Hertfordshire Buses

From 1933 to the end of the 1960s, most of the bus services in Hertfordshire were in the hands of London Transport’s country services, with standardised green buses. These vehicles and routes were passed to the National Bus Company in 1969, with a new green London Country livery being adopted, though within five years it was replaced by NBC corporate colours. The 1970s and 1980s saw London Country’s fleet brought up to a modern standard.

The Thatcher government’s policies brought about the split of London Country, with Hertfordshire being unequally divided between the North East and North West businesses. Since then, there have been Sovereign, County Bus and Luton & District, which eventually all came together to become part of the Arriva Group. London Transport’s Potters Bar Garage found itself in Hertfordshire after boundary changes in the1960s, bringing red buses into the south of the county and reaching as far as St Albans. Other NBC subsidiaries could be found on the fringes of Hertfordshire, including United Counties and Eastern National. Various independents have featured in the county’s bus scene, the numbers greatly increasing after deregulation. Some of the most notable operators today include Unō and Centrebus.

The author has been living in Hertfordshire since the 1970s and has built up a fantastic collection of photographs of the county’s buses, the best of which are displayed here.