First bucks up in Bucks

Tuesday 3rd March 2026

The competitive knock about between bus companies in the Home Counties ratcheted up another notch yesterday when First Bus launched a swipe against Carousel in the shape of two new express routes linking Uxbridge with High Wycombe and Slough.

The first runs direct between Uxbridge and High Wycombe via the M40 and is itself appropriately numbered M40 while the second is an extension to the already fast X74 between High Wycombe and Slough which now continues to Uxbridge.

These two new services follow Carousel’s launch of its competitive route 458 to First’s route 3 between Uxbridge and Slough at the beginning of January which in turn followed First Bus turning up the heat last November with an increased frequency to Wexham Park Hospital as well as a newly numbered route 7X alongside its 7 giving a 15 minute frequency between Britwell, Slough and Langley then either Heathrow Central or Terminal 5 after which Carousel stepped in with alternate journeys on its newly diverted route 103 to Langley’s Axis Park instead of Windsor in January.

That’s was then, but this is now and following its withdrawal from Cornwall a fortnight ago, First is fighting back in Buckinghamshire and, as you can see, redeploying some of the vehicles made spare from the south west into this latest competitive battle.

The new M40 runs fast every half hour on Mondays to Saturdays (no Sunday service) between Uxbridge and High Wycombe via the motorway giving an end to end journey time of just 36 minutes. The first journey leaves High Wycombe as early as 05:15, then 06:10 and half hourly through until 18:45. The last departure back from Uxbridge is at 19:35.

Leaving High Wycombe buses pick up at bus stops along the A40 until Loudwater where they join the M40 at Junction 3 through to New Denham at Junction 1 from where it’s a short hop through New Denham into Uxbridge setting down in Belmont Road for the shops and Underground station.

In the return direction First had hoped (and indeed online timetables still show it) to pick up at Stop N by the Underground station in the ‘bus station’ area, but a message has been added on its website explaining “owing to capacity constraints at Uxbridge bus station, services X74 and M40 will initially not be able to serve Uxbridge Station Stop N as advertised”…

…so the first stop for both the M40 and X74 is Stop B in the High Street. It looks like someone jumped the gun in assuming TfL’s acquiescence to using Stop N.

Except just to confuse matters buses are picking up at Stop A rather than the adjacent Stop B.

The M40 provides a much quicker journey between High Wycombe and Uxbridge than Carousel’s half hourly Flightline branded route 102 which sticks to the A40 after Loudwater serving Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross taking 55 minutes instead of the new M40’s 36 minutes. After Uxbridge buses on the 102 continue fast to Heathrow Airport.

As explained above, First’s second new route is simply an extension of the longer established X74 which for a number of years on its route between High Wycombe and Slough has used the M40 between Loudwater (Junction 3) and Beaconsfield (Junction 2). Carousel’s half hourly route 103 also between High Wycombe and Slough continues on the A40 via Beaconsfield and takes 62 minutes compared to First’s X74 taking 48 minutes which has long been the case.

But buses on the X74 now continue beyond Slough every half hour with a journey time for the new link to Uxbridge of only 25 minutes thanks to going direct along Uxbridge Road, avoiding Langley and Iver/Iver Heath. This compares to Carousel’s 35 minute journey time on its half hourly route 458 and 42 minutes on First’s half hourly route 3, so quite a time saving.

And, as you might have worked out, this means whereas in January eyebrows were raised at the thought of four buses an hour between Slough and Uxbridge (with Carousel’s new 458 taking on the established First Bus 3), from yesterday, there’s now six buses an hour (with the newly extended X74) with all three services taking slightly different routes and resultant varied journey times.

First points out “customers travelling from Britwell, Farnham Road and Godolphin will benefit from a direct, one-fare journey to Uxbridge, without the need to change buses” in Slough but I wonder how much ‘cross Slough’ to Uxbridge demand there is. It doesn’t strike me as being a huge market.

In its pre-launch online commentary promoting the new services, First Bus points out the convenience for anyone wanting to access the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines in Uxbridge as well as giving “commuters a genuine alternative to travelling by car”. But again, I do wonder if there are many motoring commuters driving over to Uxbridge to take the Underground into London. There don’t seem to be any commuter friendly car parks close to the station with those that are there limited to shopping stays. I’m guessing this line sounds better from a PR perspective than “giving a genuine alternative to travelling with Carousel Buses” which might not land so well.

George Burton, Head of Network at First Bus is quoted online explaining “using the same direct route as a car journey, the M40 will get people from High Wycombe to Uxbridge in as little as 20 minutes, helping customers save time, fuel and parking costs compared with driving. The service is designed specifically for commuters, offering a simple, reliable and stress-free way to travel between major Buckinghamshire towns and the outer suburbs of north west London, linking with the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines at Uxbridge station.”

I’m not sure where George gets his 20 minutes from as the timetable shows a journey time of 36 minutes and I’d have thought Chiltern’s rail service would be much quicker and more convenient for commuters.

First’s newly enhanced four buses an hour between High Wycombe and Loudwater are jostling with Carousel’s six buses an hour (as well as local buses as far as east as the Retail Park) giving what must be one of the best frequencies for some time along this corridor.

I gave both new routes a try out yesterday morning along with one or two other curious first time passengers and a handful of genuine passengers surprised they could now get between High Wycombe and Uxbridge and Slough and Uxbridge much quicker than the alternatives. But the big question is … are there enough end-to-end passengers who can be generated to justify these significant increases in service provision and resources.

First Bus has operationally linked the two routes in High Wycombe so Slough based drivers can be efficiently scheduled on to the M40. It looks as though nine buses are needed to run the combined two routes whereas I believe route X74 between High Wycombe and Slough used to take four buses. So, an increase of five buses is quite a commitment especially as at least two of the additional buses are competing with itself – ie route 3 between Slough and Uxbridge, as well as Carousel’s 458, and between Loudwater and High Wycombe with the X74 (as well as Carousel’s 102/103/104/105)

It’s not like First to plough resources into a competitive battle of this kind so George and his colleagues must have confidence there’s a commercial future for First’s business in Slough and unlike Cornwall will fight to retain and even grow market share.

In which case I was a bit surprised (well, not really) at the rather lacklustre marketing supporting the launch of these two new high profile routes. Unless I missed it, there was no printed literature (leaflets, timetables etc) to support the new services, only the usual confusing presentation of the timetable on First’s website (once you’d found it) including the ridiculous inclusion of stop codes, in some cases comprising 12 digits, which add nothing to the comprehension for passengers.

It’s not exactly an enticing presentation to attract new passengers and although the section of route between High Wycombe and Loudwater is common to both routes – presumably leading to the decision to combine both routes into a presentation in one combined timetable layout – as you can see, most of the route/s is/are separate and appealing to different markets. The X74 shows very few timing points for the length of route and note also journeys on the bottom half of the layout between Loudwater and High Wycombe are consequently not in time order due to the differential journey times, making for a non sensical presentation.

Still, at least the ridiculous AI generated minute by minute variation in timings has been ditched, but why, bearing in mind the latest development, can’t the online presentation be immediately updated and remove the reference to using Stop N in Uxbridge?

And, I have to ask, what other commercial business launching a new product with getting on for a million pounds worth of revenue needed to cover the additional costs – would do so using branding that’s completely alien to the area served – ie buses branded as First Kernow.

All the green livery achieved yesterday was confusion among passengers waiting for a bus on Flightline 102 leading to drivers having to explain the route was via the M40 not via Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield each time.

Now I’m sure people at First will say, there wasn’t time to get the buses repainted, well, in that case, why not delay introducing the new routes until they’ve been painted? Why waste all the potential marketing collateral for a new route launch running buses promoting Transport for Cornwall …. with external adverts for Open Events at Plymouth and Truro colleges …. in Uxbridge amid a sea of London’s red buses? It’s incongruous and confusing.

I see on social media some former First Kernow buses have been repainted in a bespoke livery for the launch of the newly won Chelmsford Park & Ride contract commencing this Friday so if it can be done for that why not for the company’s own commercial venture?

More positively, although bus stops B (or even A) were devoid of route numbers and timetable information for the M40 and X74 (as was N)…

… it was noticeable after leaving the confines of Uxbridge town centre someone had been out and I’m guessing unofficially added X74 to TfL’s bus stops – well, it’s no good waiting for them to get round to it…

… and while I was in High Wycombe bus station someone (I’m guessing from Carousel) was updating the displays at the departure stands…

… and the timetables on the back walls had had both the M40 and X74 added.

Sadly the electronic departure signs hadn’t been updated.

On my return journey from High Wycombe to Uxbridge on an M40 on the M40 the overhead gantry signs were ominously advising of an “Incident” ahead with a reduced 50 mph limit…

… and just as we got to the exit for the M25, the traffic came to a standstill.

While motorists dangerously veered off to take the M25 as an alternative, we obviously couldn’t do so and joined the stationary queue for quite some time.

But luckily it started moving again after about five minutes and we reached Uxbridge with enough stand time not to delay the return journey to High Wycombe. But it does demonstrate the risk of using motorways, although traffic on Farnham Road in the Slough Trading Estate area was just as bad on the X74 with temporary traffic lights causing delays followed by another set north of Farnham Common.

The perils of modern day bus operation.

It’ll be interesting to see how this latest competitive development plays out; whether Carousel will respond, and who will blink first. I can’t see the M40 generating enough revenue to justify its costs and the X74 extension is likely to damage revenue on the 3 and 458 possibly putting the latter in jeopardy.

Let’s see what the next move is and by who.

Roger French

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