First Berkshire & The Thames Valley

First Berkshire & The Thames Valley

Wright Axcess-Floline bodied Scania L113CRB in Camberley in January 2009
Parent	FirstGroup
Founded	1986
Service area	Slough
Service type	Bus services
Routes	33 (July 2015)
Fleet	136 (July 2015)
Website	www.firstgroup.com

First Beeline Buses,trading as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, is a bus operator providing services in Slough. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.

In January 1986 The Berks Bus Company took over the Bracknell, High Wycombe, Maidenhead, Newbury, Reading and Wokingham operations of Alder Valley as part of the privatisation of the National Bus Company. In late 1987 The Berks Bus Company was sold to Q Drive and renamed Beeline.

In 1990 the High Wycombe operations were sold to the Oxford Bus Company, and in 1992 the Reading and Newbury operations were sold to Reading Transport. In 1993 Beeline purchased the Slough operations of Luton & District Transport, until 1986 the Slough depot of London Country Bus Services and later part of the London Country North West division.

In March 1996 Beeline was sold to CentreWest who in turn was sold to FirstGroup in March 1997. Initially trading as First Beeline, in 2001 it was rebranded as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley.

Following the loss of nine Bracknell Forest Council supported services to Courtney Buses on 13 July 2015 and the sale of route 90 Bracknell to Reading to Reading Buses on 26 July 2015, the Bracknell garage closed on 28 August 2015.

The company currently operates most of the town services in Slough, as well as services to surrounding areas such as Heathrow Airport, High Wycombe, Reading. The company was previously the dominant operator in Maidenhead, but town services there were abandoned in 2004 and are now run by Courtney Buses.