Arriva Southern Counties
 | |
 | |
| Parent | Arriva |
|---|---|
| Founded | November 1986 |
| Headquarters | Maidstone |
| Service area | East Sussex Essex Greater London Kent Surrey West Sussex |
| Service type | Bus services |
| Depots | 10 |
| Fleet | over 700 |
| Operator | Arriva Guildford & West Surrey Arriva Kent & Sussex Arriva Kent Thameside Arriva Medway Towns Arriva Southend |
| Website | www.arrivabus.co.uk |
Arriva Southern Counties[1] is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva.
History
In November 1986 the National Bus Company sold Maidstone & District in a management buyout to Einkorn Limited.[1] In June 1988 New Enterprise Coaches of Tonbridge was purchased, followed in December 1991 by four buses and their associated Kent County Council services from Shearings, and in June 1992 Boro'line Maidstone.[2][3][4]
In 1990 British Bus purchased the Cranleigh, Guildford and Woking based operations of Alder Valley followed in 1993 by Colchester Borough Transport and Southend Transport.[4]
In April 1995 Einkorn was sold to British Bus,[5] which had purchased Kentish Bus in July 1994 and Londonlinks in 1988. In August 1995 Einkorn was renamed Invictaway.[1] Invictaway was previously the name of the Maidstone & District commuter services to London, which were renamed Green Line at the same time.[4]
In July 1996 British Bus was taken over by the The Cowie Group.[6][7] Invictaway was renamed Arriva Southern Counties in April 1998,[1] and Arriva transferred London & Country (also owned by British Bus) to it. The subsidiary operating companies therefore became:
- Maidstone & District:
- Mainly became Arriva Kent & Sussex
- Medway area became Arriva Medway Towns
- Kentish Bus:
- Mainly became Arriva Kent Thameside
- Partly became Arriva Kent & Sussex
- London & Country:
- Became Arriva Guildford & West Surrey
- LondonLinks:
- Became Arriva Croydon & North Surrey
Current operations in the South East area are:
- Arriva Guildford & West Surrey[8]
- Arriva Kent & Sussex[9]
- Arriva Kent Thameside[10]
- Arriva Medway Towns[11]
- Arriva Southend[12]
Many reorganisations of Arriva operations in South East England have followed since and today the company also controls Arriva Guildford & West Surrey, Arriva West Sussex, and Arriva Southend. The Croydon & North Surrey subsidiary was largely transferred to Arriva London.
In August 2004 Arriva Colchester was sold to Tellings-Golden Miller, although with the December 2007 sale of Tellings-Golden Miller, Colchester is once again owned by Arriva, albeit not under the control of Arriva Southern Counties.[13][14] In October 2009 the Horsham depot and routes were sold to Metrobus with 19 buses.[15]
The coach subsidiary, New Enterprise Coaches of Tonbridge, inherited from Maidstone & District continues to trade under its own brand.[16]
Operation Overdrive
The Medway Towns network was upgraded in a £10 million investment marketed as Operation Overdrive.
Maidstone Park & Ride
Arriva also operates Maidstone park & ride under contract to Maidstone Borough Council.[17] The buses are painted yellow with a green stripe swooping down from the top of the back of the bus to the bottom of the front. The fleet comprises two Wright Cadet bodied DAF SB120s and nine Wright Commander bodied DAF SB200s. In September 2007 the Coombe Quarry Park & Ride site (route 504) was closed due to apparent budget difficulties. As a result, some of the buses were absorbed into the main fleet.
Fastrack
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Arriva Southern Counties operate the Fastrack busway scheme in the Thames Gateway area of Kent on behalf of the Kent County Council and Prologis. This network currently consists of two routes: Route A runs between Dartford and the Bluewater Shopping Centre, while Route B runs from Temple Hill to Gravesend via Dartford. Since November 2007, Route B has connected with the Eurostar at Ebbsfleet International railway station, and Eurostar passengers are allowed to use the route for free. On 11 February 2008, Arriva started a new "m-tickets" scheme, where passengers are able to pay for bus tickets using their mobile phones. Initially, this will only be available on Route B, but if successful could be extended to other Fastrack routes and possibly even conventional Arriva bus routes.[18]
Livery
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2771819.jpg)
The main corporate Arriva livery is aquamarine for the body, with a cream "swoop" at the front and a white separator line in between, blue Arriva "circles" logos, and a thin yellow line at skirt level. There are many variations of the livery, such as:
- Interurban livery – Aquamarine, with dark blue band to skirt level and cream "cow-horns" (a thined version of the champagne "swoop").
- London livery - The original London livery was red, with champagne "cow-horns" as in the interurban livery, orange Arriva "circles" logo and a thin yellow line at skirt level. The new London livery is completely red, with the thin yellow line at skirt level and the Arriva "circles" in plain white.
- Bluewater livery - No longer used, the Bluewater livery was all over blue, with a water shimmer effect. The services using this livery were replaced by Fastrack in 2006.
As well as this, many vehicles operating under different schemes run in different liveries, for example Fastrack and Maidstone Park & Ride.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Companies House extract company no 2031405 Arriva Southern Counties Limited formerly Invictaway Limited formerly Einkorn Limited
- ^ The supply of bus services in Mid and West Kent Monopolies & Mergers Commission August 1993
- ^ Maidstone & District Motor Services M Dek Bus Club
- ^ a b c History - South East Arriva
- ^ Competition Commission report (1997)|Competition Commission
- ^ Cowie Group plc and British Bus Group Limited: A report on the merger situation Competition Commission 31 October 1996
- ^ Midland Red History: Timeline Menu MidlandRed.net
- ^ Companies House extract company no 2536462 Arriva Guildford & West Surrey Limited formerly Guildford & West Surrey Buses Limited
- ^ Companies House extract company no 114841 Arriva Kent & Surrey Limited formerly Arriva Kent & Sussex Limited formerly The Maidstone & District Motor Services Limited
- ^ Companies House extract company no 2005266 Arriva Kent Thameside Limited formerly Kentish Bus & Coach Limited formerly London Country Bus (South East) Limited
- ^ Companies House extract company no 3943257 Arriva Medway Towns Limited
- ^ Companies House extract company no 1992873 Arriva Southend Limited formerly Southend Transport Limited
- ^ Arriva to acquire Tellings busandcoach.com 20 December 2007
- ^ Arriva plc offer for TGM Group plc Arriva 20 December 2007
- ^ Go-Ahead to acquire Arriva's Horsham Bus busandcoach.com 3 September 2009
- ^ Welcome to New Enterprise Coaches New Enterprise Coaches
- ^ Maidstone Quality Bus Partnership Kent County Council
- ^ "Arriva Mobile ticketing: m-tickets". Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
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