Municipal bus company

A municipal bus company is an operator of bus services owned by the local government authority. This article lists all current municipal bus companies in the United Kingdom.

Most municipal bus companies disappeared between 1968 and 1974 before (or with) the formation of PTE bus operations.

Of the remaining municipal operators, post-1986 many were sold off or collapsed in the process of bus deregulation, which required their separation into stand-alone arms-length companies. A few remaining companies have accepted minority-stake holdings in their companies by private bus operating companies, as a method of securing investment.

List of operating municipal bus companies

Local authorities	Company	Routes	Number of vehicles	Private shareholdings
Aberdeenshire Council	Aberdeenshire Council Buses	Operates route 212 (Tarland to Torphins)
Beaminster Town Council	Beaminster Town Council Buses	Operates route CB3 (Bridport to Crewkerne)		None
Blackpool Borough Council	Blackpool Transport	Operates local bus services throughout Blackpool and surrounding areas	158 buses and 75 trams (September 2013) [1]	None
Caerphilly County Borough Council	Caerphilly County Borough Council Buses	Operates routes 15 (Cefn Glas to Blackwood), C1 (Nelson Town Service), J (Caerphilly to Rudry), and L (Caerphilly to Nantddu)		None
Cardiff City Council	Cardiff Bus	Operates local bus services throughout Cardiff and surrounding areas	240	None
City of Edinburgh Council (91%), East Lothian Council (3%), Midlothian Council (3%), West Lothian Council (3%)	Lothian Buses	Operates local bus services throughout Edinburgh as well as longer distance bus routes to the surrounding areas (branded as East Coast Buses for services to the east of Edinburgh and Lothian Country Buses for services to the west of Edinburgh)	721 buses and 27 trams (December 2012) [2]	None
Cogenhoe & Whiston Parish Council	Cogenhoe & Whiston Parish Council Buses	Operates route VH1 (Northampton to Wollaston)		None
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar	Bus Na Comhairle	Operates routes W5 (Stornoway to Point) and W5A (Stornoway to Tolsta) and W7 (Stornoway town service)	7	None
Denbighshire County Council	Denbighshire Council Buses	Operates local bus services throughout Denbighshire and surrounding areas		None
Dumfries and Galloway Council	DGC Buses	Operates local bus services throughout Dumfries and surrounding areas	77 (August 2025) [3]	None
Highland Council	Highland Council Buses	Operates local bus services around Inverness and surrounding areas
Ipswich Borough Council	Ipswich Buses	Operates local bus services throughout Ipswich and surrounding areas	76 (September 2013) [4]	None
Monmouthshire County Council	Monmouthshire County Council Buses	Operates one journey a day in each direction on route 65 (Monmouth to Chepstow)		None
Moray Council	Moray Council Buses	Operates various local bus routes around the Elgin and Keith areas		None
Newport City Council	Newport Bus	Operates local bus services throughout Newport and surrounding areas	90	None
North Lincolnshire Council	North Lincolnshire Council Buses	Operates routes 96 (Barton to Brigg) and 97 (Sandtoft to Garthorpe) and 97A (Sandtoft to Crowle)
North Yorkshire Council	North Yorkshire Council Buses	Operates many local rural bus routes around the Skipton area		None
Northern Ireland	Translink	Operates entire Northern Ireland bus network		None
Nottingham City Council	Nottingham City Transport	Operates local bus services throughout Nottingham and surrounding areas	315 (November 2019) [5]	18% owned by Transdev [6]
Nottinghamshire County Council	Notts Bus	Operates many local bus routes in towns and rural areas throughout Nottinghamshire		None
Oxfordshire County Council	Oxfordshire County Council Buses	Operates many local bus routes throughout Oxfordshire
Pembrokeshire County Council	Pembrokeshire County Council Buses	Operates many local bus routes throughout Pembrokeshire		None
Reading Borough Council	Reading Buses	Operates local bus services throughout Reading and surrounding areas, as well as local buses around Slough, Bracknell and Maidenhead (branded as Thames Valley Buses), local buses around Newbury (branded as Newbury & District), express services to London (branded as Greenline), contracts for Green Park Business Park (branded as Greenwave) and private contracts for Vodafone	165 (May 2013) [7]	None
Scottish Borders Council	Scottish Borders Council Buses	Operates the Hawick town services and other local bus routes around the Galashiels and Hawick areas		None
Somerset Council	Somerset Council Buses	Operates local bus service throughout Somerset and surrounding areas		None
Stirling Council	Stirling Council Buses	Operates route C60 (Callander to Killin)
Warrington Borough Council	Warrington's Own Buses	Operates local bus services throughout Warrington and surrounding areas	102 (March 2017) [8]	None
West Berkshire Council	West Berkshire Council Buses	Operates local bus services throughout West Berkshire and surrounding areas		None

See also

• Bus Vannin a municipal bus operator fully owned by the Isle of Man Government
• East Thames Buses established and owned by Transport for London after deregulation
• Former municipal bus companies of the United Kingdom
• History of the PTE bus operations
• List of bus operating companies
• List of bus companies of the United Kingdom
• London Buses a municipal body owned by Transport for London that regulates bus services operated by private companies
• Uno Bus a bus company fully owned by the University of Hertfordshire
• Wightbus established and owned by the Isle of Wight Council after deregulation

References

1. Blackpool North West Buses
2. Annual Report 2012 Lothian Buses
3. Three new Solos for DGC Buses Archived 2013-11-04 at the Wayback Machine busandcoach.com 15 February 2010
4. Ipswich Buses Fleetlist Ipswich Bus Page
5. Our Fleet Nottingham City Transport Fleet Page
6. Final Statement of Accounts 2012/13 Nottingham City Council 2 October 2013
7. Fleet List Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine Reading Transport May 2013
8. Network Warrington Fleet List Network Warrington 10 March 2017