Arriva East Herts & Essex

Arriva Shires & Essex

Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident 2 in Hertford on 28 March 2011
Parent	Arriva
Founded	1998
Service area	Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Essex Hertfordshire Greater London
Service type	Bus services
Routes	45

Arriva Shires & Essex is a bus operator providing services in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Greater London. Until 2002 its operations included Colchester. It is a subsidiary of Arriva.

Operations are split between two registered companies, Arriva East Herts & Essex Limited and Arriva The Shires Limited.

Arriva East Herts & Essex Limited is based in Harlow, and operate two bus garages in Harlow (Fourth Avenue) and Ware (Marsh Lane).

Arriva East Herts & Essex emerged from London Country North East, one of the successor companies of London Country Bus Services. LCNE was broken in two. One of the successor companies, County Bus & Coach, with depots at Harlow, Hertford and Grays, was bought by its management in 1990. In 1994 County was sold to West Midlands Travel, itself bought by National Express in 1995. The Cowie Group bought County from National Express in 1996. County Bus & Coach was renamed Arriva East Herts & Essex in April 1998.

Cowie had also acquired Southend Transport and Colchester Borough Transport with its acquisition of British Bus in 1996. Both companies became part of Arriva East Herts & Essex, but in 2002 were transferred to Arriva Southern Counties together with the former County depot at Grays.