Carousel and Redline will replace Arriva bus routes in Wycombe, Aylesbury and other areas from next week, Buckinghamshire Council has confirmed.

The bus companies have stepped in after Arriva cancelled multiple services and announced that its depots in Aylesbury and High Wycombe would close on July 27.

The news that Carousel and Redline have replaced the cancelled services was confirmed by the council’s cabinet member for transport Steve Broadbent this week.

He told Wednesday’s council meeting: “All services that are currently operated by Arriva on the High Wycombe town network will be replaced by the new Carousel bus services effective from Sunday, July 28.”

Carousel has renumbered the bus routes it is taking over from Arriva, so the list of replacement services is as follows:

  • 2 High Wycombe – Booker becomes 32, 32A
  • 3 High Wycombe – Desborough Castle becomes 33
  • 5A High Wycombe – Flackwell Heath – Wooburn Green – Bourne End becomes 36S
  • 6 High Wycombe – Flackwell Heath – Bourne End becomes 36
  • 6A Penn – High Wycombe – Flackwell Heath – Bourne End becomes 31S
  • 7 High Wycombe – Wooburn Green – Bourne End – Maidenhead becomes 37
  • 7A High Wycombe – Wooburn Green – Bourne End becomes 37S
  • 10 High Wycombe – Downley becomes 30
  • 11 High Wycombe – Penn becomes 31
  • 12 High Wycombe – Micklefield becomes 32 32A
  • 13 High Wycombe – Totteridge becomes 33

The former Arriva 800, 850 and X80 services have also been taken over Carousel, but their numbers and routes will remain the same.

Full details of Carousel and Redline’s takeover are on their websites and that of the council.

Carousel has also expanded its depot facilities to accommodate 40 vehicles, meaning an ‘improvement’ in the ‘age profile’ of buses in the town.

The bus firm has also rolled out its ‘FreeFlow’ payment system allowing commuters to ‘tap on and tap off’ to all services, meaning that most buses in High Wycombe will now run on pay-as-you-go technology.

Carousel is also changing which bays buses depart from at the High Wycombe bus station beside the Eden Centre.

The council said it was working with the company to return some bus routes to a higher level of service after they were reduced by Arriva over the last 12 months.

From July 28, the former Arriva Aylesbury services, X7, X9 and X90 will be taken over by Redline, which will replace these routes with revised versions of its own services.

This will see a half-hourly service retained between Naphill and Walters Ash and Aylesbury and High Wycombe, and include an hourly Sunday service, as well as an equivalent half-hourly service via Bradenham.

Redline is also changing its X20 service, so that buses on this route will run every 15 minutes on weekdays from Aylesbury to Thame and Oxford, while there will be a half-hourly Saturday and Sunday service.

Redline has invested in a fleet of six new single-decker and 10 double-decker buses to ensure adequate capacity.

Cllr Broadbent told the meeting: “Importantly, the Arriva services, the X4, the X5, the X6, that serve from the Aylesbury area to Milton Keynes are not impacted and will continue to be operated by Arriva.”

He thanked transport body, England’s Economic Heartland, as well as Carousel, Redline, the council’s property team and transport consultants for their help in retaining bus services.

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