One of the successor companies, County Bus & Coach, with depots at Harlow, Hertford and Grays, was bought by its management in 1990.

In 1994 County was sold to West Midlands Travel, itself bought by National Express in 1995.

[2] County Bus & Coach was renamed Arriva East Herts & Essex in April 1998.

This was previously an Arriva East Herts & Essex garage, but it is now part of the Tellings-Golden Miller subsidiary with buses are branded as Network Harlow.

Later in 1987 LDT also acquired the long-established Aylesbury independent company, Red Rover.

[9] Hemel Hempstead was a depot of London Country Bus Services (North West) (one of the companies into which London Country Bus Services was divided in 1986), acquired by Luton & District Transport in 1988.

[7] The Hemel Hempstead depot runs a small number of local routes in the town as well as the 300/302 to St Albans and Welwyn Garden City, 320 to Rickmansworth, 500 to Aylesbury and 508 to Watford.

High Wycombe was another depot of London Country Bus Services (North West), acquired by LDT in 1988.

The High Wycombe depot operated a number of services both locally and further afield, reaching Reading on the 800/850.

It also houses the Head Office for Arriva The Shires & Essex as well as the UK bus team.

Eventually all buses operating from Stevenage will be based at an expanded Babbage Road site.

The purchase was subsequently considered by the Office of Fair Trading for possible referral to the Competition Commission, but it decided not to.

Many services were improved in frequency as part of the rebranding but others were reduced or withdrawn and some journey times were increased.

[18][19] Due to high running costs, Watford depot closed in 2018, with the routes being transferred to Hemel Hempstead.

[20] On Sunday 8 April 2018, the Amersham & District Motorbus Society held its annual running day in honour of the depot, with the theme being 'Farewell to Garston garage'.