Aylesbury bus changes: X15 axed and X6 rerouted 30 Aug

Eight bus services running through Aylesbury and the vale change between Sunday 30 August and Monday 7 September. One is withdrawn altogether. Three of the changes land on the first day of the school year, and one lands the Monday after it.

The list comes from Buckinghamshire Council’s own register of forthcoming timetable changes, which carries the operator’s new timetable as a PDF against each route. (Buckinghamshire Council, changes to bus services and timetables)

Here is every change affecting the Aylesbury Vale side of the county, in date order:

• 30 August: the X6 Aylesbury to Milton Keynes is rerouted to serve Bletchley and Stadium MK instead of Stony Stratford and Old Stratford, its Saturday service drops to one bus every two hours, and its schoolday journeys through Oving and Granborough are withdrawn
• 30 August: the X14 Aylesbury to Milton Keynes via Wing has fewer morning journeys and an altered route around Newton Leys and Bletchley
• 30 August: the X15 Milton Keynes to Aylesbury Schools via Leighton Buzzard is withdrawn
• 1 September: the 121 Thame to Haddenham passes from Red Rose Travel to Z&S Transport, running hourly Monday to Saturday
• 2 September: the X20 and 120 Aylesbury to Oxford services are retimed
• 3 September: Z&S Transport’s 100 becomes the 100X and serves Stocklake and Kingsbrook instead of Bierton
• 3 September: the 611 Kingsey to Aylesbury Schools Coach Park is retimed
• 7 September: Red Rose Travel’s 100 Aylesbury to Milton Keynes loses two weekday journeys

The X6 gains Bletchley and loses four village stops

The X6 is the vale’s spine service. It links Aylesbury to Whitchurch, Winslow, Padbury and Buckingham, then runs on into Milton Keynes.

From 30 August the Milton Keynes end is rebuilt. Arriva announced the change on 21 July. “From Milton Keynes it will run along Saxon Street past Stadium MK and then serving Bletchley Bus Station before continuing to Buckingham,” the operator said. “We’re pleased to be introducing a service between Bletchley and Buckingham following customer and stakeholder feedback.” (Arriva, updates to our services in Milton Keynes)

The new timetable makes that connection quick. The 0845 from Buckingham High Street reaches Bletchley Bus Station at 0915, a run of 30 minutes. Coming back, the 0823 from Bletchley is in Buckingham at 0850, 27 minutes. (X6 timetable from 30 August 2026, published by Buckinghamshire Council)

The cost is paid at the other end of the route. Stony Stratford and Old Stratford lose the X6, and Arriva was blunt about why: “sadly there just aren’t enough customers from these areas using the service.”

Closer to home, Arriva says all journeys will now run “fast and direct between Buckingham and Aylesbury with Granborough and North Marston no longer served”. The council’s own entry puts it slightly differently, saying “the school day journeys that serve Oving and Granborough are withdrawn, but alternative journeys are available on Red Rose Service 60”. Between them, three vale villages lose X6 stops, and the new timetable we have read lists none of Oving, North Marston or Granborough.

Saturdays also thin out. The council says the X6 Saturday service “will be reduced to operate every 2 hours”, and the new timetable shows just five Saturday departures from Aylesbury Bus Station: 0955, 1155, 1355, 1555 and 1755.

That matters less than it sounds for anyone only going as far as Buckingham. Red Rose Travel’s X60 covers the same road between Aylesbury and Buckingham roughly hourly on a Saturday, leaving Aylesbury Bus Station at five past the hour from 0805 to 1805, then at 1915, 2015, 2115, 2215 and 2315. (X60 timetable from 8 June 2026) The X6 carries no Sunday service either way, before or after the change.

What we could not confirm about the route 60 alternative

The council tells Oving and Granborough passengers to use Red Rose Travel’s service 60. That service is advertised by its operator as running Aylesbury to North Marston to Winslow to Buckingham.

We could not verify its village times today. The PDF timetable offered on Red Rose’s own route 60 page is the X60 timetable, which runs fast along the main road and calls at none of those villages. (Red Group, service 60) Rather than guess at times, we would suggest villagers ring Red Rose Travel on 01296 747926 before 30 August. We will publish the route 60 village times as soon as the operator posts them.

The X15 goes, and the X4 picks up the school run

The X15 ran from Milton Keynes to the Aylesbury schools by way of Leighton Buzzard. It is withdrawn outright on 30 August. Arriva gave the reason as “very low usage”.

Both the operator and the council point passengers at the X4, and the replacement is real rather than notional. On Buckinghamshire schooldays one X4 journey leaves Leighton Buzzard railway station at 0748, calls at Wing, The Dove at 0757 and Kingsbrook, Armstrongs Fields at 0810, and sets down at Oxford Road for Sir Henry Floyd School at 0830. (X4 timetable from 31 May 2026)

Outside that journey the X4 runs hourly from Wing and Kingsbrook into Aylesbury Bus Station, seven days a week, having been extended through to Luton Airport at the end of May.

There is a second, quieter loss on the same date. Arriva says the X14 will no longer call at Bletchley Bus Station, “to provide a faster link into Central Milton Keynes”, and that its daytime journeys between Newton Leys and Central Milton Keynes are withdrawn. The X14 will instead be extended to and from Milton Keynes railway station. So on 30 August the X6 picks up Bletchley Bus Station on the same morning the X14 puts it down.

Bierton keeps its bus, despite the 100 renumbering

Two different operators run a service numbered 100 between Aylesbury and Milton Keynes, and both change in early September. It is worth being clear about which is which, because only one of them touches Bierton.

Z&S Transport’s 100 becomes the 100X on 3 September and moves off Bierton to serve Stocklake and Kingsbrook instead. It is a schooldays-only service of two journeys each way: 0630 and 1330 out of Aylesbury Bus Station, and 0845 and 1640 back from Milton Keynes, The Point. (100X timetable from 3 September 2026)

Red Rose Travel’s 100 is the all-day service, and it still calls at Bierton, The Bell PH in both directions, every day of the week. What it loses on 7 September is two weekday journeys, the 0830 from Aylesbury and the 0930 from Milton Keynes. Weekends are untouched. (100 timetable from 7 September 2026)

For a Bierton commuter that leaves a gap. On the new weekday timetable the bus calls at The Bell at 0745, and the next one is at 0910.

Thame, Haddenham and the school buses

Three smaller changes fall either side of the first day of term.

The 121 between Thame and Haddenham changes operator on 1 September. Red Rose Travel’s service is withdrawn and Z&S Transport takes over with an hourly Monday to Saturday timetable, running through Haddenham and Thame Parkway station in both directions and serving Lord Williams Upper School at each end of the day. (121 timetable from 1 September 2026)

Redline’s X20 and 120 between Aylesbury and Oxford are retimed on 2 September. The council says the first two X20 journeys from Thame towards Haddenham and Aylesbury will now start at Oxford Road in Thame, and that the 0710 service 120 from Aylesbury will no longer serve the Holton Turn stop in Wheatley. (X20 and 120 timetable from 2 September 2026)

The 611 school bus from Kingsey is retimed on 3 September. On its new timetable it leaves Kingsey Church at 0740, runs through Ilmer, Longwick, Owlswick, Meadle, Little Kimble and Bishopstone, calls at Sir Henry Floyd School on Oxford Road at 0820 and reaches the Aylesbury Schools Coach Park at 0830. It returns from the coach park at 1545. (611 timetable from 3 September 2026)

What it means for you

The Buckinghamshire autumn term starts on Wednesday 2 September, after a proposed inset day on 1 September. (Buckinghamshire Council, school term dates) That puts most of these changes in the fortnight when a missed bus costs somebody a first day.

Four groups need to do something before then:

• Anyone who used the X15. It will not turn up on 30 August. Check the X4 instead, and if the school run is the reason you use it, note that the schoolday journey reaching Sir Henry Floyd School at 0830 starts from Leighton Buzzard at 0748.
• Oving, North Marston and Granborough. The X6 stops there end on 30 August. The council’s named alternative is Red Rose service 60, but its village times are not published online today, so ring the operator on 01296 747926.
• Saturday travellers to Milton Keynes. From 30 August there are five X6 buses a day from Aylesbury, not one an hour. If you are only going as far as Buckingham, the X60 still runs roughly hourly.
• Bierton passengers on the 0830. That journey goes on 7 September, leaving a gap at The Bell between 0745 and 0910.

Everyone else should simply re-check their own service. New timetables for each route are attached to the council’s changes to bus services page, and they are the versions the operators will actually run from these dates.

If you are heading for London rather than Milton Keynes, our Aylesbury train times to London page covers the Marylebone service and the Haddenham and Thame Parkway option that the new 121 now feeds. For closures on the road side, we keep a weekly list on our Aylesbury roadworks and travel page.