Yet another skirmish in the Home Counties

Tuesday 1st September 2026

Yes; it’s another one.

There’s an increasing contrast when it comes to bus provision in certain areas of Britain. The next round of franchised bus routes is about to be rolled out from next weekend in Liverpool City Region with more to follow in the former Metropolitan conurbations in the coming months and years, while down in the Home Counties we seem to be witnessing one minor competitive skirmish after another and not even over prime bus operating territory. Perhaps those operators involved are trying to rekindle the spirit of deregulation as its 40th anniversary fast approaches. My advice – forget it.

This time it’s Harlow under the competitive spotlight. The town’s bus network has suffered considerable turmoil over the years with a myriad of operators coming and going (including some of dubious quality), but in recent years stability and a better quality of service returned not least following the sale of Central Connect to Vectare (later remained Transport Made Simple) and of course throughout the decades Arriva has plodded on notwithstanding numerous management restructurings and more recent ownership changes but the company does boast occupying one of the two surviving former London Transport Country Bus garages in the town, perhaps confirming a degree of durability whatever is thrown at it in this part of the world.

Things changed again at the end of July when a raft of service alterations were introduced partly in association with new tender awards from Essex County Council impacting Central Connect as well as Stephensons. As part of these, (and as I found over in Aylesbury with the ‘Red Group’ in June), it’s Arriva that’s the target with Central Connect introducing blatant like for like competition on part of Harlow’s town network.

In particular the Church Langley residential area is now seeing a venerable bus battle that would delight the late Nicholas Ridley MP and his colleague original architects of deregulation 40 years ago.

Church Langley is served by one of those Arriva routes (numbered 10) which has a reduced timetable during school holidays as well as on Saturdays – buses running every 30 minutes instead of a school term 20 minute frequency. So guess what? This summer holiday just ended has seen Central Connect step in with a replica service (numbered 23) running every 15 minutes during the daytime giving residents an unprecedented frequency increase to enjoy, especially now schools are returning meaning we’re up to seven buses an hour. Central Connect had been running route 23 as an evening and Sunday tendered service but now that’s been expanded on a commercial basis to an all day affair against Arriva. Additionally both Arriva’s 10 and Central Connect’s 23 include extended journeys to and from Harlow Town railway station at peak times.

Central Connect buses rake a slightly shorter route into and out of the bus station (see map below) while in Church Langley itself both routes follow a one way circuit to best serve the housing area. A bus station and back to bus station full clockwise circuit can be completed in 25 minutes.

Central Connect has therefore dedicated two buses to its 15 minute frequency while Arriva interworks the service with other local routes after each trip although it could be operated with just one bus.

I spent a bit of time travelling around the route on both Arriva and Central Connect’s buses on Monday last week and it was a classic case of whichever bus came first passengers jumped aboard with one journey from the bus station (above photo) seeing Arriva first on the stop and Central Connect going round it with no-one on and another journey (below photo) seeing Central Connect arrive first and Arriva pull up behind with no takers.

The only person I saw hold back to wait for an Arriva bus running immediately behind a Central Connect bus was coming back into town from Church Langley where I’m guessing the gentleman wanted to alight at the Water Gardens. This shopping area is served only by Arriva’s route 10 as shown on the above map.

I’m a bit surprised Central Connect hasn’t followed the same route in the town centre as an Arriva journey heading out of town picked up three passengers there giving us nine in total – the most I saw on a journey.

Indeed, numbers travelling late morning were mostly in the low single figures on both operators’ buses. Not enough for viability in my judgement.

I was pleased to see Central Connect had a printed timetable leaflet available to pick up on one of the two buses on the route when I travelled, although they were spewed all over the luggage rack over the nearside front wheel as there was no leaflet holder. But I did notice a young teenager alighting pick one up and called back to her mate still on the bus to do the same when she alighted – not something you associate with the younger generation.

I also had a look at the residential area of Little Parndon which is even closer to the town centre and involves another clockwise route arrangement that’s also being contested like for like (of sorts).

But here Arriva is definitely the minor operator running just five circuits during the off-peak as an hourly route 6 which takes 17 minutes to do a full circuit…

… with Central Connect’s equivalent route 26 also running hourly but over a longer period of the day with eight journeys as well as an evening journey. During the off-peak journeys are spaced 16 minutes apart between the two routes with buses on the 6 leaving the bus station at 09 minutes past the hour followed by the 26 at 25 minutes past the hour.

The town’s Princess Alexandra Hospital is on the circuit close to the town centre which is also served by Stephenson’s recently won tender (from Central Connect) hourly route 417 which runs across to Old Harlow…

… and a rather odd route operated by Central Connect – route 27 – which performs quite a complex circuit of the town on a 90 minute frequency.

I travelled on both the 6, 26 and part of the 27 to see how many passengers were benefitting from these initiatives and sadly it was the same old story with two passengers on the 26, five on the 6 and none on the 27.

Another thing I noticed was the coincidental similarity of the moquette used by Arriva on its E200 buses…

… and that used by Central Connect on its E200 buses. I forgot at one point which operator I was travelling with! I suspect many passengers “not in the know” might also mistake the similar coloured liveries and maybe don’t even realise there are two competing companies.

One often hears how the withdrawal of bus routes leaves passengers stranded. Here it’s the opposite problem. A lack of passengers leaving buses underwhelmed.

Roger French

My thanks to blog reader Michael for passing on the background information about this situation in Harlow.

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