-bodied
Dennis Dart at
Watford Junction bus station in June 1997 A bus operator named
Universitybus was set up as an 'arm's length' company by the University of Hertfordshire in 1992. It has its own board of directors and is expected to run on a fully commercial basis. Independent research later indicated that, as a consequence of subsequent expansion into running local bus service in Hertfordshire while still maintaining its core university services, the Universitybus brand was confusing a third of the county's bus users, who did not realise they could travel on the operator's bus services. As a result, in March 2005, Universitybus was rebranded as
Uno, with the operator's fleet adopting a pink and purple livery designed by Best Impressions. Shortly after purchasing the St Albans operations of
Centrebus in 2008, Uno helped to found a voluntary partnership of local authorities, the university and the bus and rail operators serving the city with the aim of co-ordinating and improving public transport across St Albans. The partnership uses powers under the most recent Transport Act as a Quality Network Partnership but is known publicly as 'Network St Albans'. Uno is currently the second largest bus operator in Hertfordshire. On 20 April 2009, Uno recast many of its services to integrate a number of the former Centrebus routes. Further changes took place on 28 September 2009, following the opening of the new
University of Hertfordshire Forum. These changes included improvements to late evening services and the extension of operating hours until as late as 3:30am for a select few routes. The main timetable change each year takes place in September to coincide with the start of the school, college and university academic year. In September 2012, Uno commenced operating in
Northampton, initially taking over routes 18 and 19, both of which serve
The University of Northampton. A third service, route 21, began operating in 2013, covering some of Northampton's eastern district and serving
Northampton College. In September 2013, Uno began operating a small network of routes between
Milton Keynes,
Bedford and
Flitwick for
Cranfield University. On 25 July 2015, Uno became a contracted
Transport for London (TfL) operator when it commenced operating
route 383. In November 2016, Uno's Northampton operations were shortlisted for the Top Independent Operator award in the national UK Bus Awards; they finished as a finalist. In November 2018, Uno were shortlisted for several awards in the UK Bus Awards and won two - Marketing Initiative of the Year for The Comet routes 614 and 644 and Leadership & Inspiration for the MD, Jim Thorpe. It was announced in November 2023 that Uno's University of Northampton operations would cease on 9 March 2024, with a new bus contract awarded by the university to
Stagecoach Midlands set to commence later on the date. Stagecoach plans to integrate the contracted university bus network into Northampton's main bus network, as opposed to Uno's network remaining separate of the town and outlying areas.
Previous route changes buses at
St Albans in July 2010 In March 2008, Uno purchased Centrebus's
St Albans garage, taking over all Centrebus routes operating from there, including the
S St Albans City route network, PB1 (a
Potters Bar local route), various routes connecting St Albans with outlying towns and housing estates and a number of schools services provided under contract to
Hertfordshire County Council. In April 2009, several former Centrebus services were integrated into the main network (mainly as services 620 and 621) while one further route (304) provided under contract to Hertfordshire County Council was transferred to
Arriva Herts & Essex. In March 2010, a number of the routes around
Hatfield and
Welwyn Garden City, that only ran a couple of times a day or on one day a week, were lost to
Sullivan Buses. The evening 620 service contract was also lost to
Arriva Herts & Essex. The 694 service, introduced in September 2009 as a
park and ride service between College Lane and
Stanborough Lakes in WGC, was axed completely. In September 2011, changes were made to routes 607, 610, 615, 625, 635, 658, 659 (frequency changes/new services); route 700 (reduction in service as result of 625/635 changes; routes 602, 603, 622, 634, 636 and 712 (general timing changes) and withdrawal of route 641, with assurances that the peak hour connection would be kept on the route 341. However, in January 2012, the peak hour connection was lost from 341, along with shortening of some early and late journeys on the 602, 603, 620, 621, 622, 625, 635, 658 and PB1 services; the withdrawal of routes 604 and 634 outside of peak; and changing all evening 644 buses to run via Barnet via route 614). In March 2015, Uno took the 797
Green Line route that previously operated from
Stevenage to London Victoria (Green Line Coach Station) on, operating a shortened version of the route between London and Hatfield, on weekdays. The service was withdrawn the following year. ==Garages and buses==