London Country Bus Services - History - The End

The End

Bus deregulation under the 1985 Transport Act caused the company to be divided into smaller divisions and sold off, as part of Margaret Thatcher and Transport Minister Nicholas Ridley's scheme.

London Country was split into four on September 7, 1986, named London Country North East, London Country North West, London Country South East and London Country South West. The central workshops were sold as "Gatwick Engineering".

These companies were privatised during 1988, among the last of the bus privatisations. The purchasers were

• London Country North East: AJS Group, which split the company into two, County Bus and Coach and Sovereign Bus and Coach. County was sold to its management in 1990 and eventually became Arriva East Herts & Essex, part of Arriva Shires & Essex. The Grays depot was transferred to Arriva Southern Counties in 2002. Sovereign was sold to the Blazefield Group in 1991. These operations are also now part of Arriva Shires & Essex, except for the St Albans depot which was sold to Centrebus but then passed to Uno, with the operation transferred to Hatfield.
• London Country North West: Luton & District Transport, now Arriva the Shires, part of Arriva Shires & Essex.
• London Country South East, renamed Kentish Bus: Northumbria Motor Services (through its parent company Proudmutual Ltd), itself sold to British Bus Group in 1992 and now part of Arriva Southern Counties.
• London Country South West: Drawlane Ltd, which became the British Bus group (sold to Cowie - now Arriva - in 1996), and now part of Arriva Guildford & West Surrey, although many routes passed to other companies, notably Metrobus and what is now Abellio Surrey.

In May 2010, Arriva was acquired by Deutsche Bahn AG, the German national railway.