London Country North West was a bus operator in

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986, and operated a fleet of around 360 buses from five garages, with its headquarters located in Garston.

History

In the run-up to

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

, London Country Bus Services was broken into four smaller companies on 7 September 1986. London Country North West took over 360 buses and garages in Garston,

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter be ...

and

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the ...

. On 5 January 1988, LCNW became the first of the four new companies to be privatised when sold in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena o ...

.Ampyx Web World - "London Country Bus Services"
Accessed 4 March 2010.London Country - three to go
''Commercial Motor'' 12 November 1987 page 32 In 1989 a new livery of green and grey was introduced. The two years between 1988 and 1990 proved difficult for the company: in May 1988 it was found guilty by the area Traffic Commissioner of having failed to operate local bus services in accordance with registrations, and banned from registering any new routes for three months. in February 1990 the duration of its operating licence was cut following an inspection in which half of the vehicles examined were found not to be roadworthy. Some new buses, including a number of

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as ...

s and

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles of Guildford, England in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, In 1996 the low-floor seco ...

s, were purchased to help overcome these problems.

Takeover and subsequent history

In October 1990 the company was acquired by neighbouring operator Luton & District.History - South East
Arriva In 1993, the Slough depot was sold to

BeeLine A bee line is an idiom for the shortest route or a straight line between two points (see "as the crow flies"): bee line, bee-line, or beeline may also refer to: Brands and enterprises * Beeline (brand), a telecommunications brand by VimpelCom L ...

(Berks Bucks Bus Co, part of the former

Alder Valley Alder Valley was a bus operator in South East England. National Bus Company era Alder Valley was formed when National Bus Company (NBC) subsidiaries Aldershot & District Traction (A&D) and Thames Valley Traction (TV) merged on 1 January ...

operation) in 1993. Luton & District was taken over by

British Bus British Bus was a bus group in the United Kingdom. It was sold to the Cowie Group in August 1996. History British Bus was founded in November 1992 when the Drawlane Transport Group split its bus interests from its National Express in the lead ...

in 1994. Under Luton & District and later British Bus ownership, the former London Country North West garages and vehicles took on various geographical names: *Garston: Watfordwide (1990-93); Watford Bus (1993-95); Network Watford (1995-97) *Hemel Hempstead: Hemel Bus (1990-95); Gade Valley (1995-97) *High Wycombe & Amersham: Chiltern Bus (1990-95); Chiltern Rover (1995-97) The previous LCNW livery was retained, and the original Luton & District livery adapted to match its design, until 1995, when the whole company was rebranded as The Shires. On 1 August 1996, British Bus became part of the

Cowie Group Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.London Country Bus Services under common ownership. In November 1997, the Cowie Group was rebranded as

Arriva Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.Bamber Forsyth unites Cowie
''Design Week'' 23 October 1997 and the former Luton & District operations are now part of

Arriva Shires & Essex Arriva Shires & Essex is a bus operator providing services in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire, with services extending to Oxfordshire and Greater London. Until 2002 its operations included Colchester. It is a subsidiary o ...

References

{{Defunct British Bus Companies Arriva Group bus operators in England Former London bus operators 1986 establishments in England Former bus operators in Berkshire Former bus operators in Buckinghamshire Former bus operators in Hertfordshire