Arriva The Shires Limited is based in
Luton and operates bus garages in
Luton,
Milton Keynes,
Watford,
Stevenage, and
Hemel Hempstead. Arriva The Shires evolved from the purchase of the Luton, Aylesbury and Hitchin depots of
United Counties by Luton & District Transport (LDT) in a
management buy-out in 1987. Depots at Watford, High Wycombe, Hemel Hempstead, Amersham and Slough were acquired with
London Country North West in 1990, although Amersham has since closed and Slough was later sold to
Bee Line. LDT was bought in 1994 by British Bus, itself bought in 1996 by
The Cowie Group. LDT's was renamed Arriva The Shires in April 1998.
Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead was a depot of London Country Bus Services (North West) (one of the companies into which
London Country Bus Services was divided in 1986), acquired by Luton & District Transport in 1988. In 2004 Arriva acquired the last remaining Sovereign operation. Blazefield had already sold its London operations to
Transdev London and its St Albans depot and routes to
Centrebus. Arriva currently have two depots in the town; Babbage Road (ex Sovereign) and Bessemer Road. The site at Norton Green closed during August 2021 for redevelopment, with vehicles temporarily moving to a new site at Bessemer Road. Eventually all buses operating from Stevenage will be based at an expanded Babbage Road site. As well as operating a number of local services, the Stevenage depot also runs to Letchworth on route 55, Luton on the 100/101, St Albans on route 301 and the 97/98 between Hitchin and Stotfold/Baldock.
Milton Keynes In February 2006, Arriva bought the operations of
MK Metro for £5.6 million, and operational control transferred to The Shires & Essex. The purchase was subsequently considered by the
Office of Fair Trading for possible referral to the
Competition Commission (United Kingdom)Competition Commission, but it decided not to. Vehicles and publicity for the Milton Keynes operation continued to use the MK Metro name until April 2010, when they were rebranded as Arriva Milton Keynes, temporarily using the brand name
MK Star. The change of name coincided with a number of controversial service changes. Many services were improved in frequency as part of the rebranding but others were reduced or withdrawn and some journey times were increased. There are various local services operated. In 2021, the depot was awarded the contract to operate routes 33/33A to Northampton and also have responsibility for routes X4 (previously the 150) and X6 (previously the X60) to Aylesbury. The depot is in
Wolverton, with a storage site located nearby in Arden Park. Withdrawn vehicles tend to be sent there for decommissioning before being disposed of.
Waltham Abbey Arriva The Shires previously operated 2 routes in the Waltham Abbey area: • 251, Upshire to Hammond Street • 250, Debden Broadway to Waltham Cross Route 250 remained in competition with route 255 operated by Harlow-based Roadrunner buses. Earlier in 2013 Arriva withdrew route 250 service to provide a stronger service on the 251 and to expand onto the 310 route from Waltham Cross to Ware. Many of the buses used on the 250 service can now be seen on the 251 service operating from Upshire to Hammond Street more frequently.
Watford Arriva operates various bus routes in Watford, such as: 20, 320, 321, 322, 724 and 725. They provide connections to
Hemel Hempstead,
London Heathrow Airport,
Luton,
St Albans,
Stevenage and
Harlow. Arriva also used to operate London bus services under Arriva the Shires but those routes were later sold to
RATP Group and
Metroline. On 31 December 2024, Arriva withdrew their
ArrivaClick services in Watford. arriva have also withdrawn services 9, 10, 328, 335 and 336. ==Former garages==