Another Buckinghamshire bus battle

Tuesday 23rd June 2026

It’s Tuesday so that means yet another blog about a further outbreak of competition between bus companies which began at the beginning of this month.

Early June has not only seen Arriva move to outwit First Bus in Southend-on-Sea, Stagecoach tread on Arriva’s toes in Stevenage and Stagecoach hit back at Preston Bus in Preston but the town of Aylesbury has seen renewed competitive action between Red Rose Travel and Arriva on the bus route to Buckingham.

Blog reader John kindly set out the recent history of what’s known as the Red Group’s relentless expansion and domination in this part of the country in a comment on last month’s Seen Around round up blog.

In case readers missed it, here’s a summary and potted history for which I’m grateful to John for providing all the details as so much has happened in the last couple of years it’s easy to forget.

John reminded readers Arriva renumbered and rebranded its five remaining inter-urban routes centred on Aylesbury in January 2024 as ‘connexions’ (remember that?) but just five months later in an about turn it closed its Aylesbury depot and withdrew from two of the routes leaving just three Arriva routes into the town from the surrounding area: the X4 and X6 from Milton Keynes (X4 via Leighton Buzzard and X6 via Buckingham) and X5 from Hemel Hempstead.

In May 2025 Red Eagle registered a competitive route 500 (the former X5’s route number) albeit only hourly and not via Aston Clinton village and within four weeks Arriva had withdrawn the X5 completely. This rather caught Red Eagle on the hop as they had to put more buses and drivers into the service than intended to keep a 30 minute frequency over most of the route otherwise capacity would have been inadequate at times (Red Eagle only have single decks).

Competition began on one of the two Milton Keynes routes the following month, June 2025. Arriva’s route X4 (formerly numbered 150) runs via Leighton Buzzard and Red Rose introduced a competitive route, not surprisingly numbered 150, although this was only every two hours Mondays to Saturdays. It follows a more direct route in Leighton Buzzard than the X4 under a low railway bridge in Linslade thereby serving a slightly different part of the town and now terminates just north of Leighton Buzzard in a village called Heath and Reach.

Arriva’s next move came in August 2025 when it withdrew the section of route X4 between Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes and changed the route in Linslade to be nearer the 150 (but avoiding the low bridge). Arriva also hit back with a new X14 which ran during Monday to Friday peaks between Aylesbury and Milton Keynes but via the Linslade by-pass and not serving Leighton Buzzard. That’s the same route as the longer established Red Rose hourly route 100 (hourly Aylesbury to Milton Keynes direct) which was always significantly faster than the X4.

Now we fast forward to May 2026 when Central Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire Councils began financially supporting a new hourly extension of the X4 from Leighton Buzzard to Luton Airport via Dunstable the Busway and Luton Interchange including a new Sunday service.

The peak X14 remains but has now gained a regular daytime service at the Milton Keynes end to an expanding estate near Bletchley whilst a new X15 school journey appears covering the old X4 route from Milton Keynes via Leighton Buzzard to Aylesbury – just one journey each way on Mondays to Fridays.

So far these changes have drawn no response by Red Rose to its routes 100 or 150. But, instead that company has turned its attention to the X6.

Arriva’s route X6 (Aylesbury to Milton Keynes via Winslow and Buckingham) has previously escaped competition but this situation has now dramatically changed.

Route X6 follows the main A413 road through Winslow to Buckingham but Buckinghamshire Council funds a two-hourly service via the villages off the line of route as route 60/A between Aylesbury and Buckingham currently operated by Z&S Transport on Mondays to Saturdays and three journeys on Sundays by Red Rose.

In November 2025, using BSIP funding, Buckinghamshire Council also contracted Red Rose to run an hourly evening service between Aylesbury and Buckingham numbered X60 following the same route as the daytime X6 as far as Buckingham (which doesn’t run evenings and Sundays) as well as an enhanced Sunday timetable with X60’s timetabled in between journeys on route 60.

But the new competitive development, from 8th June, has now seen Red Rose introduce a commercially operated hourly route numbered X60 during the day between Aylesbury and Buckingham in direct competition with the X6, and even more aggressively, journeys are timetabled to leave Aylesbury bus station at 05 minutes past each hour – the same time as Arriva’s route X6 with southbound journeys from Buckingham timetabled to depart at 00 – eight minutes ahead of the X6 at 08.

I paid a visit to Aylesbury last Wednesday to see how this latest competitive situation was panning out after the first 10 days.

I planned to catch either of the departures at 12:05 and saw both the X6 and X60 arrive into Aylesbury bus station from their previous journeys from Buckingham with five passengers alighting from the X6 and three from the X60. Arriva’s X6 is scheduled to use Bay 10 while Red Rose’s X60 uses Bay 6 so they’re not adjacent as I experienced in Preston bus station as described last week.

At just before 12:05 I noted the X60 had two passengers on board on Bay 6 and nipped up to Bay 10 to catch Arriva’s departure as that was a double deck which had five on board and had to use Bay 11 due to a Red Eagle bus blocking Bay 10. At dead on 12:05 the driver pulled back and I noticed the X6 still on the stand with its two passengers as we passed by.

At the first stop in Aylesbury town centre we picked up one more passenger but as we did so, inevitably the X60, which had also left the bus station just behind us, overtook and that was the last we saw of it as we got caught at a couple of sets of traffic lights and the Red Rose bus must have got a green light at both as looking at the tracking was consistently in front beyond sight.

We passed a southbound X6 with a handful of passengers on board, and I noted the southbound Red Rose bus which should have been eight minutes ahead of it wasn’t running.

Meanwhile our difficulty was being an underpowered 17 year old Envrio400 meaning any slight incline we met on the A413 caused the bus speed to drop right down to an embarrassing crawl.

Unsurprisingly with the X60 somewhere ahead of us there were no passengers to pick up as we passed through Whitchurch and Winslow but two of our contingent of six alighted in the latter and as we entered Buckingham another alighted at the large Tesco on the outskirts of the town where two boarded and two more boarded at the next couple of stops, possibly going beyond Buckingham and even to Milton Keynes, with two alighting.

As we arrived at the High Street stop in Buckingham there was the X60 waiting its time for the return to Aylesbury as we pulled up at the same stop which is used for journeys in both directions and around half a dozen passengers boarded bound for Milton Keynes.

This stop is served by Stagecoach’s X5 which also links Buckingham with Milton Keynes having come from Oxford meaning the X6 now faces competition on both halves of the route.

I had a chat with the Arriva driver about the bus and he said he was going to report its poor performance and I also wonder when it’s checked out whether its general condition will be improved as it didn’t exactly convey a safe and reassuring image.

All the more so in contrast with the new ’26’ plate Enviro200 Red Rose was using on the X60.

I hopped aboard for the departure at 13:00 (the X6 comes through at 13:08) back to Buckingham and we left on time with three passengers and two more joining at the next stop for the short ride to Tesco. One alighted in Padbury and we gained one in Winslow before which we passed the competitive situation heading north with Red Rose’s second bus on the X60 route (now back on the road, it would seem) travelling just in front of Arriva’s X6 and both with just three or four on board.

We arrived into Aylesbury bus station with three of the four remaining passengers alighting (the fourth had got off at the previous stop) and I waited to see how many the X6 would have on when it arrived – it was also three.

Before leaving I waited to see how many passengers would be on the 14:05 departures and coincidentally both left with three on board, with the X60 in front again.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out there’s not enough passengers for two operators on this corridor (notwithstanding there’s a third operator running via the villages) and it makes no sense to chase each other along the A413. One is going to have to back down.

Will it be the ever expanding Red Rose, or the newly invigorated Arriva? Time will tell.

Roger French

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