coach RFs. The garage also operates routes 541 (Loughton to Epping) and 542 and 543 (Debden to Loughton).

Their services in the Harlow and Epping area have recently acquired a reputation amongst locals (and commuting college students from town such as Loughton and Bishops Stortford) for being erratic and regularly late. During weekdays buses are usually overcrowded and delays occur frequently.Fact|date=April 2007

;Bus types in use
* Dennis Dart
* Optare Solo
* Mercedes Citaro
* Wright Axcess-Floline
* Mercedes-Benz Citaro

Ware

The Ware garage runs London bus routes 327, and partly runs LSP Green Line route 724 along with Harlow garage.

;Bus types in use
* Dennis Dart
* Mercedes-Benz Citaro

Arriva The Shires

Arriva The Shires Ltd is based in Luton and operates bus garages in Watford, High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Stevenage, Hitchin and Hemel Hempsted.

Aylesbury

Arriva in Aylesbury

Hemel Hempsted

High Wycombe

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 London Buses route U9 and the town's Park and Ride system.

;Bus types in use
* Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer
* VDL SB120/Wright Cadet
* Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse

Hitchin

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.
* 54 Stevenage - Hitchin
* 81 Hitchin Rail Station - Westmill Estate
* 94 Luton - Hitchin - Baldock
* 97 Stotfold - Letchworth - Hitchin
* 97A Stotfold - Letchworth - Hitchin
* 99 Hitchin - Baldock
* 100 Luton - Hitchin - Stevenage
* 101 Luton - Hitchin - Stevenage
* 102 Luton - Hitchin - Stevenage

tevenage

Arriva is the main operator in Stevenage. They operate most services in the town, along with Green Line route 797. The operations were purchased from in two stages from Blazefield Group's Soverign buses business. In 1992 Luton & District took over several vehicles and routes in exchange for the London Green Line Route 797. Then in 2002 it 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.

* 2 Stevenage Bus Station - St. Nicholas (Circular)
* 3 Stevenage Bus Station - St. Nicholas (Circular)
* 4 Stevenage Bus Station - Shephall - Broadwater - Bus Station
* 5 Stevenage: Bus Station - Broadwater - Shephall - Bus Station
* 14 Stevenage - Shephall (Circular)
* (17 - changed in April 2008 to the SB7)
* 54 Stevenage - Hitchin
* 55 Stevenage - Letchworth
* 100 Luton - Stevenage
* 101 Luton - Stevenage
* 102 Luton - Stevenage
* 300 Hemel Hempstead - Stevenage
* 301 Hemel Hempstead - Stevenage
* 797 London - Stevenage/Hitchin
* SB1 Chells Manor/Poplars - Stevenage
* SB7 Bus Station - Great Ashby (circular)
* SB8 Stevenage - Symonds Green/Bragbury End (Circular)
* SB9 Stevenage - Symonds Green/Bragbury End (Circular)

Watford (Garston)

The Watford garage runs London bus routes 142, 258, 268, 288, 303, 305, 340, H2, H3, H18, H19, LSP route 8, and school routes 642 and H1.

;Bus types in use
* DAF DB250LF 10.2m/Alexander ALX400
* DAF DB250LF 10m /Wright Pulsar Gemini
* Dennis Dart SLF 9.4m/Alexander Dennis Pointer
* DAF SB120 10.1m/Wright Cadet
* Alexander Dennis Enviro400 10.1m
* Optare Solo
* VDL SB200Plaxton Centro

ee also

*List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References

External links

* [http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/ Arriva UK bus website]