It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986 and operated a fleet of around 350 buses from six garages, with its headquarters located in Hatfield.

[2][3] Three hundred and fifty buses,[4] the garages at Hatfield, Hertford, Stevenage, Harlow, St Albans and the isolated base at Grays formed the new London Country North East (LCNE) company.

[6][7] The buyer was Alan Stephenson's AJS Group,[8] which had been formed by the management buyout of West Yorkshire Road Car Company.

[3] Under AJS's ownership it was managed by Graham Willet, previously London Country Bus Services' chief engineer.

[4] The Debden and Wyatts Green depots and some local routes of the former East Midland owned Frontrunner operation were acquired in July 1989.

[3][13] County Bus & Coach was relaunched with three new local identities: Grays garage became ThameSide, Harlow became TownLink, and Hoddesdon became Lea Valley.

[3] In July 1993, Lynton Travel purchased 41-vehicle Greater Manchester independent operator Citibus Tours, based in Chadderton near Oldham.

[3] However, on 7 October 1994 County Bus & Coach was sold to West Midlands Travel, who had also acquired the former London Buses subsidiary Westlink.

[20] Sovereign Bus & Coach[21] took over three former London Country North East depots in the 1989 split, namely Hatfield, Stevenage and St Albans.

In October 1991 a new offshoot, Sovereign Buses (Harrow), was formed to operate a number of London Regional Transport contracts won by the company.

[25] In August 1994, the company's position in London strengthened with the acquisition of the 43-vehicle Borehamwood Travel Services,[26] which brought tendered route 13 run with AEC Routemasters, under Sovereign operation.

[7] The company's fleet and operations remained largely static until 3 November 2002, when Blazefield sold Sovereign London to Transdev.