Southampton…Cornwall. Is Slough next?

Tuesday 6th January 2026

After Go-Ahead’s victory in the ‘battle of Cornwall’ with next month’s withdrawal by First Kernow following last autumn’s competitive onslaught from Go Cornwall, observers are now wondering if the same scenario will play out in Slough, not least after another new head-to-head competitive service from Go-Ahead owned Carousel began yesterday with new route 458 between Uxbridge and Slough almost exactly replicating First’s route 3 between the same destinations.

It’s the latest development across Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor where Carousel and Reading Buses owned Thames Valley jostled for market share throughout most of last year. Tensions between the two operators can be traced back to Arriva’s withdrawal from High Wycombe in July 2024 when Reading Buses began new route 28 putting down a marker it wanted the route between Henley and Reading via Shiplake and Caversham despite that being one of the profitable links Carousel inherited.

Since then we’ve seen Carousel fill the gap between Maidenhead and Reading via Twyford with route 127 as well as expansion in the Maidenhead area and extending its reach as far as Staines-upon-Thames after winning tenders last spring from the Royal Borough. Thames Valley has also been active with new route 12 between Twyford and Reading and route 20 between Maidenhead and High Wycombe last autumn, all of which featured in blogs last year.

Not to be left out, First Bus joined in the fun last month and in so doing caused ripples with Carousel which has now responded in like kind against First while at the same time introducing some deescalation of its skirmish with Thames Valley.

There’s never a dull moment for buses in this part of Berkshire these days.

First’s changes saw route 6 withdrawn from Maidenhead (leaving the A4 corridor between Maidenhead and Slough to Thames Valley’s relatively new and competitive 704) and changed to run between Burnham across Slough to Wexham Park Hospital and Knolton Way North giving a new half hourly service to the Hospital which was previously served by First every 70 minutes. Secondly, a newly numbered route variation 7X (not sure why the use of the X as it’s not limited stop) has been introduced alongside route 7 giving a 15 minute frequency between Britwell, Slough and Langley’s Trelawney Avenue then via different routes in Langley every half hour to either Heathrow’s Terminal 5 (route 7) or Central Bus Station (route 7X).

In response to these changes Carousel has withdrawn one journey an hour between Wexham Post Office and Slough on route 106 (the frequency was half hourly with a through bus to the Chalfonts, with route 107) and has used this saving to resource its new competitive route 458 with two of the other three buses needed for the new service coming from a reduction in frequency on route 36 between Bourne End and High Wycombe from two to one bus an hour – a corridor now seeing Thames Valley’s recently introduced route 20. Carousel’s route 37 continues between High Wycombe, Bourne End, Maidenhead and Windsor but with modifications to the route in Maidenhead to serve St Mark’s Hospital (also served by Thames Valley’s 20).

Another change introduced yesterday was the diversion of alternate journeys on Carousel’s route 103 (from High Wycombe) to run from Slough to Langley’s Axis Park rather than Windsor. This is another example of the deescalation of the skirmish with Thames Valley (which has a significant presence between Slough and Windsor) and taking advantage of a frequency reduction by First Bus whose changes to route 7 have reduced the frequency via a well populated part of Langley and Axis Park from every 20 minutes to half hourly.

Here’s the First Bus network prior to its changes last month, with route 6 (yellow) still shown reaching Maidenhead as it once did …

… and here’s the latest map with route 6 now in green serving Burnham and more of Wexham as well as new route 7X joining the 7.

The above map also shows (top right) in pink, route 3 between Uxbridge and Slough, which is the one facing direct competition from Carousel’s new route 458 – the route number being a nod back to London Transport Country Bus days which used it for the same route. Until renumbered to 3, First Bus used route number 58. The new 458 runs half hourly with a very similar route as taken by First’s half hourly 3 although it avoids a deviation to serve Iver Heath and in Langley uses Trelawney Avenue whereas route 3 runs via Langley Road as shown on Carousel’s map below which I’ve annotated to show First’s variations in blue.

Departures on route 458 on Mondays to Fridays are 00 and 30 from Slough’s Wellington Street, five minutes ahead of route 3 at 05 and 35 (a classic of the competitive service genre), and from Uxbridge the 458 leaves at 15 and 45 with route 3 at 00 and 30 making for a more even split.

Looking at the running time in detail, for some reason First gives Uxbridge bound journeys a generous 14 minutes between Uxbridge Moor and Uxbridge whereas in the opposite direction it’s a more realistic six minutes – Carousel give seven minutes inbound and five minutes outbound. When I travelled yesterday, it took just four minutes. If it chose to, First could retard its departures from Slough by 10 minutes, providing an even headway with the 458 in both directions and still arrive in Uxbridge at the same times as now.

Despite the severe cold weather and it being the first day yesterday morning, Carousel was already doing very nicely on its Slough to Uxbridge bound journeys with passengers, arriving in good time at bus stops for First’s route 3, jumping aboard. The 11:00 departure from Slough carried 14 passengers with First’s arrival in Uxbridge just behind having six on board.

Carousel journeys towards Slough were understandably quieter for a first morning but even First’s departure on route 3 at 12:00 only carried 11, three of whom alighted in the section of Iver Heath not served by Carousel.

I can see using Trelawney Avenue in Langley (not served by the 3) generating new custom and avoiding the narrow road characterised by parked cars in Iver Heath (used by the 3) gives a perceptively much quicker journey on the 458 for the many end to end passengers who travel on the route, including, from observations yesterday morning, many students.

Both routes take a commitment of three buses. First’s route 3 operates hourly on Sundays and late into the evenings (thanks to local authority funding) while Carousel’s 458 has begun as a Mondays to Saturdays service through to early evening. The £3 fare cap applies on both routes with First’s 3 otherwise having a £2.50 fare for shorter journeys and Carousel’s 458 offering cheaper fares for short hop rides.

Carousel is distributing an attractive Best Impressions designed timetable leaflet for the new service with copies available on board buses.

There’s also a new Slough and Windsor timetable booklet with full details of this and other route changes as well as a timetable book for Maidenhead and another for High Wycombe.

First Bus are hitting back with a 10 rides for the price of 9 offer (also applying to routes 7/7X) using an old fashioned loyalty card which has to be stamped by the driver each time a passenger travels. Blog reader, and regular route 3 passenger, Andrew kindly sent me a copy of the email he received from First…

… and as Andrew notes it’s a strange way to do things in the modern era of contactless tap-on/tap-off era. Andrew explains “it could have been done by a refund based on tap-on/off journeys with no driver involvement, but instead it’s a retro approach with a physical card that has to be stamped when you buy a paper ticket, or would be if the drivers had been told about it and issued with cards and hand-stamps; I haven’t managed to get one yet a week after the scheme was meant to start!”

It came as no surprise to see yesterday that TfL hasn’t taken any interest in updating its bus stop flags with information about the 458 nor posted any timetables in the empty bus stop panels. Even route 3 was missing, and obviously its own routes too.

Knowing how keen the team at Carousel are, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Carousel timetables and route numbers make their way on to the bus stops very soon, as they were already posted at stops along the rest of the route outside TfL’s jurisdiction.

I understand the Carousel display posted over the weekend at Slough’s Wellington Street terminus stop had mysteriously disappeared by yesterday morning which is a bit concerning if someone is playing games.

Other pertinent changes of note include last month’s new timetable on First’s route X74 between High Wycombe and Slough which miraculously has regained an even half hourly frequency rather than the previous AI generated unmemorable frequency of every 35-40 minutes, which brings a welcome dose of common sense and puts some competitive pressure on to Carousel’s equally half hourly route 103. Another change from yesterday saw Carousel’s route 15 between Slough, Eton, Eton Wick, Dorney and Taplow extended the short distance to Maidenhead and route 127 has been diverted to serve Woodley which might lead to some consternation back at Reading Buses and potentially confuse passengers on a Saturday when it will run alongside the Thames Valley similarly numbered tendered route 127 over much of the same route.

Despite the clickbait headline to this post, I doubt this latest competitive move by Go-Ahead will unseat First from Slough. There’s one big difference this time; it’s called Heathrow Airport.

Heathrow dominates the bus scene across its large catchment area covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and West London where the AIrport funds a number of bus services enabling new links, frequency enhancements as well as late night and early morning journeys to increase the proportion of staff and passengers using public transport.

First’s route A4 between Cippenham and Heathrow Airport as well as the RailAir routes to Woking and Watford, which are based at its Slough garage, receive funding support from Heathrow Airport and furthermore, last month’s changes are a sign First is willing to invest more resources into the local network – probably around an extra four vehicles. I understand coaches First now use on Flixbus commitments are also based in Slough.

In his email to me, Andrew observed perhaps Carousel has left it too late with First having improved the service provision on the 3 in recent times, albeit with Council funding. He tells me “it does seem odd timing, coming not long after First finally brought in improvements with later evening running and a more frequent peak service to match demand rather than leave passengers unable to board as happened to me several times. If Carousel had come in a few years ago with a service including similar benefits they’d have wiped the floor with a complacent First, but what they’re doing now just seems like cherry-picking. The different route isn’t different enough to attract new users, and almost bypassing Iver Heath seems odd though it does avoid a narrow heavily-parked section.”

My own assessment is last month’s changes have all the hallmarks of First giving Slough one last throw of the dice to see if profitability can be improved to sustainable levels, but it maybe it is they who have left it too late with both Carousel and Thames Valley already demonstrating they’re prepared to take risks and invest in service improvements.

And it has to be said, both beat First hands down at the all important provision of quality information and marketing with even First’s online presence woefully wanting – take a look at its new route X74 timetable for example, showing every journey mysteriously duplicated in its usual unfriendly format with unintelligible “stop codes”.

If Carousel and Thames Valley find a way to co-exist and continue their own deescalation of tensions it’s likely to make it harder for First to regain market share.

Slough is hardly big enough to sustain two bus operators. It certainly can’t sustain three.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS