Uno (bus company)

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 Aerodrome. Other developments on this site, including business premises for companies such as Veolia, DHL and T-mobile have also provided passengers. Uno also operate urban bus networks in St Albans and Northampton, as well as a network of routes between Milton Keynes, Bedford and Flitwick for Cranfield University.

History
Uno 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 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.

In September 2012 Uno commenced operating in Northampton, initially taking over routes 18 and 19, both of which serve The University of Northampton. A third service, route 21, began operating in 2013, covering some of Northampton's eastern district and serving Northampton College.

In September 2013, Uno began operating a small network of routes between Milton Keynes, Bedford and Flitwick for Cranfield University.

Previous route changes
In March 2008 Uno purchased 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.

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 garage purpose built in 2003 in the Hatfield Business Park. 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 consolidated at the Hatfield.

As a result of winning the Northampton University contracts a depot has opened at the Park Campus of the university by September 2012. A similar arrangement also operates at Cranfield University following services between Milton Keynes and Bedford starting in September 2013.

Current bus types in use with Uno:


 * Single deck
 * Optare Solo (both standard and new diesel electric hybrid versions)
 * 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
 * Scania OmniLink
 * Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro (mainly rigid examples plus a few articulated versions entering service to increase capacity on the University shuttles)
 * Wright StreetLite


 * Double deck
 * DAF/VDL DB250 with Optare Spectra (low floor) and East Lancs Myllennium Lowlander bodywork
 * Dennis Trident 2 / Plaxton President
 * Scania N94UD / East Lancs OmniDekka
 * Scania N230UD / Optare Olympus

Ticketing
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.