London Sovereign is a bus operator brand under London Sovereign Limited,

trading as A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

First Bus, which operates bus services in

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

. It is a subsidiary of

First Bus London First Bus London is a bus operator running services across Greater London, England. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup, operating buses under contract to Transport for London, and was formed with the purchase of RATP Dev Transit London from RATP ...

and operates bus services under contract to

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

Company history

Early history

London Sovereign can trace its roots back to independent Borehamwood Travel Services which ran a fleet that included ex- Kelvin Central

MCW Metrobus The MCW Metrobus is a two and three-axle double-decker bus manufactured by Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW) between 1977 and 1989. The Metrobus was conceived as a semi-integral product manufactured completely by MCW in both MkI and MkII variants, but ...

es and

Northern Counties Palatine The Northern Counties Palatine was a step-entrance 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus body built by Northern Counties from 1988 to 1999 in Wigan, England. The Palatine was built mainly on Leyland Olympian and Volvo Olympian chassis, althou ...

s bodied

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian is a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis that was 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 ...

s and a collection of other vehicles. In 1993 it won its biggest

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...

contract, to operate route 13 with leased

AEC Routemaster The AEC Routemaster is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport Executive, London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The ...

s in its orange livery. In August 1994, Borehamwood Travel Services was sold to the

Blazefield Group Transdev Blazefield is a bus group, which operates local and regional bus services across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, England. Formed in August 1991, the group has been a subsidiary of French-based operato ...

Sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...

subsidiary, with the two operations merged as Sovereign London. On 3 November 2002, the business was sold to

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a France-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. Transdev was formed on 3 April 2011 via the merg ...

, and renamed Transdev London Sovereign.

RATP Dev era

After London United was transferred to

RATP Group The RATP Group () is a French state-owned enterprise (Établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial, EPIC) that operates public transport systems primarily in Paris, France. Headquartered in Paris, it originally operated under th ...

as a result of the wider Transdev group's merger with

Veolia Transport Veolia Transport (formerly Connex and CGEA Transport) was the international transport services division of the French-based multinational company Veolia until the 2011 merger that gave rise to Veolia Transdev, later renamed Transdev. Veolia Tr ...

in March 2011, London Sovereign became Transdev's only London bus company. In March 2014, London Sovereign was sold to RATP and resumed trading as London Sovereign. In December 2021, RATP's London bus operations including London Sovereign were transferred to a RATP joint venture with Australia's

Kelsian Group Kelsian Group Limited, formerly SeaLink Travel Group, is an Australian public company that operates transport services in Australia, Jersey in the Channel Islands, and Singapore. History In 1989, the business was founded with the purchase of th ...

(parent company of

Tower Transit Tower Transit Operations Limited, which traded as Tower Transit, is a bus company who operated in East and West London. They are a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group and operated services under contract to Transport for London. Currently they op ...

) known as RATP Dev Transit London.

FirstGroup era

In February 2025, London Sovereign was included in the acquisition of RATP Dev Transit London by

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.79,

125 125 may refer to: *125 (number), a natural number *AD 125, a year in the 2nd century AD *125 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *125 (dinghy), a two person intermediate sailing dinghy *125 (New Jersey bus), a New Jersey Transit bus route *125 Liberatr ...

226 Year 226 ( CCXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Marcellus (or, less frequently, year 979 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 226 for this ...

, 326, 340, H12 and N5. Some buses are regularly shared with Parr Road garage.

History

Edgware garage was first opened by the

London General Omnibus Company The London General Omnibus Company or LGOC, was the principal bus operator in London between 1855 and 1933. It was also, for a short period between 1909 and 1912, a motor bus manufacturer. Overview The London General Omnibus Company was f ...

in 1925 with space for 24 buses, but there was plenty of room adjacent to the Underground station which had recently been built. In 1939 a new building was built next to the original building which was to become the new bus station, while the remaining open parking area was used to store vehicles for the trolleybus replacement program. In 1984 a new 100 bus garage was built on the site of the long closed

Edgware railway station Edgware was a London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) station located on Station Road in Edgware, north London. It was opened in 1867 and was in use as a passenger station until 1939, then as a goods yard until 1964. It is not to be confused w ...

at a cost of £4.5 million. In 1992 plans were made to close Edgware garage as

Cricklewood Cricklewood is a town in North London, England, in the London Boroughs of Camden, Barnet, and Brent. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north-west of Charing Cross. Cricklewood was a small rural hamlet ...

garage was to become a fully functioning garage with new facilities. The outdoor parking area and the bus station then became a

midibus A midibus is a classification of single-decker minibuses which are generally larger than a traditional minibus but smaller than a full-size single decker and can be anywhere between and long. While used in many parts of the world, the mi ...

base in 1993, with a new bus wash and light maintenance facilities provided in the yard. In 1999, London Sovereign, having won some tenders for bus services in North-West London, took a 10-year lease on half of Edgware garage and invested in a new maintenance facility which was to replace its former base at

Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 36,322, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...

. In late 2000,

Metroline Metroline is a bus operator operating primarily in Greater London and partially in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro and operates bus services for London Buses under contract to Transport for Lon ...

moved back into the other half of the garage, making it one of the few garages to be shared by two operators. On 25 July 2015 London Sovereign commenced operating route 326. London Sovereign commenced operating route 125 in January 2022 with electric buses being introduced in October. Route 142 passed to Metroline on 7 January 2023 with 226 commencing operations by London Sovereign at the same time with electric buses being introduced in May. Route 251 passed to Metroline on 2 September 2023 and London Sovereign commenced operation of route 340 at the same time using existing hybrid buses.

Harrow (SO)

As of November 2023, Harrow garage operates routes

183 Year 183 ( CLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Victorinus (or, less frequently, year 936 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

, 395,

398 __NOTOC__ Year 398 ( CCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Eutychianus (or, less frequently, year 1151 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomin ...

, H9, H10, H18, H19, SL9 and SL10.

History

Harrow garage opened in 1994. It is RATP Dev's smallest London garage holding just 42 buses. The low roof beam across the middle of the depot building was raised to allow double deckers. The garage has a plot of land next to it, owned by London Sovereign, which is now used to park most of the single deckers due to the 183 allocation, which started on 24 July 2015. Route 183 is now fully allocated to Harrow, with routes 398 & H17 transferred to Park Royal (RP) to make room. As of 7 September 2019, route H13 has moved to Uxbridge garage, which is owned by Metroline. In 2020, London Sovereign started operating routes 398 and H17. In December 2021, RATP Dev started operating their first electric buses for routes H9 and H10. More electric buses were introduced into routes 183, 398 and X140 (now SL9).

Parr Road (CP)

As of November 2023, Parr Road garage operates routes

288 Year 288 ( CCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Maximian and Ianuarianus (or, less frequently, year 1041 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

303 __NOTOC__ Year 303 ( CCCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. It was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian (or, less frequently, year 1056 ''Ab urbe condita''). The deno ...

, H11 and H14. Buses are regularly shared with Edgware garage.

Former garages

North Wembley (NW)

North Wembley garage operated routes H9 and H10.

History

On 26 January 2019, part of the allocations of routes H9 and H10 were temporarily transferred from Harrow (SO) garage to this garage. On 5 September 2020, North Wembley (NW) was announced closed. Routes H9 and H10 were transferred to Parr Road (CP) garage at the same time.

References

External links

* {{Transdev London bus operators RATP Group Transport companies disestablished in 2025 2025 disestablishments in England