Tuesday 9th June 2026
As well as in Southend-on-Sea (and also Preston – which I’ve yet to visit) it all kicked off in Stevenage last week where Stagecoach is flexing its muscles against Arriva.
It doesn’t seem that long ago (February 2024), Stagecoach extended its Bedford to Hitchin routes 9A and 9B onwards to Stevenage bringing its buses into the 1960s New Town for the first time by competing against Arriva’s routes 100/101 which link Luton and Hitchin with Stevenage with connections between the latter two towns going right back to London Transport Country Bus days.
Now in this latest skirmish, from the beginning of the month, Stagecoach has struck out again and this time introduced a local bus route in Stevenage itself.
New route SB12 links the Chells residential area with Stevenage town centre every half an hour in the peaks and hourly off-peak…
… in direct competition with Arriva’s busy and well used route SB1 which serves the same stops as well as continuing on to serve Chells Manor and Poplars.
The SB1 currently runs every 20 minutes…
… but in a fight back move against the interloper, Arriva has registered an improved 15 minute frequency to begin at the end of the month.
The SB1 route to Chells was famously the very first Superbus route introduced way back in early London Country days in 1971 with a bright yellow and blue livery under the then new and revolutionary ‘Superbus’ branding. More routes followed but by 1980 the branding changed to the plainer Stevenage Bus.
However, 50 years after its introduction, Arriva reintroduced the brand in 2021 on a ‘heritage liveried bus’ to mark that anniversary…
… and now it’s back again with yellow SB logos reintroduced to four Wright StreetLite buses, three of which are used on the SB1 at any one time…
… with the strap line reminding passengers it’s “the original, best and frequent Superbus!”.
I had a couple of rides up and down the route last Friday morning travelling on buses on both the SB1 and SB12 to see how things were going at the end of the first competitive week.
It was evident Stagecoach hasn’t yet made much of an inroad into Arriva’s market share with lightly loaded buses passing well occupied Arriva ones.
Some of that is obviously down to unfamiliarity among passengers which will change as the weeks go by with Stagecoach buses being noticed going up and down the route.
Some is down to relative frequencies, particularly off-peak, with Stagecoach only making an hourly presence, and some is down to Arriva’s erratic time keeping I observed on Friday with some journeys running 15 minutes late and getting just in front of the Stagecoach bus.
That late running wasn’t by design as one bus I saw was as late as 20 minutes and effectively meant a journey was missing which is not a sensible modus operandi when you’re faced with competition.
It meant Arriva buses had numbers as high as 32-35 on board on some journeys (effectively a double load) compared to Stagecoach carrying ones and twos with only one I saw with around six.
Stagecoach departures on the SB12 from the bus station were originally planned for the same stand G as Arriva’s SB1 but at the last minute were reallocated to stand J meaning most passengers still queue and board from the stand they’re familiar with – stand G…
… with very few moving further along to stand J and therefore not noticing Stagecoach’s relative infrequent departure from there.
Unusually for Hertfordshire County Council I noticed timetable displays hadn’t yet been updated along the route…
… and even more strange all the timetables in the bus station had been removed…
… leaving just multiple notices with the same message…
… and another with a QR code linking to upcoming departures which I wasn’t convinced were even all showing in ‘real time’ as a late running SB1 was missed off.
Some of the large electronic departure screens by each stand were also not working.
However, Hertfordshire’s Intalink website has the new timetables online as well as an updated network map for Stavenage and out along the route to Chells I noticed every bus shelter…
… had a notice from BUGS (Bus Users Group Stevenage)…
… explaining about the new SB12 together with a copy of the Stagecoach SB12 timetable.
Stagecoach are interworking the SB12 with buses on its newly numbered route 9D which provides an hourly service between Stevenage, Hitchin and Henlow Camp (roughly half way along the route to Bedford) which runs on the opposite half hour to the 9A and 9B between Stevenage, Hitchin and Bedford and have seen a frequency reduction from hourly (on each of the 9A and 9B) to each now running two-hourly.
This means, effectively Stagecoach has redeployed a resource that ran hourly between Henlow Camp and Bedford to instead run hourly to one of Stevenage’s prime bus residential areas making for quite a canny move.
Except a newly motivated Arriva is not going to take that without a counter reaction and the upcoming SB1 frequency increase is evidence of that.
Another one that’s going to be interesting to watch in the coming months.
Roger French
Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu
BusAndTrainUser 
I’m so glad you blogged about this, Roger. Personally it makes me really cross. I know we are in a deregulated, competition is king, profit driven bus system… BUT, the people who live in the villages served by the 9A/9B have seen a halving of their bus service, now waiting up to 2 hours and unable to get to work and college in some cases. All the while, Stagecoach citing it’s not commercially viable, not making profit, etc etc… YET they can essentially waste money pointlessly competing against a well established local route in a New Town dominated by one company where most people will have network period tickets. One might suggest if they’ve got money to waste providing this duplicate service, they got money to make on the 9A/9B. Those services are always busy, and on the occasions where single decks are used can often be standing room only. It is a mad decision and one not being taken lightly of the local residents who are campaigning hard. Interestingly, this is not the first time Stagecoach have attempted to reduce the 9A/9B. The last time they did, they came back with their tail between their legs just a few months later reinstating the half hourly frequency! It truly is Beggar’s Belief!
LikeLiked by 2 people
This strikes me as a battle between two very badly run operators.
Stagecoach East is ceding ground in Bedford to Grant Palmer who have taken 4 routes off them in the past couple of years, most recently and surprisingly Bedford to Northampton. As an earlier post says the 9 has been reduced to 2-hourly on each route, with an e30 extension from Hitchin to Stevenage competing with Arrivas e15 frequency.
S East also introduced a ludicrous hourly one way loop service in Luton to Luton Airport against Arrivas 6/8 buses an hour, now inevitably withdrawn.
In Stevenage Arriva has cut back the town buses relentlessly. Chells only running every 20 minutes and if you live in Poplars look at Roger’s map to see how long it takes to get into town, no encouragement to use the bus. The 20 minute frequency is clearly milking profit on the Chells service. The whole town network needs a rethink. Arriva has also decimated services in Hemel Hempstead and Watford, can you imagine that Hertfordshire’s largest town (Watford)does not have a depot.
What’s needed in Stevenage is a decent competitor, Stagecoach’s hourly off peak frequency is a joke and will never get a following.
No wonder Hertfordshire is looking at franchising
LikeLiked by 1 person
All seems rather pointless. I give it 3 months before it goes back to the status quo.
LikeLike
I agree with the comments on the halving of the 9A and 9B. When i have used these routes for off peak journeys out of hitchin they have been well used with passenger numbers often in double figures. By the time the buses reach Bedford there is often a standing load. How can this be uneconomical? Stagecoach’s resources would be far better utilised going back to the hourly service on the 9A and 9B.
John
LikeLike
Stevenage gets very good coverage in the BTF film All That Mighty Heart. Green RTs working Stevenage town services, crew RFs and towards the end, sight of two of the film’s “characters” going to London for a night out by Green Line RF rather than by train. The way the producers pack so much “London” and “transport” into such a superb short is an absolute joy.
Living in Walton on Thames “doing” the LCBS Superbus was a sinch: Green Line through London using a Golden Rover for 99P.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Needless to say, Arriva’s Chells-marked buses sometimes escape. I saw one in Letchworth on a 55 the other day! Rob F
LikeLike
The 9A through Arlesey is now carrying standing loads at times as now 2 hourly, causing problems for commuters, college students trying to get to Bedford etc. The local councillor is on the case and trying to get the local MP involved.
LikeLike
I thought the extension of Stagecoach 9 from Hitchin to Stevenage was actually at HCC request in their efforts to improve services after government money had been dished out via BSIP. I stand to be corrected on this, and no doubt will be. If so, it was rather tempting fate to send a company such as Stagecoach into the run-down Arriva services of Stevenage.
I imagine someone at Stagecoach noticed over-loaded single-deckers, running haphazardly (as noted) on SB1 and rightly thought they may fill a gap instead of having their vehicle sit idle in-between 9 work. A commercial decision which they are quite entitled to make. If Bedfordshire Council think reductions are too severe at their end of the route, let them pay for the level of service they deem appropriate.
The continuing story of Arriva cramming their passengers into single-deckers has been one of their worst failings over the last two decades, and shows little sign of changing.
I have no idea how passenger figures have been affected by the move of the bus station to it’s present location, but I once had to stand on a bus from the Martin’s Way area to the Town, and this was a Sunday morning!!
Terence Uden
LikeLike
Terence, you are quite correct in your analysis. Originally, BSIP funding paid for Stagecoach to run buses from Hitchin to Stevenage to provide a new link to Bedford as well as new opportunities for north Herts villages to Stevenage. This proved a successful move with the southern third of the service actually contributing a high proportion of the revenue of the whole route v. the additional resource required. When the 9s were reduced, HCC was keen to retain the x30 minute frequency at least as far as Ickleford, though in the end the 9D terminates at Henlow Camp mainly because there was time to do so and it is a convenient location to turn the bus. It also gave HCC the opportunity to run an additional bus an hour along the Stevenage Road in Hitchin, a road in the town that had seen a reduction in the number of buses following re-routeing of the 37 route via Hollow Lane and withdrawal of the 635.
As you say, the SB12 operates to keep the bus active between 9 departures.
I also agree with you regarding funding from Bedford Borough Council, but maybe it’s a little naive (by all parties) to suggest a local authority that received an £80m bailout from Central Government was able to do anything meaningful in terms of replacing bus services in its patch.
Dan Tancock
LikeLike
Bedfordshire Council doesn’t exist, and hasn’t done for some years.
Bedford Borough Council is a unitary authority, and it covers a very small section of this route. The vast majority of it is in Central Beds area and that authority has already had to sort out the mess caused by previous stupid decisions by Stagecoach Bedford. Neither have the public transport budgets or BSIP money that Hertfordshire has received to splash out on wasteful services.
LikeLike
A good update, but the blogger appears to have forgotten to explain why Stagecoach has taken the action it has.
LikeLike
There’s no real mystery – Stagecoach has buses available to use within the town as a consequence of offering a clockface x30 frequency on the 9s. I don’t think the intention is to run Arriva off the road with the SB12, but to generate some useful revenue for a buses that would otherwise be idle.
Dan Tancock
LikeLike
That late running SB1 missing from the list could be down to a quirk I’ve noticed in realtime info where a late bus seems to vanish once its timetabled time has passed. I don’t think I’ve imagined it, and I’m not sure if it’s consistent but the Herts displays at Watford Junction have done it to me several times. Leaves you wondering if the bus has been cancelled mid-route then it turns up unadvertised.
LikeLike
Realtime info seems to be the norm in London, but on my bus travels outside London I’ve often noticed the bus vanishing from the screen at the scheduled time. Google Maps seems to have the same issue.
LikeLike
Only a few services are tracked real-time in google, but they’re really bad at showing which those are… in reality both tracked and untracked (taken from schedules) show in the same way so you can’t tell the difference. Yes it’s frustrating!
LikeLike
Departing 45s at Morden are not always appearing , either it is fixed to scheduled and if controlled to intervals vehicles are starting when told, and appear not switched on as to real time and thus the next scheduled two(ish) are showing up, not the one that has decided to pull up behind another bus on stop hidden from view and not marked as due or othewise on countdown. so London not perfect either.
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
Smells like two bald men fighting over a comb. Neither Arriva or Stagecoach can market services for toffee. So it all appears to be a complete waste of time and effort.
LikeLike
neither Arriver nor Stagecoach market their services locally through printed timetables. Arriva are so reluctant to market their services that they have removed the pdfs of their timetables from their website. Hopefully this is only temporary while they redesign them to be customer friendly.
LikeLike
This whole saga is a joke. Arriva’s offering is lame and unoriginal, and decisions are made from HQ in Kent. Stagecoach meanwhile is ditching its network in Bedford at an alarming rate and instead chasing around Stevenage on a terrible frequency. No competitor has ever succeeded in Stevenage in the past – the biggest attack was Jubilee Travel but they got into financial bother and were acquired by LCNE. Then London Transit had a pop in the early noughties using a motley selection of tatty old buses until they too went pop.
If Stagecoach really thought Stevenage was lucrative, they’d have made a pop at it in 1988 when LCNE was on its arse, or when Parkdale Holdings when bung and took the AJS Group with it.
LikeLike
Where’s Aaron when you need him?! I’m sure he’ll have a view on this situation.
By the way, I liked the earlier analogy about 2 bald men fighting over a comb. Who said British humour was dead?
LikeLike
Since you asked lol. But I don’t have much to add as most of the comments are saying what I would say. The top comment says it all. I feel for the people hit by the cuts in Beds when they don’t sound justified at all. Why is it so hard for these companies to provide the service people need? The SB12 baffles me and seems like a textbook example of everything wrong with deregulation.
Also I don’t see how the 100/101 and 9A/ 9B are ‘competing’, they serve completely different routes.
And some interesting changes coming, especially in the Lea Valley from late July. https://www.intalink.org.uk/july-2026
Aaron
LikeLike
Essex BSIP Bus service Improvements
Love your Bus 2025/2026 Grant Outcomes | Travel Essex
LikeLike
Was Stevenage (old town and railway station) Ever served by United Counties. I dont think Birch Brothers reached the place either from their Bedford and Hitchin Routes. Thus the new town concept for Stevenage was a Country Area of LT problem of revenue vs quite high costs to serve what was comparative low density housing to the shopping, office and industrial areas planned.
Looking at the roads I cannot see how Poplars could be served much quicker if Chells is the money maker end of things.
To me more obvious for a SB route to be both directions circular taking the southern of the upper roads going north from bus station accross the north part of Chells thence Poplars then down aling either of the two southern bottom roads and back to bus station ( alternative is to take abit more northern route and serve old town too) run it every 10 mins each direction and a Stevenage-Chells service every 20 min ( possibly direct linked to the service out of Stevenage to Hitchin run that every 20 mins and give the two 9 routings a 40 min service each )
JBC Prestatyn
LikeLike
Neither United Counties, or Eastern National (pre May 1952) ran services into Stevenage prior to the 1970s. United Counties introduced a jointly worked 44 service between Luton & Stevenage which was jointly worked by LCBS too and then United Counties introduced infrequent services from the Biggleswade area to Stevenage in the late 1970s, in part due to the success that Charlie Cook had with his Biggleswade-Stotfold-Baldock-Stevenage service introduced in 1974. Cook ran via the A1 whilst United Counties ran via the old A6001 through Henlow and Letchworth. The Birch London route ran south of Hitchin via Codicote to Welwyn Village
After deregulation, United Counties ran several contracted services into Stevenage tendered by Herts County Council, and then from October 1989 they took over Charlie Cook’s service and ran that until mid 2004.
All of these services were fairly infrequent, and prior to deregulation were almost certainly not permitted to carry any local fares within the Stevenage boundary.
LikeLike
Route 44 initially ran on THU-FRI-SAT, and was a Herts CC tendered service. It partially replaced various lost services earlier in the 1970s in the Kimpton area. LCBS ran one (RP) vehicle from Stevenage Garage, UCOC provided one vehicle from Luton Garage.
Birch never ran via Stevenage . . . in their heyday of the 1950s and 1960s, Stevenage wasn’t worth serving, and of course the Green Line 716/716A services had the route well covered . . . and LT wouldn’t have allowed any such re-routing.
I suspect the SB1 too (nice alliteration, that!) is to “test the water” to see if Stevenage might be worth a full-on incursion in the future . . . with Arriva stepping up their game, I’d not be surprised if the SB12 didn’t last long at all. It’s a shame that Stagecoach couldn’t try a wholly new route in Stevenage, but if the SB12 does have a short lifespan, then no harm, no foul.
I was in Bedford recently, and was appalled at the state of the Town Centre . . . many empty shops and others in poor condition. I understand from a Bedford resident that the “Town” PVR is now below 20 buses, from around 50 buses in the 1990s . . . and the Garage is now half empty. If, of course, there is no reason to travel to Bedford now, then it’s no real surprise that bus services are dying off. Maybe Bedford BC need to step up . . . but then again, many Unitaries have no money to spend, and then again, no Transport experts to spend it anyway!!
LikeLike
The free parking policy from Bedford BC (now abandoned), won’t have helped matters…
Dan Tancock
LikeLike
The town centre does seem to have fallen further than many. The High Street names appear to have fled to one of the three out of town retail parks, such as
https://interchangeretailpark.co.uk/stores/
LikeLike
I seem to recall United Counties ran into Stevenage well into the Stagecoach era with, I think, the 191 from Stotfold.
Dan Tancock
LikeLike
The 191 ran from Biggleswade to Stevenage via Stotfold and Baldock. This route was started in 1989 when Stagecoach took over the depot and bus services of Biggleswade operator ‘Charles Cook’. Cook had started his Stevenage service in 1973 initially as a direct express service and then from 1974 as a scheduled bus service. He added stops at Stotfold and Baldock in shortly after. UCOC also attempted some services from the area, infrequent shoppers services numbered 684 and 693 but they were fairly short lived as Biggleswade residents were very loyal to Cooks’ service.
The 191 finished in 2004 along with the interworked 314 service between Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City which UC had run since deregulation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe Arriva should not treat the SB1 (an end to end service) in exactly the same way as they do the SB4/5 (mirror image circulars) whereby in one of their infamous cost-cutting exercises, all of the routes were reduced to a 20 minute headway.
Those on the SB4/5 living in Shephall etc still have 6 buses per hour to town – 3 each on the two routes but the good folk of Chells do not have that luxury and have to put up with just 3 buses per hour (4 in a few weeks).
Maybe Arriva should be seeking to increase all the bus services that they reduced 6 years ago under the guise of Covid and which have remained under resourced ever since.
Maybe Martijn needs to undertake a detailed analysis of everything he has inherited but then again, I guess these issues are replicated nationwide.
arriva-escapee
LikeLike
In years gone past, there were two distinct services after the Poplars Development was built (mid to late 1980s). The SB1 was Bus Station to Hudson Rd terminus, I think on a roughly 15 minute headway. There was an additional SB11 which ran Bus Station – Bedwell Crescent – Chells and terminated at Poplars Sainburys. At some point all SB1’s were extended to Poplars and the Bedwell Crescent section was lost. It seems to me that might have been a more sensible solution to reinstate this variation if Bus Station to Hudson Rd is the lucrative section of route.
LikeLike
As well as the frequency between Bedford, Shefford and Hitchin being halved to hourly, there is now no service at all through Haynes village. Passengers are now obliged to walk to and from Haynes Turn and face the need to cross the busy A600. Raised kerbs were provided at Northwood End and Silver End but to what purpose now? Even bus wars create collateral damage.
LikeLike
The 9B still serves Haynes Village, albeit every two hours to Bedford. The Northwood End stops are listed on the ‘all stops’ timetable on the Intalink website.
LikeLike
it also feels wrong frivolously using fuel in this way, given the current global crisis.
LikeLike
The SB1 is my local bus route. Pre-covid it was every 10 minutes dropping to every 20 minutes after 20:00 witht the last departure from the bus station at 23:30. On Sundays it was a 20 minute frequency with the last bus also at 23:30. The late night buses were popular – I regularly counted loadings of more than 30 on the 23:30 on Fridays.
Covid saw a succession of cuts with a weekday 20 minute schedule becoming the final outcome. Late night buses every 40 minutes and the last bus at 23:15.
I’d rather see a return to the pre-covid timetable.
LikeLike
On the second day of the SB12 route, Stagecoach allocated a double decker, something rarely seen in Stevenage. There was also another on the same day on the 9A!
Martin Hazel
LikeLike
Referring to Haynes Village, Central Bedfordshire Council has placed the following notice in each timetable case: “Bus Service Information: from 31 May 2026 Route 9B will no longer run via Haynes Village. Routes 9A and 9B will serve stops at Haynes Turn and Rowney Warren on the A600. This bus stop will no longer be served, New timetables are available via [three website addresses listed.]”
I hope Intalink website has been corrected,
LikeLike