Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland most bus services are operated by government-owned Translink through their subsidiaries:
Some cross-border services are operated by Bus Éireann.
This is a list of current bus and coach operators of the United Kingdom, including public transport, private hire and tour operators.
Most bus services in the United Kingdom are run by the Big Five, five large groups of companies which emerged in the 1990s from the consolidation of bus companies privatised in the 1980s. These groups are all focused on transport. Some of them also run rail services, express coach services and overseas transport companies.
They are:
A number of large foreign companies have entered the UK bus market, these include:
For a list of the remaining local-government owned bus companies see Municipal bus companies.
In London, a variety of companies run buses under contract to London Buses. They are:
In Northern Ireland most bus services are operated by government-owned Translink through their subsidiaries:
Some cross-border services are operated by Bus Éireann.
UK express coach operators include:
Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. The company also operates transport services including trains abroad: in the Republic of Ireland, United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Germany, Bahrain, and Morocco, and long-distance coach services across Europe.
Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses, express coaches and a tram service in the United Kingdom.
Transdev Blazefield is a bus group, which operates local and regional bus services across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, England. Formed in August 1991, the group has been a subsidiary of French-based operator Transdev since January 2006.
ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited, commonly known as ComfortDelGro, is a Singaporean multinational land transport conglomerate listed on the Singapore Exchange that operates more than 41,600 vehicles across seven countries. It was formed on 29 March 2003 through a merger of Singaporean land transport companies Comfort Group and DelGro Corporation.
Bus deregulation in Great Britain involved the abolition of Road Service Licensing for bus services outside of Greater London. It began in 1980 with long-distance bus services and was extended to local bus services in 1986 under the Transport Act 1985. The abolition of Road Service Licensing removed the public sector's role in fare-setting, routes, and bus frequencies and returned those powers to bus operators.
Trentbarton operates both local and regional bus services in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire, England. It is a subsidiary of the Wellglade Group.
Arriva Midlands is a bus operator providing services in the East Midlands and West Midlands areas of England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus.
Stagecoach Yorkshire is an operating division of Stagecoach Group.
Yorkshire Traction was a bus operator in Yorkshire that operated from 1902 until 2005.
Centrebus Limited, trading as Centrebus, is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland.
Team Pennine operates both local and regional bus services in West Yorkshire, England. It is a subsidiary of Transdev Blazefield, which operates bus services across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
London Country North East was a bus operator in South East England and London. It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986 and operated a fleet of around 350 buses from six garages, with its headquarters located in Hatfield.
Julian Peddle is an entrepreneur who has worked in the bus industry since the early 1980s, having owned or part-owned numerous bus companies. He spent 11 years as co-owner of Stevensons of Uttoxeter between 1983 and 1994, having previously been its traffic manager. During the late 1990s and early 2000s he ran Status Group, a group of small bus companies spread across England which included BakerBus, Choice Travel and MK Metro. He was a major shareholder in Tellings-Golden Miller and Centrebus Holdings before their sale to Arriva.
The Wellglade Group (WG), is a transport group operating bus and tram services in the English Midlands.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC, also marketed as the Alexander Dennis Enviro200, is a single-decker city bus produced by Alexander Dennis since 2014 as the successor to the Enviro200 midibus and Enviro300 full-size bus. The first Enviro200 MMCs entered service with National Express West Midlands in 2015. Notably, Enviro200 MMCs have been modified by Fusion Processing to be used as the basis for the first driverless bus trials in the United Kingdom.
Arriva UK Bus is a major bus operator in the United Kingdom based in Sunderland, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva which runs transport services across Europe, which was a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn from 2010. As of 2024 Arriva will be owned by I Squared Capital.
The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC is a low-floor double-decker bus produced by the British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis since 2014, replacing the Alexander Dennis Enviro400. The Enviro400 MMC is produced at Alexander Dennis' Falkirk and Scarborough factories in the United Kingdom.
Centrebus Group, is a public transport company based in Leicester with bus services in the Midlands, North West and South East of England.