Arriva Southern Counties

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Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent in England. It is a division of Arriva.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Guildford Park and Ride
1.2 Maidstone Park and Ride
1.3 Fastrack

2 Depots
3 The fleet
4 See also
5 External links

History

Originally founded in 1995 as Invictaway Ltd., it was renamed Arriva Southern Counties in 1997.

Invictaway Ltd. was the management services company set up by the then owners British Bus to run Maidstone & District (M&D), Kentish Bus and Londonlinks. The offices were (and still are) based in Maidstone. Invictaway was the name of the Maidstone & District commuter services to London, which were renamed Green Line at the same time. Invictaway Ltd. was a renaming of Einkorn Ltd., the company that bought M&D from the National Bus Company in 1986.

Upon the take over of British Bus by Cowie Group and the subsequent renaming of Cowie to Arriva, the operating companies became as follows:

Maidstone & District became Arriva Kent & Sussex Ltd. (and, partly later, Arriva Medway Towns Ltd.)
Kentish Bus became Arriva Kent Thameside Ltd.
Londonlinks became Arriva Croydon & North Surrey Ltd.

Many reorganisations of Arriva operations in the South East have followed since, and today the company has also control of Arriva Guildford & West Surrey Ltd., Arriva West Sussex Ltd. and Arriva Southend Ltd. (and, for a time before sale, Arriva Colchester Ltd.). The Croydon & North Surrey subsidiary was largely transferred to Arriva London.

The coaching subsidiary, New Enterprise Coaches (Tonbridge) Ltd., inherited from Maidstone & District, remains in operation.

In June 2004, 61 new buses entered the fleet, as part of Arriva's original "Operation Overdrive". This meant that the Medway Towns depot would receive brand new vehicles with latest technology installed to replace old ones. New low floor buses in this depot would be refurbished. "Overdrive 2" entailed the refurbishment of some vehicles at Maidstone depot. Similar "Overdrive" projects have since followed on Merseyside and in County Durham.

Guildford Park and Ride

Arriva operates the Guildford park and ride for Surrey County Council. The buses are in the same style of livery, with oak tree leaves on the sides, but in different colours. Note: the Ladymead P&R site replaces the Spectrum Lesiure Centre car park on Saturdays.

The fleet comprises of: 3730 (LF02 PVA) Volvo B7L / Wrightbus Eclipse (ex 6200) "Bus of the Future". This bus works the 100 Park and Ride route on Saturdays to the Spectrum Leisure Centre. The route isn't worked by buses in the P&R livery on Saturdays because it is solely a route to Spectrum. The car park for P&R that day is at nearby Ladymead (route 101). The reason for this is the Spectrum car park gets very full on the weekends so the Spectrum Leisure company want all their car park! It takes two buses per park and ride route (Artington and Spectrum/Ladymead) so another bus - in normal arriva livery works the 100 on Saturdays with 3730.
3731 (GN54 MYO) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban - Lime Green
3732 (GN54 MYP) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban - Sky Blue
3733 (GN54 MYR) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban - Brown
3734 (GN54 MYT) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban - Dark Green
3735 (GN54 MYU) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban - Scarlet

Maidstone Park and Ride

Arriva also operates Maidstone Park and Ride for Maidstone Borough Council. The buses are 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 of:
3959 (GN04 UFW) DAF SB120 (10.8m) / Wrightbus Cadet
3960 (GN04 UFX) DAF SB120 (10.8m) / Wrightbus Cadet
3961 (GN04 UFY) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3962 (GN04 UFZ) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3963 (GN04 UGA) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3964 (GN04 UGB) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3965 (GN04 UGC) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3966 (GN04 UGD) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3967 (GN04 UGE) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3968 (GN04 UGF) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander
3969 (GN04 UGG) DAF SB200 (11.8m) / Wrightbus Commander

Fastrack

This is a new scheme to improve the transport around the Kent Thames Gateway area. Arriva run Fastrack service B on behalf of Kent County Council. Service B will link Gravesend, Dartford and the Bluewater Shopping Centre with each other. Route A is due to start at the end of 2006

Please see 'EXTERNAL LINKS' below for relavant websites.

Depots

The depots of Arriva Southern Counties are located at:

The fleet

There are many vehicles in the Southern Counties fleet. There has been a lot of money put in to improve services. In Guildford the entire depot was re-built and the fleet updated with new DAF/Wrightbus Cadets.

CURRENT FLEET NEWS:

Vehicles to New Enterprise Coaches:
3039 (N239 VPH) Dennis Dart SLF (9.3m) / East Lancashire Spryte (From Sittingbourne)
3055 (P255 APM) Dennis Dart SLF (9.3m) / East Lancashire Spryte (From Sittingbourne)
4037 (P100 LOW) Dennis Javelin (11m) / UVG UniStar (On loan From Arriva Shires & Essex)
4058 (M946 LYR) DAF SB3000 / Van Hool Alizée HE-II (From Arriva Shires & Essex)
4059 (M942 LYR) DAF SB3000 / Van Hool Alizée HE-II (From Arriva Shires & Essex)

Vehicles to Northfleet:
3801 (GN06 EVG) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3802 (GN06 EWC) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3803 (GN06 EWD) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3804 (GN06 EWE) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3805 (GN06 EVH) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3806 (GN06 EVJ) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3807 (GN06 EVK) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3808 (GN06 EVM) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3809 (GN06 EVL) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3810 (GN06 EVP) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3811 (GN06 EVR) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3812 (GN06 EVT) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3813 (GN06 EVU) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
3814 (GN06 EUU) Volvo B7RLE / Wrightbus Eclipse Urban (NEW!!) (For FasTrack route)
4212 (W212 DNO) Dennis Dart SLF (9.3m) / Plaxton Pointer 2 (On loan from SELKent)
4217 (W234 DNO) Dennis Dart SLF (9.3m) / Plaxton Pointer 2 (On loan from SELKent)
4218 (W218 DNO) Dennis Dart SLF (9.3m) / Plaxton Pointer 2 (On loan from SELKent)

Vehicles to Tunbridge Wells:
3006 (L508 CPJ) Dennis Dart (9.3m) / East Lancashire EL2000 (From Horsham)
3014 (M525 MPM) Dennis Dart (9.3m) / East Lancashire EL2000 (From Maidstone)
3018 (M520 KPA) Dennis Lance SLF (11m) / Wright Pathfinder (From Cranleigh)
3019 (N539 TPF) Dennis Dart (9.3m) / East Lancashire EL2000 (From Horsham)
3021 (N221 TPK) Dennis Lance (12m) / East Lancashire (From Guildford)
3043 (E887 KYW) Leyland Lynx / Leyland (From WITHDRAWN)
3412 (P332 HVX) Dennis Dart (9.3m) / Plaxton Pointer (From Grays)
3912 (T912 KKM) DAF DE02GSSB220 / Plaxton Prestige (From Northfleet)
3913 (T913 KKM) DAF DE02GSSB220 / Plaxton Prestige (From Northfleet)
3914 (T914 KKM) DAF DE02GSSB220 / Plaxton Prestige (From Northfleet)
3915 (T915 KKM) DAF DE02GSSB220 / Plaxton Prestige (From Northfleet)
3916 (T916 KKM) DAF DE02GSSB220 / Plaxton Prestige (From Northfleet)
3921 (T921 KKM) DAF DE02GSSB220 / Plaxton Prestige (From Northfleet)
5899 (F899 GKK) Leyland Olympian / Northern Counties (From New Enterprise Coaches)

External links

[Arriva UK bus website]
[Traveline website, UK public transport information]
[Surrey CC's Guilford Park and ride webpage]
[Guildford Borough Council's Park and Ride web page]
[Maidstone Borgugh Council's Park and Ride webpage] If it goes automatically to the council's home page click on: A-Z of council services, P, park and ride and then website (click 'For more information').

[The official Fastrack website]

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