Thames Valley Buses, known until 2021 as Courtney Buses is a bus company based in
Bracknell, England. Founded in 1973, the company operates a network of commercial and contracted local bus services and school buses in
Berkshire, north
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
and small parts of
Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire. The company is known for its use of
alternative fuels
Alternative fuel, known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels like; ''fossil fuels'' (petroleum (oil), coal, and natural gas), as well as nuclear materi ...
, having been the first bus company in the United Kingdom to operate a bus run on 100%
soya oil
Soybean oil (British English: soyabean oil) is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the soybean (''Glycine max''). It is one of the most widely consumed cooking oils and the second most consumed vegetable oil. As a drying oil, processed s ...
. In March 2019 it was purchased by
Reading Buses
Reading Buses is a bus operator serving the towns of Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and the surrounding areas in the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire, England, as well as parts of Greater L ...
. The company was gradually rebranded to its current name between October 2019 and April 2021.
History
![Courtney Coaches 6 YG52 DHJ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Courtney_Coaches_6_YG52_DHJ.jpg)
The Courtney Group was formed in 1973 as a taxi hire firm in
Bracknell by William Courtney-Smith, and moved into coach hire in the 1980s.
[Courtney Buses - About Us]
Courtney Buses In 2000 Courtney Coaches commenced its first local route, 53 (
Wexham Park Hospital
Wexham Park Hospital is a large National Health Service, NHS hospital in Slough, Berkshire. It has been managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust since 2014. Andrew Valentine Morris, Sir Andrew Morris is the chief executive of Frimley Health ...
-
Maidenhead -
Bracknell). This was taken over by
First Berkshire & The Thames Valley
First Beeline Buses, trading as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, is a bus operator providing services in and around Slough. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
History
In January 1986 Alder Valley North Limited, later renamed, The Berks ...
in 2003. The company expanded dramatically in January 2004 when all seven local routes in
Maidenhead were taken over from First Berkshire.
[Running harder to stand still '' Coach & Bus Week'' issue 1204 1 September 2015 pages 54-56]
In September 2006 Courtney Coaches had its licence revoked by the Traffic Commissioner
The Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain are responsible for the licensing and regulation of the operators of heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches, and the registration of local bus services in Great Britain.
History
The Road Traffic A ...
. An appeal was launched, operations continued and the decision overturned by the end of 2006. Between 2005 and 2007, a park & ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...
service was operated between Maidenhead town centre and a temporary site at Stafferton Way. The Stafferton Way site had been used to provide replacement parking during a period in which a town centre car park was shut.
In October 2007 the company introduced a unique ticketing system, ETMSS, which uses mobile computer technology to replace fare charts and reporting software with one computerised system.[ETMSS Ltd](_blank)
/ref> Other features include the ability to modify fares from anywhere using the internet, GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
tracking of individual buses and reduced insurance costs as a result of this, and the ability to calculate fares, cash exchanges and refunds. The cost of installation was reportedly paid back within the first 12 months.
The routes in Maidenhead were changed significantly in early 2009. However, changes to the stopping pattern on route 6 (Maidenhead — Windsor) received criticism from some residents and were further changed in April 2009.
Further expansion came in January 2009, when the shuttle service between Didcot Parkway station and Milton Park
Milton Park is a mixed use business and technology park in Oxfordshire, England, operated by MEPC plc.
It is just south of the village of Milton, about west of Didcot. It is on the site of a former Ministry of Defence depot between the A ...
was expanded from one bus to two using a new low-floor double-deck vehicle at a cost of £175,000. Over 400 passes for the service were issued to workers prior to its introduction.
Courtney moved its depot from Downmill Road, Bracknell to Hogwood Lane Industrial Estate in Finchampstead
Finchampstead is a village and civil parish in the Wokingham Borough in the shire of Berkshire, England. Its northern extremity is south of Wokingham, west of Bracknell, south-east of Reading, and west of Central London. It is an affluent a ...
in late 2010. The company announced a change of trading name to Courtney Buses in late 2011. In November 2011 Courtney began operation of a new Christmas park & ride
A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...
service in Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
. There was more expansion during 2014, when four contracted routes in the Bracknell area, along with nine contracted routes in the Wokingham
Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell.
History
Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may ...
area, were taken over by Courtney following the withdrawal of Thames Travel
Thames Travel is a bus operator serving the southern part of the English county of Oxfordshire. It is based in Didcot and is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.
In May 2011 the Go-Ahead Group bought Thames Travel.
Branded routes River Rapids ...
.[
In July 2015, Courtney Buses took over the operation of nine routes in Bracknell previously operated by First Berkshire & The Thames Valley.
In December 2017, it was announced that ]Reading Buses
Reading Buses is a bus operator serving the towns of Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and the surrounding areas in the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire, England, as well as parts of Greater L ...
was to take on three services withdrawn by First Berkshire & The Thames Valley in the Slough area. A fourth route was later added. The Thames Valley Buses name, historically associated with Thames Valley Traction
Thames Valley Traction Company Limited was a major bus company operating services to and from Reading, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Newbury, High Wycombe and Oxford and surrounding areas for 52 years in the 20th century. For many years it ran the "Re ...
, was used for the new services. Operation began on 20 January 2018.
In January 2018, Courtney Buses expanded into Slough after taking over four routes in the area, which until that point, had been operated by First Berkshire & the Thames Valley.
In March 2019, the business was purchased by Reading Buses
Reading Buses is a bus operator serving the towns of Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and the surrounding areas in the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire, England, as well as parts of Greater L ...
.
In November 2019, Courtney Buses began to merge gradually with Thames Valley Buses, a process which was completed in April 2021, with the whole company being renamed as Thames Valley. The first routes to receive the new branding included route 5 from Slough-Cippenham
Cippenham is a suburb of Slough. Close by are the neighbouring towns and villages of Beaconsfield, Farnham Common, Burnham, Gerrards Cross, Stoke Poges, Windsor and Taplow.
Originally part of the parish of Burnham in the county of Buckin ...
and the Green Line route 703 from Bracknell- Ascot-Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
- Slough- Heathrow Airport. Courtney-branded routes in the Windsor and Slough areas, including routes 2 ( Dedworth-Windsor-Slough), 10 (Dedworth-Datchet
Datchet is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, located on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically part of Buckinghamshire, and the Stoke Hundred, the village was eventuall ...
-Wraysbury
Wraysbury is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in England. It is under the western approach path of London Heathrow airport. It is located on the east bank of the River Thames, roughly midway between Winds ...
-Heathrow Airport), 10A (Slough-Datchet-Wraysbury-Heathrow Airport, formerly service 11), 10S (Slough-Churchmead School) and 15 (Slough-Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
-Eton Wick
Eton Wick is a village in Berkshire, England (historically Buckinghamshire), on the River Thames in the civil parish of Eton, close to the historic towns of Windsor and Eton, Slough and Dorney Lake, the rowing venue for the 2012 Summer Olympi ...
- Maidenhead) were also amalgamated into the Thames Valley brand. A new simplySlough & Windsor fare zone was also introduced, including Heathrow Airport but excluding Legoland.
In February 2020, a new Heathrow circular route 459 (via Colnbrook
Colnbrook is a village in the Slough district in Berkshire, England. It lies within the historic boundaries of Buckinghamshire, and straddles two distributaries of the Colne, the Colne Brook and Wraysbury River. These two streams have their co ...
, Iver
Iver is a large civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. In addition to the central clustered village, the parish includes the residential neighbourhoods of Iver Heath and Richings Park.
Geography, transport and economy
Part of the 43-square- ...
and Langley Langley may refer to:
People
* Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name
* Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer
* Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...
) was launched.[Thames Valley brand combines with Courtney Buses](_blank)
''Coach & Bus Week'' 19 October 2019[Route 459 launches fully between Heathrow, Colnbrook and Iver](_blank)
''Reading Buses'' 21 January 2020
The Thames Valley Buses livery consists of a grey base with a green ‘valley of colour’ for routes in the Slough area, with lilac for the Heathrow routes, although the latter has been withdrawn (except for a 10A journey from Slough to Churchmead School during term time) due to cuts in bus funding from Heathrow.
In August 2020, the Thames Valley brand was introduced to the Wokingham area, with 3 Alexander Dennis Enviro200
The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 (previously known as the TransBus Enviro200) is a midibus that was manufactured by TransBus International and later Alexander Dennis between 2003 and 2018. The original TransBus Enviro200 design was innovative bu ...
s transferred from Reading Buses in their existing ‘Little Orange’ livery, but with the branding changed to ‘Thames Valley Wokingham’. With sister company Newbury & District’s Bombay Sapphire
Bombay Sapphire is a brand of gin that is distilled by the Bombay Spirits Company, a subsidiary company of Bacardi, at Laverstoke Mill in the village of Laverstoke in the English county of Hampshire.
The brand was first launched in 1986 by En ...
contract ending in September of that year, it released an Enviro200 MMC to return to the Thames Valley fleet, receiving the finalised grey and orange livery for the Wokingham area routes. Reading Buses’ simplyBracknell & Wokingham Zone was expanded to cover the Courtney/Thames Valley routes in the respective areas, along with a new simplySouth Bracknell for the Southern Bracknell housing estates prior to this in January of that year.
In October 2020, the Thames Valley brand was launched in Maidenhead, with a grey and purple livery. At the same time, duplicated numbers in the area were resolved, as services 4 (clockwise) and 4A (anti-clockwise) (Maidenhead-Paley Street
Paley Street is a small village in the civil parishes of White Waltham and Bray, Berkshire, Bray in the England, English county of Berkshire. It is situated about south of Maidenhead and west of Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor. By the later medieval ...
- Shurlock Row-Waltham St Lawrence
Waltham St Lawrence is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire.
History
The name 'Waltham' is believed to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words ''Wealt'' and ''Ham'', meaning 'dilapidated homes'.Ford, David Nash ( ...
) were renumbered 234 and 235 respectively, as First Berkshire & the Thames Valley also operate a bus service numbered as 4 in the town, along with there being two service 5’s at Courtney/Thames Valley Buses. This resulted in the Maidenhead service 5, which operates to Farmers Way via Wootton Way Shops, being renumbered as the 3. A new, expanded simplyMaidenhead zone was also introduced.
In April 2021, services 10 and 459 were withdrawn due to Heathrow Airport Holdings
Heathrow Airport Holdings is the United Kingdom-based operator of Heathrow Airport. The company also operated Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport, Edinburgh Airport and several other UK airports, but was forced by the Competition Commission to se ...
cutting funding for buses, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, therefore the routes were deemed to no longer be sustainable to operate. However, term time journeys from Slough to Churchmead school for pupils at the school only, will continue to operate as the 10A. The Thames Valley name was also applied across the entire company. Thames Valley Buses have also won the tender for the evening and Sunday journeys on route 12 (Slough- Burnham-Priory Estate) from Slough Borough Council
Slough Borough Council is the local authority for the Borough of Slough, in Berkshire, England. Slough is a unitary authority, having the powers of a county and district council combined. Berkshire is purely a ceremonial county, with no admini ...
, to supplement First Berkshire & the Thames Valley’s Monday-Saturday daytime services.[New Route 12 starts Sunday 28th March](_blank)
''Courtney Buses'' 23 March 2021[Cancellation of Routes 10/10A/10S & 459 from Sun 4th April](_blank)
''Courtney Buses'' 23 March 2021[https://www.courtneybuses.com/welcome-thames-valley-buses ''Courtney Buses'' 7 April 2021]
Alternative fuels
In 2002 Courtney Coaches became the first bus company in Britain to operate a bus on 100% soya oil
Soybean oil (British English: soyabean oil) is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the soybean (''Glycine max''). It is one of the most widely consumed cooking oils and the second most consumed vegetable oil. As a drying oil, processed s ...
.[Courtney Coaches - Going Green]
/ref> Abingdon based company Regenatec converted an Optare Solo
The Optare Solo is a low-floor minibus/midibus with one or two doors manufactured by Optare in the United Kingdom since 1998. The Solo name is a play on its low-floor status, the manufacturer marketing its vehicle as having an entrance that is ...
minibus to operate on the fuel, which gained the company appearances on ''Working Lunch
''Working Lunch'' is a television programme which was broadcast on BBC Two covering business, personal finance and consumer news; it was broadcast between 1994 and 2010. The programme was first aired on 19 September 1994. It had a quirky, relaxed ...
'' and in ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
''. The cost of conversion was around £3,500.[ Fuel savings of around 80% were reported,][Regenatec - Media - Visit to the Prime Minister]
and this cost was paid back in eight months.[ In March 2007 Courtney director Bill Courtney-Smith and Regenatec director Mike Lawton were invited to 10 Downing Street by Prime Minister ]Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
to demonstrate another converted vehicle at an environmental presentation.[ Bill Courtney-Smith later bought half shares in Regenatec when the company experienced financial trouble in early 2009.][
In May 2012 it was announced that as part of the government's Green Bus Fund initiative, Courtney had received funding to purchase two double-deck ]Hybrid electric bus
A hybrid electric bus is a bus that combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. These type of buses normally use a Diesel-electric powertrain and are also known as hybrid Diesel-el ...
es.
Routes
Thames Valley Buses operate a number of local routes in the towns of Slough, Maidenhead, Wokingham
Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell.
History
Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may ...
and Bracknell; longer-distance routes take its buses to Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
, Henley-on-Thames, Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
and Slough. The company also runs contracts to The Heights in Weybridge
Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...
(currently suspended due to COVID)
Chineham Park
Foundation Park
and Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
in Basingstoke (currently suspended during COVID). The company formerly ran contracts for Bedfont Lakes, until the contract was lost in late 2018 to London United and Bombay Sapphire
Bombay Sapphire is a brand of gin that is distilled by the Bombay Spirits Company, a subsidiary company of Bacardi, at Laverstoke Mill in the village of Laverstoke in the English county of Hampshire.
The brand was first launched in 1986 by En ...
until the current parent company, Reading Buses
Reading Buses is a bus operator serving the towns of Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and the surrounding areas in the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire, England, as well as parts of Greater L ...
transferred the contract to their Newbury and District division (the service was withdrawn in September 2020 due to COVID causing dwindling visitor numbers and users) and Milton Park
Milton Park is a mixed use business and technology park in Oxfordshire, England, operated by MEPC plc.
It is just south of the village of Milton, about west of Didcot. It is on the site of a former Ministry of Defence depot between the A ...
, which was lost to Thames Travel in late 2020.
Fleet
As of March 2021, the fleet consists of 52 buses. Since local bus service work began the predominant type in the fleet has been the Optare Solo
The Optare Solo is a low-floor minibus/midibus with one or two doors manufactured by Optare in the United Kingdom since 1998. The Solo name is a play on its low-floor status, the manufacturer marketing its vehicle as having an entrance that is ...
, although other vehicles are also owned. However, in recent times, the fleet has shifted to predominantly Alexander Dennis
Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, E ...
vehicles. Two notable buses delivered in 2006 were the only Alexander Dennis Enviro300s with East Lancs Esteem
The Optare Esteem was a low-floor single-decker bus body manufactured by East Lancashire Coachbuilders, Darwen East Lancs and Optare between 2006 and 2009 on Scania N94UB, Scania N230UB, Volvo B7RLE, MAN 12.240, Alexander Dennis Dart SLF, ...
bodywork, which left the fleet in 2011. Two Optare Tempo
The Optare Tempo is an integral low-floor, full-size rigid single-deck bus manufactured by Optare and was launched in late 2004. It is marketed and sold as the replacement for the Optare Excel. It is designed as a lightweight bus, to use less ...
s powered by 100% pure plant oil, the first 12m single-deckers to run on this fuel, were ordered in 2010. They have since departed the fleet in late 2020.Optare - Press Releases
Optare
References
External links
Company website
{{Bus companies in South East England, state=collapsed
Bus operators in Berkshire
Bus operators in Buckinghamshire
Bus operators in Hampshire
Bus operators in Oxfordshire
Companies based in Bracknell
Transport companies established in 1973
1973 establishments in England