London Country Bus Services was a bus company that operated in

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

from 1970 until 1986, when it was split up and later sold as part of the bus deregulation programme.

History

From 1933,

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Londo ...

ran public transport services across the London Passenger Transport Area, with an approximate radius of from

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

, extending beyond the boundaries of what later officially became

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 ...

, to

Baldock Baldock ( ) is a historic market town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. The River Ivel rises from springs in the town. It lies north of London and north northwest of the county town of Hertford. Nearby towns inc ...

in the North, Brentwood in the East,

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

in the South and

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, ...

in the West.

Formation

In the late 1960s, it was decided that the responsibilities of the

London Transport Board The London Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport (except main-line trains) in London, England, and its environs from 1963 to 1969. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public na ...

were to be shrunk to the area controlled by the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

(GLC). London Transport's green Country Area buses and Green Line cross-London express coaches would be passed to the National Bus Company (NBC), with the red Central Area buses passing from the London Transport Board to a new

London Transport Executive The London Transport Executive was the organisation responsible for public transport in Greater London, England between 1948 and 1962. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand o ...

, controlled by the GLC. London Country Bus Services Ltd was incorporated on 9 October 1968 as a subsidiary of the nationalised Transport Holding Company in anticipation of the Transport (London) Act 1969, which took effect on 1 January 1970.London Country Bus Service
''

Commercial Motor ''Commercial Motor'' is a weekly magazine serving the road transport Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of ...

'' 25 October 1968 page 33New NBC subsidiary
''Commercial Motor'' 27 December 1968 page 16Transport (London) Act 1969 c.35 s 16(2)
"...the part of the Board's undertaking commonly known as country buses and coaches... shall on the vesting date be transferred to, and by virtue of this Act vest in, such company, being a owned subsidiary of the Bus Company, as the Bus Company may by notice published in the London Gazette designate for the purpose""Notice is hereby given that the National Bus Company... pursuant to the provisions of section 16 (2) of the Transport (London) Act 1969 by this notice designates its wholly owned subsidiary called London Country Bus Services Limited to be the designated company for the purposes of such Act." The company had a nominal share capital of £100 of which only £2 was paid up. The original subscribers were J D Tattersall and E M Walker, both employees of the Transport Holding Company. The company's paid up capital remained the same throughout its existence. London Country's territory was likened to a circle around London with a hole in the middle, operating in

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. The company was NBC's biggest subsidiary, starting life with 1,267 buses and coaches. The fleet was very elderly, being mainly 484

AEC Regent III RT The AEC Regent III RT was one of the variants of the AEC Regent III. It was a double-decker bus produced jointly between AEC and London Transport. It was the standard red London bus in the 1950s and continued to outnumber the better-known ...

double-deckers and 413

AEC Regal IV The AEC Regal IV was a bus chassis manufactured by AEC from 1949 to 1962. History The AEC Regal IV was AEC's first mainstream underfloor engined vehicle. A prototype was built in 1949, before production commenced in 1952. The first 25 were bu ...

RF single-deckers, with eight

Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric ...

s, three

Leyland Atlantean The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new. It pioneered the design of rear-engined, front entrance ...

s, 209

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, 14

AEC Reliance The AEC Reliance was a mid-underfloor mounted engined single-decker bus and coach chassis manufactured by AEC between 1953 and 1979. The name had previously been used between 1928 and 1931 for another single-decker bus chassis. History Two ...

s and 109 AEC Merlins.London Country Bus Services
Ampyx Web World Staff who were employed before 1 January 1970 retained free travel throughout the original London Transport area. This arrangement continues today, with free pass wording changed to account for bus deregulation.

New vehicles

Steps were taken to reduce the age of the fleet, and NBC quickly ordered 90

Park Royal Park Royal is an area in North West London, England, divided between the London Borough of Ealing and the London Borough of Brent. It is the site of the largest business park in London, but despite intensive existing use, the area is, togethe ...

bodied Leyland Atlanteans. In 1970/71 London Transport's last Country order, for 138

AEC Swift The AEC Swift was a rear-engined step entrance single-decker bus chassis manufactured by AEC between 1964 and 1980. The chassis design was closely related to the Leyland Panther. It was available in and lengths, with an AEC AH505 or AH69 ...

s, was delivered. The Atlantean soon became London Country's standard double deck bus, and by 1981 there were 291 in the fleet. The highest fleet number was AN293, but AN98 and AN99 had been previously lost to fire. Most were bodied by Park Royal, with some by

Roe Roe, ( ) or hard roe, is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooking, c ...

to the same design and 30

Metro Cammell Weymann Metro Cammell Weymann Ltd. (MCW) was a British bus manufacturer and bus body builder based at Washwood Heath in Birmingham, England. MCW was established in 1932 by Metro-Cammell's bus bodybuilding division and Weymann Motor Bodies to prod ...

bodied Atlanteans, diverted from a

Midland Red Midland Red was a bus company that operated in the Midlands of England from 1905 until 1981. It was one of the largest English bus companies, operating over a large area between Gloucester in the south and Derbyshire in the north, and from Nort ...

order. There were also 11 Leyland-engined,

Godstone Godstone is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It is east of Reigate, west of Oxted, east of Guildford and south of London. Close to the North Downs, both the North Downs Way ...

-based

s diverted from

Western Welsh Western Welsh was a Welsh bus operating company, based in Cardiff covering South Wales and the northern parts of the West Country. Formed in 1920, it was nationalised when the BET Group sold their bus interests to the Transport Holding Company ...

, becoming the first NBC-ordered buses in the fleet, just before the Atlanteans. The only other London Country double-deckers in the 1970s were 15

Bristol VRT The Bristol VR was a rear-engined double-decker bus A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. Double-deckers are used primarily for commuter transport, but open-top models are used as sightseeing buses for tourists, and ...

s, rare highbridge

Eastern Coach Works Eastern Coach WorksCompanies House extract company no 318856
...

bodied examples. These were allocated to Grays garage in 1977 but were quickly moved on. There was also activity in the single-decker fleet. Some of the AEC Regal IV RFs had been refurbished in the 1960s, with twin headlights, curved windscreens, new side mouldings and improved interiors, mainly allocated to Green Line services. There were 14 Willowbrook bodied

s at

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a Ford (crossing), ford on ...

garage, which had been bought by London Transport in 1965. By 1975 they were on bus work, which some thought was idiosyncratic when vehicles twice as old were still on Green Line work. The Green Line services were largely operated by AEC Routemaster coaches and AEC Regal IV RFs. NBC ordered 90

s with 45-seat Park Royal bodies, which were originally in Green Line two-tone green but were quickly repainted in NBC local coach livery. For the orbital route 725 between

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places *Detroit–Windsor, Michigan-Ontario, USA-Canada, North America; a cross-border metropolitan region Australia New South Wales *Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area Queen ...

and

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...

, 15

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

W bodied AEC Swifts were purchased, but were soon demoted to Gravesend local services.

Standard fleets

In 1972, the

Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Com ...

, NBC and

British Leyland British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It wa ...

's joint project, became the standard in most NBC fleets. London Country bought over 500 examples, the world's largest fleet. They mainly replaced RFs, RTs and Routemasters. Some RFs were kept in areas where smaller, lighter vehicles were needed, until NBC decided on its smaller standard bus, the

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

LH. London Country bought its first examples of the type in 1973, with more batches bought up until 1977. Throughout the 1980s NBC had had large numbers of double-deck

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 delivered. From 1982 until 1984 these were purchased with

bodies, but from 1985 they had

Eastern Coach Works Eastern Coach WorksCompanies House extract company no 318856
...

bodies to the same style. London Country operated 75.

The end

Bus deregulation Bus deregulation in Great Britain involved the abolition of Road Service Licensing for bus services outside of Greater London. It began in 1980 with long-distance bus services and was extended to local bus services in 1986 under the Transport ...

under the

Transport Act 1985 The Transport Act 1985 (c. 67) was an act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It introduced privatised and deregulated bus services throughout Great Britain and came into effect in October 1986. The act was created as a response to growing ...

, resulted in the company being divided into smaller divisions and sold off. London Country was split into four bus operating companies, and 2 other companies on 7 September 1986: *

London Country North East London Country North East was a bus operator in South East England and London. It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986 and operated a fleet of around 350 buses from six garages, with its headquarters located in Hat ...

London Country North West London Country North West was a bus operator in South East England and London. 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 Gar ...

London Country South East Kentish Bus was a bus operator in South East England and London. It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986 as London Country South East (LCSE) and operated a fleet of around 170 buses from four garages, with its headqu ...

London Country South West London Country South West (LCSW) was a bus operator in South East England and London. It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986 and operated a fleet of around 415 buses from 10 garages, with its headquarters in Reigate ...

*Gatwick Engineering Ltd. *Green Line Travel Ltd. These companies were privatised during 1988, among the last of the bus privatisations - London Country Bus (North East) Ltd was the last of all its subsidiaries to be disposed of by the National Bus Company. The purchasers were: *London Country North East: sold 22 April 1988 to the AJS Group, which split the company into two from January 1989, County Bus & Coach and Sovereign Bus & Coach. County was sold to its management in 1990 and eventually became Arriva East Herts & Essex, part of

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

. The Grays garage was transferred to

Arriva Southern Counties Arriva Southern Counties Limited, trading as Arriva Southern Counties, is a bus operator in Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Surrey in England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus, which is part of the Arriva group owned by Deutsche Bahn. The ...

in 2002. Sovereign 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 ...

in 1991. These operations are also now part of Arriva Shires & Essex, except for the St Albans depot which was sold to

Centrebus Centrebus Limited, trading as Centrebus, is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. Centrebus hold a 51% shareholding in High Peak Buses a ...

but then passed to Uno, with the operation transferred to Hatfield. *London Country North West: sold 5 January 1988 to 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 buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

London Country - three to go
''Commercial Motor'' 12 November 1987 page 32 further sold on to Luton & District Transport in 1990, now part of

. *

: renamed Kentish Bus in April 1987, sold 15 March 1988 to Northumbria Motor Services (through its parent company Proudmutual Limited), itself sold to

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, which passed to the

Cowie Group Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational corporation, multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcy ...

in 1996 Competition Commission 1997 and now part of

. Bus Service 401 had joined the London Transport network in 1988. *London Country South West: sold 19 February 1988 to Drawlane Limited, which became the

group, itself sold to the

in 1996, During 1997 the brand name was changed to Arriva serving Surrey & West Sussex, although there were in effect 3 companies holding 'O' licences formed from the former L&C companies. The company was the last to adopt Arriva branding and many buses were still in L&C colours until 2000. In January 2000 it became part of Arriva Southern Counties and was managed from Maidstone. The last of the companies Arriva Guildford and West Surrey ceased operations in December 2021, with Stagecoach taking over much of the work. Bus Service 403 (1986), 405 (2001), 406 (2001), 418 (23 February 2002) and 465 (28 June 1997) had however joined the London Transport network, in return and exchange for service 218. London Country Bus Services Ltd was dissolved on 8 August 1997 after beginning the process of members' voluntary liquidation on 1 June 1990.Companies House file 00940262, London Country Bus Services Ltd

References

External links