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[[Image:First B&TV 60163 on 194.JPG|right|thumb|350px|A First Berkshire & The Thames Valley [[Scania L94]]UB/[[Wright Axcess-Floline]] in [[Camberley]] on route 194.]]
whoever does read about this stuff is lame!<nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here</nowiki>
[[Image:First B&TV ES64037.JPG|right|thumb|A First [[Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro|Mercedes-Benz Citaro]] in the blue "Heathrow 7 Series" livery, at a [[London Bus Preservation Trust|LBPT]] bus rally.]]

'''First Berkshire & The Thames Valley''' is a bus operator serving [[Bracknell]], [[Slough]] and [[Wokingham]], in [[England]]. It is part of [[First Group]], a major bus and train operator with a turnover of nearly £2.5 billion a year and 62,000 employees across the UK and North America. The division operates around 120 vehicles and employs 300 staff.

== History ==
First Berkshire & The Thames Valley was previously the Berks Bucks Bus Company<ref>[http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk Companies House webcheck] Company number 2179403</ref>, trading as the Beeline, one of the successor companies to [[Alder Valley]], privatised in 1987. The business originally operated in High Wycombe, Reading and Newbury, as well as its current area, and was owned by a group called Q-Drive. In 1990 the High Wycombe operations were sold to the [[Oxford Bus Company]], and in 1992 the Reading and Newbury operations were purchased by [[Reading Transport Ltd|Reading Transport]] - which still operates them.

In 1993 Beeline bought the Slough operations of [[Arriva Shires & Essex|Luton & District Transport]], until 1986 the Slough depot of [[London Country Bus Services]].

Beeline was sold in 1999 to First, who renamed the company First Beeline Buses Ltd.<ref>[http://www.buszone.co.uk/FBeeline.html Bus Zone - "First Beeline and Berkshire & The Thames Valley"] Accessed 30 April 2008</ref>

[[First Group]] took the decision to corporately brand their services in 2001/2, and First Beeline took the trading name of First Berkshire & The Thames Valley.<ref>[http://www.buszone.co.uk/FBeeline.html Bus Zone - "First Beeline and Berkshire & The Thames Valley"] Accessed 30 April 2008</ref>

==Fleet summary==
The company operates the following bus types:
*[[Volvo Olympian]]
*[[Volvo B9TL]]
*[[Dennis Dart SLF]]
*Scania L113
*[[Scania L94]]
*[[Mercedes-Benz Citaro]]

== Services ==
The company currently operate just under 30 services, currently operating most of the town services in Bracknell, Slough and Wokingham, as well as services to surrounding areas such as [[London Heathrow Airport|Heathrow Airport]], [[High Wycombe]] and [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]].

As well as normal First branded services, there are five specially branded groups of routes. Some routes to Heathrow Airport are run with blue "Heathrow 7 Series" [[Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro|Mercedes-Benz Citaro]]s. Some of these are newer (2007) buses, some are from 2003 which were originally in a silver livery in a standard BAA template, all are now blue. Similarly, some routes in Slough are branded as "Slough Trading Estate Hoppa", and use red liveried [[Optare Solo]]s (these were previous purple and branded as "Linx"). The Legoland Shuttle is run with yellow buses in Legoland graphics.

Coach services are also run under different brands. The Reading to Heathrow [[RailAir]] service uses "RailAir" branded services, and [[Green Line routes 700, 701 and 702|routes 700, 701 and 702]] use [[Green Line Coaches|Green Line]] liveried vehicles.<ref>[http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/southeast/berkshirethames/timetables/index.php First Berkshire & The Thames Valley - Timetables] Accessed 30 april 2008</ref>

=== Standard routes ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Number
!Route
!Other notes
|-
|rowspan="2"|<center>'''1A/1B'''</center>
|Slough - Slough Trading Estate - Burnham - Priory Estate
|A Slough Trading Estate Hoppa service
|-
|Slough - Slough Trading Estate - Britwell
|A Slough Trading Estate Hoppa service
|-
!|2
|Slough - Slough Trading Estate - Burnham - Whittaker Road - Priory Estate
|A Slough Trading Estate Hoppa service
|-
!|3
|Wexham Park Hospital - Upton Lea - Manor Park - Slough Trading Estate
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|<center>'''8/8A'''</center>
|Wexham Park Hospital - Slough - Chalvey - Cippenham
|
|-
|Slough - Chalvey - Cippenham
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|<center>'''53/153'''</center>
|Binfield - Priestwood - Bracknell - Warfield - Maidenhead - Wexham Park Hospital
|
|-
|Binfield - Priestwood - Bracknell - Warfield Tesco
|
|-
!|53A
|Bracknell - Winkfield/Maidenhead
|
|-
!|58
|Burnham - Britwell - Slough - Langley - Uxbridge
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|<center>'''60/61'''</center>
|Eton Wick - Eton - Slough - Datchet - Wraysbury - Heathrow Terminal 5
|
|-
|Langley - Eton Wick - Eton - Slough - Datchet - Wraysbury - Heathrow Terminal 5
|
|-
!|62
|Brands Hill - Datchet
|
|-
!|65
|Slough - Goldsworthy Way
|
|-
!|71
|Slough - Windsor - Egham - Staines - Heathrow Terminal 5
|A Heathrow 7 Series service, replacing routes 41/43
|-
!|74
|High Wycombe - Beaconsfield - Slough
|Run in competition with [[Arriva Shires & Essex]]'s parallel route 74
|-
|rowspan="2"|<center>'''75/76'''</center>
|Maidenhead - Slough - Langley - Heathrow Airport Central bus station
|A Heathrow 7 Series service
|-
|Cippenham - Slough - Langley - Heathrow Airport Central bus station
|A Heathrow 7 Series service
|-
!|77
|Slough - Windsor - Heathrow Terminal 5
|A Heathrow 7 Series local service
|-
!|78
|Britwell/Burnham - Slough - Langley - Heathrow Airport Terminal 5
|A Heathrow 7 Series service
|-
!|154
|Bracknell - Bullbrook - Bracknell
|
|-
!|155
|Bracknell - Harmanswater - Forest Park - Crown Wood - Harmanswater - Bracknell
|A Bracknell town service
|-
|rowspan="2"|<center>'''158/159'''</center>
|Bracknell - Crown Wood - Birch Hill - Great Hollands - Easthamstead - Bracknell
|A Bracknell town service
|-
|Bracknell - Easthamstead - Great Hollands - Birch Hill - Crown Wood - Bracknell
|A Bracknell town service
|-
!|162
|Bracknell - Winkfield Row - Ascot
|A Bracknell town service
|-
!|190
|Reading - Wokingham - Norreys Estate - Bean Oak - John Nike Lesiure Centre - Bracknell
|
|-
!|191
|Bracknell - Ascot - Windsor - Slough
|
|-
!|192
|Bracknell - Charters School
|School service
|-
!|194
|Bracknell - Crowthorne - Sandhurst - Camberley
|
|-
!|200
|Windsor railway station - Windor town centre - Legoland
|Run for [[Legoland Windsor]], using specially liveried yellow buses.
|-
!|335
|Slough Bus Station - Wexham Park Hospital - Gerrards Cross - Chalfont St Peter - Newland Park College
|
|-
!|501
|MCI - Madejski statdium - Reading town centre
|A [[Park and ride]] service
|-
!|[[Green Line routes 700, 701 and 702|Green Line 700/701/702]]
|Bracknell, Ascot, Windsor, Slough, London Victoria
|A [[Green Line Coaches]] service
|-
!|X25
|Reading railway station - Heathrow Airport
|A [[RailAir]] service
|}

=== Other services ===
[[Image:First Berkshire & The Thames Valley DME43920.JPG|thumb|right|A Ride Pegasus! bus.]]
[[Image:First B&TV SC23010.JPG|thumb|right|A coach on the X25 [[RailAir]] service.]]
First Berkshire & The Thames Valley operate two school buses schemes. One uses American-style school buses, running around [[Runnymede]], from an outstation in [[Chertsey]]; the other is [[Ride Pegasus!]], the larger scheme, run under contract to Surrey Country Council. This is run from an outstation in [[Merrow]], [[Guildford]]. A number of routes are operated, as well as some non-school "Access Bus" service, primarily for senior citizens.<ref>[http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/southeast/berkshirethames/about/index.php First Berkshire & The Thames Valley - "About us"] Accessed 30 April 2008</ref><ref>[http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Accessbus+services+operated+by+Ride+Pegasus?opendocument Surrey County Council - Access Buses] Accessed 10 May 2008</ref>

== See also==
* [[List of bus operators of the United Kingdom]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{commons-inline|Category:First Berkshire & The Thames Valley}}
*[http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/southeast/berkshirethames/home/index.php First Berkshire & The Thames Valley website]
*[http://www.firstgroup.com First Group website]


{{FirstGroup}}
{{Bus companies in South East England}}

[[Category:First Group bus operators in England]]
[[Category:Transport in Berkshire]]

Revision as of 04:34, 3 March 2009

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