Arriva The Shires：The Last Twenty-Five Years

Serving the main towns of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and South Bedfordshire and with Green Line routes into Central London, Arriva The Shires had around 350 vehicles by the early 2010s. In 2013, the Milton Keynes fleet was absorbed into The Shires licence, around the same time as a guided busway opened between Luton and Dunstable. Following Arriva’s changes to management and licences, the Hertfordshire operations and garages moved to Kent Thameside in 2016. At the same time, the London-contracted services passed with Watford Garage to Arriva London North, leaving the company to serve south Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It was all change again in 2024 with the closure of Aylesbury and High Wycombe garages, leaving a much-slimmed-down fleet based in Luton and Milton Keynes on the Shires licence.

With 180 colour images and informative captions, Gary Seamarks details the vehicles operated over the last twenty-five years, many of which have cascaded in from the Midlands fleet, along with new rolling stock for use on the Luton Busway and the Green Line 757 between Luton and its airport into Central London.