First Beeline Buses Limited, trading as First Beeline, is a bus operator providing services in and around Slough. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.

History

In January 1986 Alder Valley North Limited, later renamed, The Berks Bucks Bus Company took over the Bracknell,

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, ...

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...

, Newbury, Reading and

Wokingham Wokingham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is the main administrative centre of the wider Borough of Wokingham. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 38,284 and the wider built-up area had a populati ...

operations of Alder Valley as part of the preparation for privatisation of the National Bus Company, trading as "Beeline" once the name was changed in October 1986. In late 1987 The Berks Bucks Bus Company was sold to Q Drive.The BeeLine Timeline
Busworld In 1990 the High Wycombe operations were sold to the Oxford Bus Company, and in 1992 the Reading and Newbury operations were sold to

Reading Buses Reading Transport Limited, trading as Reading Buses, is an English Municipal bus company, municipal bus operator owned by Reading Borough Council, serving the towns of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury, Slough, ...

. In 1993 Beeline purchased the Slough operations of Luton & District Transport, until 1986 the Slough depot of London Country Bus Services and later part of the London Country North West division. In March 1996 Beeline was sold to CentreWest who in turn was sold to FirstGroup in March 1997. Initially trading as First Beeline, in 2001 it was rebranded as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley. Following the loss of nine Bracknell Forest Council supported services to Courtney Buses on 13 July 2015 and the sale of route 90 Bracknell to Reading to

on 26 July 2015, the Bracknell garage closed on 28 August 2015. In April 2023, the company was rebranded to First Beeline. In December 2024 following the return to a national identity by FirstGroup, First Beeline returned to trading as "First Berkshire and Thames Valley"

Services

First Beeline currently operates bus services in and around Slough and to surrounding areas including Heathrow Airport,

and

. The company also operates the

RailAir RailAir describes a number of airport bus and coach services designed to connect the National Rail network to airports in the United Kingdom. Services are currently concentrated on Heathrow Airport, with one other from Luton Airport. RailAir ser ...

coach services connecting Heathrow Airport with surrounding major National Rail stations. The company were the primary operator of services in and around Maidenhead until 2004 when most local services were withdrawn. These services are now operated by

Thames Valley Buses Thames Valley Buses Limited, trading as Thames Valley Buses, is a bus company based in Bracknell, England. It was known as Courtney Buses until 2021. Founded in 1973, the company operates a network of commercial and contracted local bus services ...

. The company also formerly operated the Green Line branded routes 702 and 703 between

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Heathrow Airport, Slough, Windsor, Legoland and Bracknell. Operation of these services transferred to

in December 2017.

Bus Services

First Beeline currently operate the following bus services:

RailAir Coach Services

First Beeline currently operate the following

branded coach services:

Gallery

File:First B&TV ES64037.JPG, Heathrow 7 series liveried Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro in April 2008 File:First Berkshire & The Thames Valley 37275 LK58 EDJ 2.JPG, Green Line liveried

Wright Eclipse Gemini The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a Low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus between 2001 and 2021, based on the single-decker Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, fo ...

bodied Volvo B9TL in Bracknell in June 2010 File:First Berkshire & The Thames Valley DMP42644.JPG, Legoland liveried Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dennis Dart SLF in

Merrow Merrow (from Irish language, Irish ', Middle Irish ' or ') is a mermaid or merman in Irish folklore. The term is anglicised from the Irish word murúch. The merrows supposedly require a magical cap (; anglicised: #Cohuleen druith, cohuleen dr ...

in October 2008 File:First Berkshire & The Thames Valley 20807 YX11 HPP.jpg,

liveried Plaxton Panther bodied Volvo B9R in September 2012

References

External links

First Beeline website

First Group website

{{DEFAULTSORT:First Berkshire and The Thames Valley FirstGroup bus operators in England Transport in Berkshire