Bus and Coach Fleets in Mid-Anglia

Former Mid-Anglia vehicles

Sun Jul 20 2008

Sunday 20 July 2008: Vehicles that have previously been used in service by operators in Mid-Anglia but have now moved on, either to another operator out of the area or into preservation.

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Goode Coaches (Northampton)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: David Goode commenced operating in partnership with Richard Wootton in 1983, but Mr Wootton later left to form his own business, Hunsbury Travel. The Goode fleet has moved around over the years but is currently based near Stoke Bruerne and consists mainly of Leyland Tigers. Fleet size has varied from two to six vehicles and four are operated at present on contract work and a few infrequent stage services.

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Braziers Mini Coaches (Winslow)

Thu Aug 9 2007

Thursday 9 August 2007: The small town of Winslow has supported two PSV operators for some years. Braziers are the smaller one, both in terms of vehicle numbers and size, having a fleet that currently comprises three 16-seaters plus a couple of taxi buses. School contracts and some private hire are operated.

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Buckinghamshire County Council

Tue Jul 17 2007

Tuesday 17 July 2007: As with just about every other local authority in Britain, Buckinghamshire County Council has a fleet of minibuses which operate throughout the entire county on social services, welfare and education work. Unlike some councils, Buckinghamshire does not have an Operator's Licence or run full-size vehicles on stage services and school runs.

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Non-PSV operators

Tue Dec 2 2008

Tuesday 2 December 2008: Various buses and coaches in the Mid-Anglia area that are used by organisations without PSV Operator's Licences on work other than revenue-earning service. These include community transport operators, schools and former buses converted for new uses.

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Redline Buses (Aylesbury)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: Redline is a fairly new operator, starting with a single bus in 1998, but has expanded rapidly and now has a licence for 30 vehicles. Operations cover pretty much the whole of Buckinghamshire, from the Milton Keynes area in the north right down to the fringes of London, and comprise mainly tendered stage and school services, plus some private hire. Among other duties, the company now operates the Buckingham County Rider routes and Sunday workings of service 66 (Buckingham-Aylesbury), together with the 'Water Rider' route serving the Watermead development on the outskirts of Aylesbury.

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Litchfield Car Services (Leighton Buzzard)

Thu Aug 9 2007

Thursday 9 August 2007: Formerly based in Woburn and known as The Village Bus, this owner-driver now has just one operational vehicle, an anonymous Mercedes minibus used on various infrequent services in Bedfordshire. The depot at Leighton Buzzard also contains a number of long-disused vehicles.

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Koncept Travel (Milton Keynes)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: Based at Crossroads Garage, between Nash and Great Horwood, Koncept Travel commenced operating in early 2004 and now has a smart fleet operating on a mixture of school contracts, private hire and tours. As well as four modern coaches, the company also owns the sole remaining serviceable Leyland National in Buckinghamshire.

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New City Coaches (Milton Keynes)

Thu Aug 9 2007

Thursday 9 August 2007: This company has only been operating since 2003 but now has a fleet of high-quality modern luxury coaches. They are used on private hire and tour work, frequently venturing abroad, but a Buckingham School service was also operated in 2004. As the trading name suggests, the office is in the New City of Milton Keynes but the vehicles are kept in a yard at Leighton Buzzard.

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Balmoral Coaches (Northampton)

Thu Oct 27 2005

Thursday 27 October 2005: This small company has been operating since the early 1990s but has had several changes of ownership. It takes its name from the road in Northampton where the garage is located; it was the original Country Lion premises used for a then-small fleet of minibuses in the 1950s, but is now a car maintenance garage known as Lion Services. Balmoral Coaches specialise in minicoach hire for a variety of occasions with a fleet of 16-seaters.

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Walter's Limousines (Bicester)

Tue Aug 8 2006

Tuesday 8 August 2006: As its name suggests, this operator started life hiring stretch limousines but the PSV side of the operation has grown substantially and now has a sizeable fleet employed on varied work including Oxfordshire County Council contracts. As the original depot in Bicester was outgrown, the company has now moved to Forest Hill, just north of Oxford. The Chiltern Railways Taxibus service in Bicester was operated by Walter's before it became a PSV operator, but this is now in the hands of a non-PSV taxi company, Union Cars; these vehicles are nevertheless included here for completeness.

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Sapwell Travel (Haversham)

Fri Dec 31 2004

Friday 31 December 2004: The Sapwell family have been involved in PSV operation for some time, and have operated several fleets from various locations in Beds, Bucks and Northants over the years. The latest incarnation ran a varied fleet from a cattle farm in Haversham, and the Sapwells also have another fleet in Kilmarnock, Scotland, several vehicles having transferred between the two. The Sapwell licence lapsed in 2006, but a successor operation, Milton Keynes Commercial Vehicle Repairers, still runs a couple of vehicles from the same location.

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Grant Palmer Passenger Services (Dunstable)

Thu Sep 28 2006

Thursday 28 September 2006: Grant Palmer, the son of Stuart Palmer who had operated in Dunstable before selling out to Luton & District in 1994, left Arriva during 2000 to start his own fleet. Services in Luton were operated as part of the inMotion joint venture with Refresh Travel Solutions for a brief period, although this partnership split up and Grant Palmer is now wholly independent. Now with a thirty-strong fleet, the company concentrates on social services work and tendered routes, mostly within Bedfordshire, but vehicles were seen in Buckingham for a few months during 2004 when services 16/17/18 were operated.

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Lutonian Buses

Wed Aug 11 2004

Wednesday 11 August 2004: This pioneer minibus operator had a relatively short but turbulent life. Founded in 1984 as Lunar Module, it sold out to Arriva in 1998 following an attack by Arriva the Shires' low-cost Challenger operation, but the group was soon forced to divest Lutonian after an investigation by the Competition Commission. Between 2000 and 2004, the company was owned by a consortium including staff from MK Metro and Red Rose, but was then sold to the Centrebus Group, who retained the Lutonian licence for a period before transferring its entire Beds and Herts business onto a single Centrebus licence.

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Transit Group (Milton Keynes)

Sun Jun 24 2007

Sunday 24 June 2007: Based in Buntingford with an established route network in Hertfordshire and Essex, during 2003 the Transit Group (incorporating London Transit and Stansted Transit) started an operation in Milton Keynes from a depot at Mount Farm. Despite grand plans to expand the fleet in this area up to 35 vehicles, this was never achieved and the Milton Keynes depot closed in August 2005, bringing to an end a short but interesting chapter of bus operation in the New City. Transit does however continue to run services in its original territory.

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Stagecoach in Northants/Bedford (formerly United Counties)

Tue Dec 2 2008

Tuesday 2 December 2008: The surviving part of United Counties was one of Stagecoach's first English purchases, passing to the group on privatisation in 1987. It is now closely integrated with the former Cambus Holdings fleets in the Stagecoach East division, and trades as Stagecoach in Northants and Stagecoach in Bedford. The company now has just four depots at Bedford, Northampton, Kettering and Corby with a fleet strength around 300.

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MK Metro and Green Travel

Sat Nov 1 2008

Saturday 1 November 2008: United Counties' operation in the New City became Milton Keynes City Bus in the 1986 split and was sold to its management at privatisation; a subsidiary, Buckinghamshire RoadCar, was later set up to operate out-of-city services and the holding company also took over Johnsons of Hanslope in 1991. These fleets were subsequently acquired by Cambus Holdings, which sold out to Stagecoach in 1996. However, the Milton Keynes operations had to be divested and became part of the Status group as MK Metro until a surprise sale to Arriva in March 2006; the company is managed by Arriva the Shires but has retained its identity. Green Travel is a small subsidiary set up to take over inMotion's Milton Keynes operations, and the company also operates a few services in Northampton from a base at Cogenhoe.

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Stagecoach in Warwickshire/Oxfordshire/Banbury (formerly Midland Red)

Sun Jun 29 2008

Sunday 29 June 2008: The southern part of the once-massive Midland Red operation was sold on privatisation to Western Travel, who were subsequently purchased by Stagecoach in 1996, and is now part of the group's South Midlands division. The Banbury depot, which also serves Brackley, shares its management with Stagecoach Oxford rather than the rest of Midland Red's operation in Warwickshire that operates on the same licence. Vehicles in Banbury can have either Stagecoach in Oxfordshire or Stagecoach in Banbury fleetnames, the rest of the fleet being Stagecoach in Warwickshire.

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First Northampton

Sat May 14 2005

Saturday 14 May 2005: The former Northampton municipal fleet was purchased by the GRT group in 1993; GRT of course merged with Badgerline to form FirstBus (as it was originally known). This operation now shares its management with First's Leicester and Wyvern (formerly Midland Red) fleets, resulting in frequent vehicular transfers between these three operators. Although the municipal operation always bought new vehicles with very few exceptions, today's fleet of just over fifty is mostly second-hand from other parts of the First empire.

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Arriva serving the Shires

Tue Dec 2 2008

Tuesday 2 December 2008: The southern area of United Counties was split off in 1986 as Luton & District, which expanded hugely in Hertfordshire by taking over London Country North West and much of the Sovereign operation in 1990 and was bought by British Bus in 1994. The following year, the company was renamed The Shires, using a variety of local fleetnames, and became part of Arriva through the purchase of British Bus by the Cowie group. It is closely integrated with Arriva's East Herts & Essex, Southend and (until its sale to Burtons) Colchester fleets, and has over 500 vehicles operating in south Bucks, Beds and Herts.

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Jeffs Coaches (Helmdon)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: The area's largest independent operator, Jeffs was founded in the late 1950s and has grown primarily through acquisitions; the company has contracted under the ownership of the Bowen Group, to whom the Jeffs family sold out in December 2004, but still has around seventy-five vehicles operating over a wide area of Bucks, Northants and Oxon. Only two depots at Helmdon (near Brackley) and Witney now remain, the Greens Norton and Buckingham premises having closed in recent years. The work covers the full range from coach tours down to stage services and school contracts.

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Geoff Amos Coaches (Eydon)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: Based in the village of Eydon, between Daventry and Towcester, since 1954, this family-owned company performs a variety of school contracts, coaching work and local services on the borders of Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, with an approximately twenty-strong fleet. The main service runs from Rugby to Banbury, and the company's sphere of operation even extended as far as Birmingham for a period in 2005. Many thanks to Keith Spencer and Brian Amos for providing many of the photos in this gallery.

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Yorks Travel (Cogenhoe)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: Established in 1924, York Bros had been the Northampton area's premier coach operator for many years with regular deliveries of new vehicles and several depots located throughout the county, but only the head office at Cogenhoe now remains to accommodate a fleet of about forty. Most vehicles are named after battleships, a practice introduced in 1943 and still continued under the ownership of the Bowen Group, to whom the York family sold out in 1998. The Yorks fleet now operates on the same Operator's Licence as Bowen's Applebys operation in Lincoln, but is effectively a separate unit with its own management; as can be expected the company works closely with fellow Bowen Group subsidiary Jeffs.

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Star Travel (Aylesbury)

Thu Jan 1 2004

Thursday 1 January 2004: This small company has operated a few minibuses since the early 1990s on tendered local services in the Aylesbury area, including a town service and another to Quarrendon and Quainton. Star Travel was notable for continuing to operate Ford Transits on its stage services until just a few years ago, but these have all now been replaced by newer Mercedes vehicles.

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Fair City Travels (Milton Keynes)

Sun Jun 24 2007

Sunday 24 June 2007: This operator runs a small fleet of LDV Convoys, principally on several school services for Thornton College, but some private hire is also undertaken. Interestingly, although based in Milton Keynes, the legal lettering on the vehicles gives an address in Perth, Scotland!

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Other PSV operators

Wed Aug 20 2008

Wednesday 20 August 2008: Various smaller operators of PSVs in the Mid-Anglia area, who have too few vehicles (often just one or two) to justify separate galleries of their own.

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Souls Coaches (Olney)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: Soul Bros started bus operation in 1923 and have always been based in Olney; the company is still family-owned and now has a substantial fleet of around fifty coaches with two additional depots in Northants at Rushden and Northampton. Much of the expansion came through acquisition of other local businesses in the newly-Deregulated 1980s, but the most recent purchase was Cunningham of Daventry in July 2006, together with six vehicles and the Northampton premises. As well as the coach fleet, the Soul family also own a car dealership with branches in Olney and Milton Keynes; Rovers were sold for many years but franchises are currently held for Fiat, Subaru and Mitsubishi.

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Motts Travel (Aylesbury)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: Founded in 1967, Motts is one of Buckinghamshire's largest independent operators, currently having around fifty vehicles. Expansion through the 1970s/80s included takeovers of Macintyre-Ure of Princes Risborough and Shurrock of Brill, together with stage services. A network of commercial bus services was also operated from 1991 under the Yellow Bus name; these were sold to The Shires in 1995, but a large amount of contract and coaching work continues. The company was based originally at Ford, later at Upton and Thame, but spent twenty years in Stoke Mandeville after taking over Dickson International before moving to new purpose-built premises at Stocklake, Aylesbury in 2005. Other small depots were located at Kingsey (ex Dickson), Kingswood (ex J&K Coaches) and Dinton, but these were all vacated when the Aylesbury site opened and the Dinton site is now occupied by Red Rose.

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Country Lion (Northampton)

Thu Oct 27 2005

Thursday 27 October 2005: This oddly-named company dates back to the 1950s and started life as a minibus operator based at the premises now occupied by Balmoral Coaches. Today's operation is quite substantial with a fleet of around forty modern coaches plus a few older school and service buses, together with an equal number of self-drive hire vehicles, operating from St James Mill Road, Northampton. The company is the official transport provider for the town's football and rugby teams, the Cobblers and Saints respectively.

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Cheney Travel Service (Banbury)

Tue Aug 8 2006

Tuesday 8 August 2006: The only operator based in Banbury, Cheney Coaches (named after the nearby village of Middleton Cheney) was originally a typical independent coach operator, but has expanded rapidly. The company now runs around sixty vehicles, primarily on contracts and school work in Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, but also some private hire and local services; it does not however operate any tours or excursions.

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Marshalls Coaches (Leighton Buzzard)

Thu Aug 9 2007

Thursday 9 August 2007: Marshalls runs about thirty vehicles, mainly on school services and coaching work, including commuter services to London. The company's impressive premises also play host to other operators' vehicles as full repair, maintenance and MOT testing facilities are offered through an associated business, and Marshalls has also recently obtained a franchise to sell Ayats coaches in the Midlands. Following the demise of Lanes, Marshalls took over two RLS contracts until 2003, but no longer serves the schools in Buckingham.

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Heyfordian Travel (Bicester)

Sat Apr 8 2006

Saturday 8 April 2006: One of Oxfordshire's largest independents, Heyfordian operated for many years from Upper Heyford and grew primarily in connection with the now-closed military base there, before moving to Bicester. Other depots are located in Oxford, Witney and High Wycombe, and the company's directors have also recently purchased the coaching business of Tappins of Didcot, although this remains a separate entity. A wide variety of work is carried out, which included Buckingham School service 612 for a period.

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Grayline Coaches (Bicester)

Sun Jun 29 2008

Sunday 29 June 2008: Hartwool Limited, trading as Grayline, operates from Station Approach, Bicester, with a fleet of modern coaches for private hire and tour work, as well as minibuses used on 'Local Link' services in Bicester and Banbury. Some school contracts are also operated, including one for the Buckingham School.

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Robinson Coaches (Stewkley)

Mon Dec 8 2003

Monday 8 December 2003: Legend has it that Stewkley is both the longest village in the country and the furthest point from the sea in any direction! This family-owned coach company had been based in the village since 1932 but went into liquidation after seventy years. The company spent most of its life at Central Garage in the middle of the village but moved in its final years, firstly to the business park on the outskirts and then to Leighton Buzzard. A fleet of about sixteen vehicles were operated on the usual mixture of school contracts, private hire and tours.

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Red Rose Travel (Weston Turville)

Wed Aug 20 2008

Wednesday 20 August 2008: Red Rose is the spiritual successor to the famous Aylesbury independent Red Rover, who could trace their history back to before World War 1 but sold out to Luton & District in 1988. The company was founded in 1992 with one minibus on a local service and has steadily expanded since. Around 25 buses are now operated on tendered services for Bucks and Herts County Councils over a wide area stretching as far as Watford in the south and Bedford in the north east. The depot was at a railway yard in Aylesbury for many years but has now moved to Motts' former premises near Dinton.

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Taylors Coaches (Aylesbury)

Sat Apr 8 2006

Saturday 8 April 2006: Taylor French Coaches, trading simply as Taylors, has a small but immaculately-kept fleet; a distinctive feature of this company is that all vehicles have the same livery design but in a different colour. Taylors operated one Buckingham School service for a period but now concentrate on coaching work, including rail replacement services.

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Z & S International (Aylesbury)

Sat Nov 1 2008

Saturday 1 November 2008: The initials Z & S stand for Zaman and Son, and this company operates a varied fleet of service buses and coaches. Work includes several stage services, both within Aylesbury and in the Milton Keynes area, and school contracts for Buckinghamshire County Council.

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SMS Executive Travel (Towcester)

Sun Jun 8 2008

Sunday 8 June 2008: SMS commenced operation in the early 1990s as Simpson's Private Hire with a couple of minibuses, but has expanded quite rapidly and now runs a varied modern fleet including minicoaches, service buses and a full-size coach, as well as chauffeur-driven luxury cars. The company also had an associated self-drive hire operation, Silverstone Vehicle Hire, but the PSV business, together with the operating centre at a former petrol station on the A43 near Towcester, was sold to new owners during 2003 and has continued to develop.

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Red Kite Commercial Services (Tilsworth)

Thu Aug 9 2007

Thursday 9 August 2007: Red Kite commenced operations in 1996 with a few Bedford coaches, later joined by Bristol VRs for school services. The current fleet of around fifteen vehicles is mostly double-deck, but Red Kite is one of only two operators still running Bedfords in their county of manufacture! Following the purchase of a large batch of Olympians from the Go-Ahead group to replace the VRs, this group's corporate livery was adopted as standard and subsequent acquisitions from elsewhere have been repainted into it. A Red Kite vehicle could be seen for several years on RLS services 950 and 632, but these are no longer operated.

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Centrebus, inMotion and Lutonian

Fri Mar 28 2008

Friday 28 March 2008: There is a short but complex history here! Refresh Travel Solutions, who were connected with Centrebus of Leicester, commenced operating joint services in Luton with Grant Palmer under the inMotion brand name in 2002. The latter soon left the partnership and a new company was registered as LQT Limited (trading as inMotion); LQT also operated in Milton Keynes for a period but this part of the business was sold to MK Metro and formed the basis of Green Travel. Centrebus subsequently acquired Lutonian and the St Albans operations of Sovereign, and the Beds and Herts fleets were rationalised onto a single licence in the name of Centrebus Limited. 2008 saw the sale of the St Albans operation to Uno, leaving Centrebus with around seventy buses at depots in Dunstable and Stevenage, plus the separate Centrebus North operation in Leicester and Grantham.

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Redcars Private Hire (Buckingham)

Mon Jul 14 2008

Monday 14 July 2008: Following the 2008 closure of Jeffs' depot in the town, Redcars is now the only PSV operator with a base in Buckingham. The company holds a Restricted Operator's Licence and started running minibuses in 1989, although its origins may go back further as a taxi operator. Two 16-seaters are now operated on school and special needs contracts, together with a few non-PSV taxi buses.

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Langston & Tasker (Steeple Claydon)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: This operation can trace its ancestry back to the 1930s and is now run by two sisters, who took over from their father in 1960. The company is a typical rural independent, heavily reliant on the schools in the Buckingham and Winslow area but also operating a few stage services and the occasional private hire; it has grown over the years and now has a nineteen-strong fleet of both minibuses and full-size coaches.

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On A Mission (Soulbury)

Sat Aug 22 2009

Saturday 22 August 2009: The unusually-named On a Mission was originally based in Milton Keynes but is now in Soulbury, near Leighton Buzzard. From an initial fleet of four in 1999, the company now has nearly fifty vehicles and the front-line coach fleet is renewed regularly. Among this operator's claims to fame are becoming the first UK independent to run a Eurolines service to mainland Europe and operating the team coach for the MK Dons football club.

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Howletts Coaches/Acclaim Travel (Winslow)

Sat Nov 1 2008

Saturday 1 November 2008: Also known as Acclaim Travel, the long-established Howletts company runs a fleet of ten coaches and double-deckers from a base in Winslow. It is a typical small market town operator, much of the business coming from school contracts and associated work, but one claim to fame is that Howletts has the very last operational example of the once numerous Bedford coaches in north Buckinghamshire.

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Lanes Coaches (Dunstable)

Mon Jul 14 2008

Monday 14 July 2008: The Lanes name has had several owners: Margaret Lane of Bletchley started operating in 1990 but sold the business to neighbouring T&M Travel in 1993, and this in turn was bought by Graham Clarke in 1998 and moved to Dunstable. This incarnation of the company operated several school services, including RLS routes 903 and 907, but its licence was revoked in 2002. Lanes was subsequently granted a new licence and continues to operate from a depot in Hemel Hempstead.

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A1minicoach.co.uk (Bletchley)

Wed Sep 27 2006

Wednesday 27 September 2006: One of the area's smaller operators, both in terms of vehicle size and numbers, A1minicoach has operated since the early 1990s from various locations in east Beds and the Milton Keynes area before settling in Bletchley. The work includes school services in the city and for Thornton College as well as a variety of private hire with a fleet consisting mainly of 16-seaters. The company is a regular supporter of the Showbus rally and its proudest achievement was winning the Premier Operator Award at the 2003 event.

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