Arriva Guildford & West Surrey

The Guildford & West Surrey brand name was first created in 1990 when the Guildford operations of the newly-privatised Alder Valley bus company were sold to London & Country, owned by the Drawlane Group, L&C itself a rebranding of the London Country South West NBC subsidiary. Buses in the area began to wear the Guildford & West Surrey fleet name and livery in London & Country's livery.

The company was renamed Arriva Guildford & West Surrey Ltd in 2001, although with the launch of the Arriva corporate brand, buses were being repainted into the corporate livery several years prior, initially with the strapline serving Surrey and West Sussex. The company was later incorporated into the Arriva Southern Counties division, dropping the strapline, and traded as Arriva Southern Counties.

At the end of February 2002, the company closed its Woking depot, with routes and vehicles transferring to the Guildford depot. At the same time, two Guildford-based routes (418 and 479) were withdrawn for being uneconomical, having lost out to London Buses-contracted routes that covered the same sections of road.

On 7 March 2007, the Arriva West Sussex licence (operating buses from a depot in Horsham) was not continued, with the vehicles at Horsham transferring to the Arriva Guildford & West Surrey licence. However, it was announced in September 2009 that the Horsham operations would be sold to Metrobus, with all routes transferring to Crawley depot. All staff and 19 single-decker buses were transferred to Metrobus from 3 October 2009. Arriva maintained a presence in Horsham through hourly route 63 (Guildford - Horsham), which was operated by Cranleigh depot, though it was amended to remove a local section of route in Horsham.

On 2 May 2017, a new express route (numbered X1) was introduced between Horsham and Guildford, going through Broadbridge Heath, Clemsfold, Alfold, Bramley and Shalford. This was short-lived, however, as it was withdrawn on 10 March 2018.

Commencing 4 November 2018, Arriva launched routes A (to/from Royal Surrey County Hospital), B (to/from the Park Barn Estate) and C (to/from Stoughton) to rival the existing routes already operated by Stagecoach South and Safeguard Coaches.

In March 2019, Arriva commercially took over the route 479 between Guildford and Epsom after its operator, Buses Excetera, ceased trading at short notice.

In October 2021, Arriva announced they planned to close the single remaining depot in Guildford, following a decline in passenger numbers and the operation being deemed unsustainable, ceasing operations on 17 December 2021. From that date, six routes were taken over by Stagecoach South, with routes 36 and 37 being replaced by a new route 6 and an extension to the existing route 1. Additionally, route 18 and Sunday service on route 3 were transferred to Safeguard, with the 18 extended to Merrow and Bushy Hill to cover the gaps on the remainder of the former routes 36 and 37. Routes 436 and 479 were transferred to Falcon Buses. Route A was withdrawn without replacement from 14 November 2021.

The fleet in Guildford were mainly low floor Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointers, including a couple of examples with Pointer 2 bodywork. Making up the other main part of the fleet were DAF SB120/Wright Cadets. A batch arrived in 2001 for Surrey Hills routes, followed by another batch in 2002 for routes 34 and 35. Five Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse Urbans were bought in 2004 for Guildford Park and Ride services. Another newer VDL SB120/Wright Cadet arrived in 2006, diverted from an order for Arriva Yorkshire, to replace a 2002 example that was burnt out. Later that year three Mercedes-Benz Citaros arrived for route 436 to Mercedes-Benz World. In early 2009 a fleet of six Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts were put into route on route 91. In mid-2009, the final two Dennis Dominators with East Lancs bodywork at Guildford (part of the last batch ever built), were transferred to Maidstone, replaced by two Volvo B7TL/Alexander ALX400s, displaced from Gillingham. A Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine, which was Horsham's double decker, operated from Guildford for a while after Horsham's depot's sale, before moving on to Cranleigh on the 43/45 school routes.

Arriva's "Bus of the future" had operated from Guildford most of its life. New in 2002, it is a Volvo B7L/Wright Eclipse. However, in 2009 it moved to Northfleet garage, before going to Arriva Shires & Essex.

With significant growth from Stagecoach in the area amid the "Guildford bus war" many new buses were brought to the area, including Optare Versas, Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMCs and Wright StreetLites. However, to comply with emission regulations elsewhere nearer the capital, particularly for Arriva Kent Thameside, some of the newer examples were moved out of Guildford.