Brighton & Hove (bus company)

Brighton & Hove operates most bus services in the city of Brighton and Hove in southern England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.

History
Brighton & Hove was established in 1884 as Brighton, Hove and Preston United Omnibus Company. In November 1935 it was formed as the Brighton Hove and District Omnibus Company. In January 1969 it merged with Southdown Motor Services as a subsidiary of the National Bus Company. In January 1985 in preparation for privatisation, Brighton & Hove was separated from Southdown. In May 1987 it was sold in a management buyout. In November 1993 Brighton & Hove was sold to the Go-Ahead Group.

Operations and routes
The company's routes cover a large area encompassing the whole of the city, some parts of West and East Sussex and a single route into Kent. The limits are:
 * Shoreham-by-Sea and Steyning in the west;
 * Lewes, Ringmer, Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells in the north;
 * Newhaven, Seaford and Eastbourne in the east.

There are 40 separately-numbered standard routes. Frequencies range from every 5 minutes to two journeys per day. In addition, there are six night bus routes and 19 school bus routes. In September 2005, the company took over many routes previously operated partly or entirely by Stagecoach South, the best example being the Coaster services 12 and 13X to Seaford and Eastbourne.

The company operates from three depots: Conway Street, Whitehawk and Lewes Road. Conway Street also serves as the company's headquarters. The company also has four outstations in Newhaven, Eastbourne, Uckfield and Durrington.

Metro services
During 1996/97, five of the most popular routes (1/1A, 5/5A/5B, 7, 25 and 49) were enhanced with new buses and individual route branding. All five routes offer regular services, modern buses and a wide range of connections throughout the centre of Brighton and Hove, reinforced by a colour-coded diagrammatic map Since 2004, Brighton & Hove have gradually introduced new buses to the Metro routes, the majority being Scania OmniDekkas. In April 2011, Metro 7 was removed from the Metro network and rebranded as Route 7 with brand new Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TLs operating on the route. As of September 2012, routes 5/5A/5B are the only services which have retained the Metro branding.

Route
Route is the branding that is in the process of replacing the 'Metro' brand. In April 2011, to coincide with the arrival of new Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Geminis, Brighton and Hove launched the new branding for route 6 (formally Shuttle 6), route 7 (formally Metro 7) and route 27. Services 6 and 7 use the new Volvos, whilst route 27 continues to use the Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident 2s, which have been repainted and branded, as well as having the seats re-trimmed. In April 2012, Metro 1 was re-branded to Route 1 and also began using the new Volvos, which have since become a common sight across the city.

Coaster 12
The Coaster 12 is one of Brighton & Hove's most popular routes. Formerly the 712, it runs from Churchill Square, Brighton to Eastbourne Pier. The service is combined with the 12A which follows the same route but also serves Chyngton Estate in Seaford. The combined services offer a bus every 10 minutes, using specially branded Scania OmniDekkas. However, due to the increasing popularity of the service, the OmniDekkas have been swapped with newer late 2006 models from Metro route 25, which are 12 metres long and have greater capacity.

The Regency Route
The Regency Route (29) is one of Brighton & Hove's branded routes. It began as route 729 by the nationalised Southdown Motor Services subsidiary of the National Bus Company, of which Brighton & Hove was a part, and the route was part of the NBC's cross-country "Stagecoach" network. It runs from Churchill Square to Tunbridge Wells, using specially-branded Scania OmniDekkas, which have high-backed Fainsa seats. Route 29 runs half-hourly, with one bus per hour serving Isfield and the other running via Rose Hill between Lewes and Uckfield. Route 28 follows the same route from Brighton to Lewes, with a service every half-hour just to Lewes and an alternate service every half-hour to Ringmer, providing a combined service every 10 minutes between Brighton and Lewes.

Night buses
The company operates nine night bus routes. These are the N1, N2, N5, N29 and N40 which operate on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights only, the N12 and N14 which operate on Monday to Saturday nights, and the N7 and N25 which operate every night.

Buses to the South Downs
In 2002, three special routes were introduced from the city centre to popular countryside locations on the South Downs. These services provide people with easy access to the nearby South Downs, and help reduce congestion and pollution by providing an alternative to driving to those popular locations.

These routes are 77 Palace Pier to Devil's Dyke, 78 Old Steine to Stanmer Park and 79 Old Steine to Ditchling Beacon. These routes receive subsidies for weekends and bank holidays. The services also receive funding from the National Trust.

The company often uses its fleet of six open-top buses on these routes during the summer, although usually only two are used with the roofs removed and three are used for sightseeing around the city, with one as the ticket office (Scania Citizen 781 and Dennis Trident 808 both now permanent open-top).

City Sightseeing
Brighton & Hove also operate the City Sightseeing Brighton tour using two convertible East Lancs Lolynes and an open-top East Lancs Cityzen. All three buses are painted in the City Sightseeing red livery.

Competition
Brighton & Hove face limited competition on some of its network of routes. The Big Lemon bus operator, a community interest company founded in 2007 who currently run a route between Sussex university and central Brighton, is the largest competitor. It was set up in an effort to make Brighton and Hove's public transport options more sustainable by using biodiesel collected by the company from businesses around the city as well as offer private hire services.

The Big Lemon originally operated an express service numbered 42X which ran from Brighton station to Falmer station using elderly step entranced buses. However the service was dropped in December 2007. A relaunch of the service commenced in early 2008 numbered 42. In 2010 the company started two more services, 43 and 44. However just months after it began route 43 ended due to low passenger numbers. In 2011 The Big Lemon faced competition from Brighton & Hove Buses in that Brighton Buses lowered its fares to match fares charged by The Big Lemon. In January 2012 The Big Lemon stopped running route 42 and now continues to run route 44 only.

Other companies which run into the city include The Sussex Bus who in October 2012 over Countryliner and operates route 33 and 40/40X which runs from Haywards Heath to Churchill Square and Sussex County Hospital, Metrobus which operates 273 from Crawley to Churchill Square and also Stagecoach South which runs route 17 Horsham to Churchill Square and route 700 Portsmouth to Brighton.

Subsidies
Under the Transport Act 1985 Brighton and Hove City Council has the authority to put out to tender contracts (>5 years) to fill gaps in bus availability that arise due to lack of profitability. For example the 81, 81A and 81C buses are subsidised, depending on route, from .03p (based on operations Monday – Saturday services) up to £1.32 (based on Winter Sunday evening services) for each fare bought. The council is also obliged to subsidise school bus routes. For example the 91 Cardinal Newman School bus is currently subsidised at £4.10 per single journey.

Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company operates the majority of the contracts.

Fares and ticketing
The company operates, to a large extent, a flat fare system – people can travel on almost all of its buses, and to almost everywhere on its network, for fixed prices. The CitySaver ticket allows people to travel as often as they want for one day anywhere on any combination of buses, with a few exceptions. There are also longer-period season tickets, there are tickets valid also with local rail services and other bus operators, and various concessions for students, people under 16, passengers boarding at Brighton Station and several others.

In late 2011 the company started to introduce "the Key", a smart card system, in a bid to curb ticket sharing and speed up boarding times. The new system has yet to prove itself with many older people and foreign students needing direction on how to actually use "the Key". It can also be used on some local train journeys.

Named buses


Many of the company's buses have the name of a famous person commemorated on the front.

In 1999 the company ran a competition asking local residents to name the 20 new double-decker buses that had just been added to its fleet. The company had started with names such as Brighton Belle, Brighton Rock, Brighton Pier, Brighton & Hove Albion, Hove Actually and Brighton and Hove in Bloom, and then asked local residents for help. It considered the options of naming the buses after landmarks in the town, people from the past, and present day celebrities.

In April 2004 the company added another 18 buses to its fleet, and continued the practice of naming them. The company's stated rule for choosing the name was: "The nominations must have made a significant contribution to the life of the local area during their lifetime and must have since died." However several living people are in fact featured on the bus fronts.

In September 2005 the company added a further 19 buses to its fleet, naming them after people who had "made great contributions to the city" – and including more female names, after complaints that the system had been too male-dominated up to that point. For a year one of the buses had been named after local historian and journalist Adam Trimingham.

Fleet
As at September 2013 the fleet consists of 303 buses and coaches.

Depots

 * Brighton (Lewes Road)
 * Brighton (Whitehawk Road)
 * Hove (Conway Street)
 * Newhaven (outstation)
 * Uckfield (outstation)