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| Founded | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Defunct | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Lycrome Road, Lye Green, Chesham [1] |
| Service type | Buses, Coaches |
Woottens Luxury Travel was a coach operating company based in Buckinghamshire, England. It was formed in 1999 by Michael Wootten, and between 2008 and 2011 operated local bus services under the name Tiger Line. The company became part of the Bowen Travel Group in 2011, and closed down after Bowen entered administration in 2012.
Woottens Luxury Travel was founded in April 1999 by father and son Nick and Michael Wootten with two coaches and a small depot in Princes Risborough. School contracts for both Oxfordshire County Council and Buckinghamshire County Council were won in the first year, and in August 1999 the company moved to a purpose-built depot in Lye Green, near Chesham. [2]
In April 2007 the operations of Westways of High Wycombe, an operator established since 1990, were acquired, increasing the amount of day trip and brochure holiday work dramatically. Also in 2007, the company was shortlisted for the Route One Coach Operator of the Year award. The Tiger Line commercial bus operation was launched in July 2008. [2] [3]
A 75% stake in Woottens was acquired by the Bowen Travel Group in June 2011. [4] Bowen Travel Group entered administration in October 2012 due to cashflow issues, [5] and Woottens ceased operation. [6]
In July 2008 a new commercial bus route between Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead was launched by Woottens. [1] The name Tiger Line was chosen for this service as the route, numbered T1, was operated with Leyland Tiger single-deck buses. [2] It initially operated hourly, with a two-hourly Saturday service operating as far as Bovingdon. [7] [8] The route provided new links from Chesham and Great Missenden to Stoke Mandeville Hospital and received praise from Buckinghamshire County Council's cabinet member for transport, Valerie Letheren. [9] The route also serves the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. [10] An extra early morning and late evening service was added from January 2009. [11]
In April 2009 the county council contract for routes 106 and 321 (High Wycombe - Princes Risborough) was won under the Tiger Line name, and was later supplemented by a commercial service, T3, operating over a similar route. These routes used Leyland Olympians and were the first regular routes to use double-deckers. [2] In August 2009 a new route T2 was introduced between Watford and Hemel Hempstead, with one journey in each direction extending to Chesham in an attempt to win commuter traffic. [12] This service operated in direct competition with an existing service operated by Arriva the Shires. [13] The T1 was reduced in frequency at the same time. The T2 was improved to operate half hourly from January 2010. [14]
Further changes came in May 2010, with the T1 cut back to terminate at Whelpley Hill and no longer serve Bovingdon and Hemel Hempstead. Two weeks later the T2 was improved once again to include an extra peak journey to Chesham. [15]
In September 2009 a promotion was run with local radio station Mix 96 to name the Tiger Line mascot; the winning entry was read out on Mix's breakfast show. [16] The name chosen was Roary the Tiger. [17] New route T5, linking Amersham and Chesham to St Albans and Hatfield, was introduced in August 2010, but withdrawn in May 2011. The company's remaining services, including its school bus routes, were withdrawn in December 2011. [15]
Buckinghamshire, abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east and Hertfordshire to the east.
Chesham is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is 11 miles (18 km) south-east of the county town of Aylesbury and 25.8 miles (41.5 km) north-west of Charing Cross, central London, and is part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley and surrounded by farmland. The earliest records of Chesham as a settlement are from the second half of the 10th century, although there is archaeological evidence of people in this area from around 8000 BC. Henry III granted the town a royal charter for a weekly market in 1257.
The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England.
Great Missenden is an affluent village with approximately 2,000 residents in the Misbourne Valley in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England, situated between the towns of Amersham and Wendover, with direct rail connections to London Marylebone. It closely adjoins the village of Little Kingshill, and is a mile from Little Missenden and the larger village Prestwood. The narrow and historic High Street is bypassed by the main A413 London to Aylesbury Road. It is located in the heart of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The source of the Misbourne is to be found just north of the village, although the upper reach of the river runs only in winter and the perennial head is in Little Missenden. The village is now best known as home to the late Roald Dahl, the world-famous Adult and Children's author.
Holmer Green is a village in the civil parish of Little Missenden, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is next to Hazlemere, about 3 miles (5 km) south of Great Missenden.
Prestwood is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about two miles west of Great Missenden and six miles north of High Wycombe.
Aylesbury is a constituency created in 1553 — created as a single-member seat in 1885 — represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since 2019 by Rob Butler of the Conservative Party.
Chesham and Amersham is a parliamentary constituency located in the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire in South East England. It is represented in the House of Commons by Sarah Green, a Liberal Democrat, who was elected in a by-election in June 2021.
Aylesbury railway station is a railway station in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, on the London–Aylesbury line from London Marylebone via Amersham. It is 38 miles (61 km) from Aylesbury to Marylebone. A branch line from Princes Risborough on the Chiltern Main Line terminates at the station. It was the terminus for London Underground's Metropolitan line until the service was cut back to Amersham in 1961. The station was also known as Aylesbury Town under the management of British Railways from c. 1948 until the 1960s.
Arriva Shires & Essex is a bus operator providing services in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire, with services extending to Oxfordshire and Greater London. Until 2002 its operations included Colchester. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus.
The Aylesbury–Princes Risborough line is a rural branch line between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. The line is single track throughout with a maximum speed of 40 mph.
Great Missenden railway station serves the village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, England and the neighbouring villages of Prestwood, Little Hampden and Little Missenden. The station lies on the London Marylebone - Aylesbury line and is served by Chiltern Railways trains. It is between Amersham and Wendover stations.
The HP postcode area, also known as the Hemel Hempstead postcode area, is a group of twenty-four postcode districts in England, within eleven post towns. These cover north-west Hertfordshire and central Buckinghamshire.
The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between Maidenhead and Oxford that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to Aylesbury.
The A4010 is an important primary north–south road in Buckinghamshire, Southern England. It runs from High Wycombe at Junction 4 of the M40 motorway to Stoke Mandeville, near Aylesbury on the A413.
Carousel Buses is a bus company based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Originally an independent company, it is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group. It is grouped together with Oxford Bus Company and Thames Travel, both of Oxfordshire, with the fleets of each operator regularly interchanged.
London Country North West 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 360 buses from five garages, with its headquarters located in Garston.
National Cycle Route 57 is part of the United Kingdom's National Cycle Network. When complete, it will run west to east from Farmington, Gloucestershire near Northleach to Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire.
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