London Country North West was a bus operator in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was formed in 1986 when London Country Bus Services

London Country Bus Services

London Country Bus Services was a bus company that operated in South East England from 1969 until split up and sold in 1986 under Margaret Thatcher's government's bus deregulation scheme.-Creation:...

 was broken up, and acquired by Luton & District in 1990.

History

In the run-up to deregulation, London Country Bus Services was broken up into four smaller companies in September 1986. London Country North West took over 360 buses and garages at Garston

Garston, Hertfordshire

Garston is a village in Hertfordshire, England, more or less contiguous with Watford and now, despite retaining a local identity, is effectively, a suburb...

, Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....

, High Wycombe

High Wycombe

High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...

, Amersham

Amersham

Amersham is a market town and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills. It is part of the London commuter belt....

 and Slough

Slough

Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...

. It also operated several London contracts. Its managing director was Dennis Ord.

In January 1988 LCNW became the first of the four new companies to be privatised. It was sold to its management. 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 Commisionner 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 O-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

Leyland Olympian

The Leyland Olympian was a double-decker bus built by British Leyland/Leyland Bus in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production before the demise of Leyland Bus.-Construction:...

s and Dennis Dart

Dennis Dart

The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined midibus built by Dennis in the United Kingdom. More than 11,000 were built during 18 years of production....

s, were bought to help overcome these problems.

Takeover and subsequent history

In October 1990 the company was acquired by neighbouring operator Luton & District. The former London Country North West depot at Slough was acquired by BeeLine (Berks Bucks Bus Co, part of the former Alder Valley

Alder Valley

The Thames Valley and Aldershot Omnibus Company, trading as Alder Valley, was a former bus operator in England.-The NBC era:The Thames Valley and Aldershot Omnibus Company was formed by the merger of two National Bus Company subsidiaries, Aldershot and District Traction and Thames Valley Traction...

 operation) in 1993, and is now part of First Berkshire & The Thames Valley

First Berkshire & The Thames Valley

First Berkshire & The Thames Valley is a bus operator serving Bracknell, Slough and Wokingham, in England. It is part of First Group, a major bus and train operator with a turnover of nearly £2.5 billion a year and 62,000 employees across the UK and North America...

. Luton & District was taken over by British Bus 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 (1990–1993); Watford Bus (1993–1995); Network Watford (1995–1997)
• Hemel Hempstead: Hemel Bus (1990–1995); Gade Valley (1995–1997)
• High Wycombe and Amersham: Chiltern Bus (1990–1995); Chiltern Rover (1995–1997)

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. British Bus became part of the Cowie Group in August 1996 in a deal which brought three of the four segments of London Country under common ownership. Cowie was rebranded as Arriva

Arriva

Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...

 in 1997, and the former Luton & District operations are now part of Arriva the Shires and Essex.