Uno (bus company)

Uno (bus company)

Scania OmniDekka UL55 UNO, on route 614.
Slogan	'the university bus for everyone'
Parent	University of Hertfordshire
Founded	Various
Headquarters	Hatfield Business Park
Locale	Hertfordshire, London Borough of Barnet, London Borough of Brent, Luton
Service area	Greater London Hertfordshire
Service type	Bus
Routes	42
Hubs	Hatfield, St Albans
Fleet	90
Fuel type	Diesel
Web site	http://www.unobus.info

Uno (formerly UniversityBus) is a bus service operated by the University of Hertfordshire, England, serving members of the general public, and also its own students and staff (at a discounted rate). The service was set up in 1992, growing out of a shuttle service previously operated for students at Wall Hall college near Watford connecting them to the other campuses of the University and the Polytechnic (Hatfield) before it.

It provides student transport to the expanding university from local areas as well as improving east-west travel across Hertfordshire and has opened up new links from North London. Services have expanded rapidly as the University has closed outlying sites at Watford and Hertford and developed the new de Havilland Campus on the site of the former Hatfield airfield. Other developments on this site, including business premises for companies such as Veolia, DHL and T-mobile have also provided passengers.

History

Uno, whose legal title is Universitybus Limited, was set up as an 'arms length' company by the University of Hertfordshire in 1992. It has its own Board of Directors and is expected to run on a fully commercial basis.

In 2005 it was re-branded "Uno" and the buses were painted in pink and purple, a departure from the previous black and white colour scheme. According to the University's student newspaper "Universe", the reason for the re-branding "is to have a name that reflects the wider market the buses serve in the community, basically not just for the inhabitants of the University of Hertfordshire".

Shortly after buying the St Albans operations of Centrebus (Holdings) UNO helped to found a voluntary partnership of local authorities, the university and the bus and rail operators serving the city with the aim of co-ordinating and improving public transport across St Albans. The partnership uses powers under the most recent Transport Act as a Quality Network Partnership(QNP)but will be known publicly as 'Network St Albans'. Uno is now the second largest bus operator in Hertfordshire.

On 20 April 2009 Uno recast many of its services to integrate a number of the former Centrebus routes. Further changes occurred from 28 September 2009, following the opening of the new University Of Hertfordshire Forum. These changes included significant improvements to late evening services and the extension of operating hours until as late as 3:30 am on some routes. The main timetable change each year takes place in September to coincide with the start of the school, college and university academic year.

Routes

The current Uno network is as follows:

Route Number	From	To
Park and Ride Shuttle	Hatfield Southway Park & Ride	University Of Hertfordshire DeHavilland Campus
2 (Hemel Hempstead)	Hemel Hempstead Woodhall Farm	Hemel Hempstead Chaulden
3 (Hemel Hempstead)	Hemel Hempstead Woodhall Farm	Hemel Hempstead Chaulden
4/5 (Hemel Hempstead)	Hemel Hempstead Woodhall Farm	Hemel Hempstead Chaulden
101	Luton Church Street	Hatfield The Forum
301	Hemel Hempstead Bus Station	Stevenage Lister Hospital
304	St Albans Railway Station	Kimpton High Street
341	Hatfield Hatfield Bus Garage	Ware Station Road
404/405	Welwyn Garden City Bus Station	Hatfield South Hatfield Bishops Rise
600/650	Hatfield Railway Station	Hatfield Hatfield Business Park Frobisher Way
601	Welwyn Garden City Bus Station	St Albans St Peters Street
602	Hatfield Hatfield Bus Garage or Hatfield Railway Station	Watford Town Centre
603	Hatfield Hatfield Bus Garage	Welwyn Garden City Bus Station
607	Hatfield Railway Station	Hatfield Salisbury Village
610	Hatfield Hatfield Bus Garage	Enfield Town Church Street
614	Hatfield Hatfield Bus Garage	Queensbury Underground Station
615	Hatfield Town Centre or Frobisher Way	Stanmore Rectory Lane Church
620	Hatfield Hatfield Town Centre	Redbourn Ridgedown
621	Hatfield Hatfield Town Centre	Watford Town Centre
622	Hatfield The Forum	Watford Town Centre
625	Letchworth Jackmans Estate	Stevenage North Herts College
634	Hatfield Business Park	Hemel Hempstead Rail Station
635	Letchworth Grange Estate	Hatfield, Hertfordshire The Forum
636	Hatfield University of Hertfordshire The Forum	London Colney
644	Hatfield	Wembley Park
655	Hatfield Hatfield Bus Garage or Frobisher Way	Borehamwood Manor Way
658	St Albans City Centre	Borehamwood Ripon Park
659	St Albans City Centre	London Colney Sainsbury's
700	Stansted Airport	Stevenage Bus Station
712/714	Hatfield	London Victoria
813	Watford Town Centre	Garston St Michael's School
884	How Wood Penn Road	St Albans Sandringham School
HA1/HA2	Harpenden	Harpenden
PB1	Potters Bar Shillitoe Avenue/Rushfield	Potters Bar Oakmere Estate
S1	St Albans St Peters Street	St Albans Mile House Estate
S2	St Albans St Albans Station	St Albans New Greens Estate
S3	St Albans St Peters Street	St Albans Jersey Farm Estate
S4	St Albans City Centre	St Albans Cottonmill
S5	St Albans City Centre	St Albans Cottonmill
S8/S9	St Albans Verulam Estate	St Albans Marshalswick

Previous route changes

In March 2008 Uno bought Centrebus's St Albans garage, taking over all Centrebus routes operating from there, including the S St Albans City route network, PB1 (a Potters Bar local route), various routes connecting St Albans with outlying towns and housing estates and a number of schools services provided under contract to Hertfordshire County Council.

In April 2009 several former Centrebus services were intregated into the main network (mainly as services 620 and 621) while a further route (304) provided under contract to Herfordshire County Council was transferred to Arriva Shires & Essex.

In March 2010 some of the smaller local routes around Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City, that only ran a couple of times a day or one day a week, were lost to Sullivan Buses. The evening 620 service contract was also lost to Arriva Shires & Essex. The 694 service, introduced in September 2009 as a park-and-ride service between College Lane and Stanborough Lakes, was axed, presumably due to low passenger numbers. A further timetable change was made, as is customary to coincide with the start of the 2010-11 academic year in September 2010.

In September 2011 changes were made to routes 607, 610, 615, 625, 635, 658, 659 (increasing frequency/new services), route 700 (cutting back service as result of 625/635), routes 602, 603, 622, 634, 636 and 712 (general timing changes) and removal of route 641, with assurances that the peak hour connection would be kept on the route 341.

However in January 2012 the peak hour connection was lost from 341, with shortening of some late/early journeys on the 602, 603, 620, 621, 622, 625, 635, 658 and PB1 services (with removal of 604 and 634 outside of peak times and changing all evening 644 buses to run via Barnet via route 614).

Garages and buses

Uno operates from a head office and garage in the Hatfield Business Park. The garage and offices were purpose built and opened in 2003. Following the takeover of Centrebus' St Albans operations, Uno continued to operate them from the St Albans garage. However, this was subsequently closed and operations centralised at the Hatfield location.

Current bus types in use with Uno:

An Optare Solo Uno bus in service in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Single deck

• Optare Solo
• Dennis Dart / with Plaxton Pointer, Marshall C27 and Wright Handybus bodywork
• Dennis Dart SLF / with Caetano Nimbus, Plaxton/Transbus/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2/MPD and Wright Crusader bodywork
• DAF/VDL SB120 / Wright Cadet
• Scania OmniCity
• Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro

Double deck

• DAF/VDL DB250 with Optare Spectra (low floor) and East Lancs Myllennium Lowlander bodywork
• Dennis Trident 2 / Plaxton President new to London General and bought in late 2009 for route 601
• Scania N94UD / East Lancs OmniDekka
• Scania N230UD / Optare Olympus

Previous bus types used by UniversityBus/Uno

Single deck

• Optare MetroRider
• Leyland National bought secondhand
• Leyland National / East Lancs Greenway bought secondhand
• DAF SB220 / Optare Delta bought Secondhand
• Blue Bird Corporation BRE/CRSE integral All American School Bus
• Mercedes-Benz OH1416 / Wright Urbanranger
• DAF SB220 / Northern Counties Paladin
• Wright Axcess-Ultralow / Scania L113CRL on loan from Nottingham City Transport

Double deck

• Leyland Titan (B15) / Park Royal Vehicles, new to the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive and bought secondhand
• Volvo Olympian / Alexander R-Type new to Bus Átha Cliath – Dublin Bus and bought secondhand from Ensignbus in 2008 for route 601. Phased out and replaced due to problems with accessibility

Ticketing

A promotional bus advertising the PlusBus ticketing scheme

The company participates in various county-wide ticketing schemes where appropriate, such as PlusBus (discounted combined rail and bus tickets), Intalink Explorer (a ticket allowing unlimited travel around Hertfordshire), discounted travel for children with a Hertfordshire SaverCard. There are buses decorated specially to advertise both the Explorer and PlusBus ticketing schemes owned by Uno.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Uno buses route 614
• Uno buses route S4
• Uno buses route S5
• List of bus routes in London
• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

External links

• Uno website