Arriva Kent Thameside

Arriva Kent Thameside is a bus operator based in North-West Kent, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva. The company operates services in Dartford, Northfleet and Gravesend, as part of the Arriva Southern Counties division from their Northfleet depot. The company also operates bus services on behalf of Transport for London from their Dartford depot.

Dartford (DT)
Dartford garage is the only Arriva Kent Thameside depot that does not have commercial services, the depot only handles services contracted by TfL, the other difference between Dartford and Northfleet depot is that the buses in the Dartford fleet are in London red rather than the traditional aquamarine and cream corporate livery Arriva uses. Even though the depot is based in Kent, only 3 of the 7 routes run into Kent. The rest stay in Greater London.

Dartford Garage handles TfL routes 160, 286, 428, 492, B12, B13 and B15.

History
On 23 February 2013, Metrobus commenced operating route 233.

On 23 March 2013, Metrobus commenced operating route 126.

Route 286 will pass to London Central from 12 July 2014.

Bus types in use

 * Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 Dart 10.2m for routes 428 and B12
 * Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 Dart 10.8m for routes 286, 428 and B15
 * Alexander Dennis Enviro400 10.2m for route 160
 * DAF SB200 9.2m / Wright Cadet for route B13
 * DAF DB250 10.2m / Wright Pulsar Gemini for route 492

Northfleet
Northfleet depot runs commercial services in Dartford, Gravesend and surrounding areas. These Routes are 408, 414, 423, 433, 453, 455, 477, 480, 485, 490, 497, as well as Fastrack routes A and B.

Bus types in use

 * Dennis Dart / East Lancs EL2000
 * Dennis Dart / Plaxton Pointer (standard floor)
 * Dennis Dart SLF / Plaxton Pointer 2
 * Dennis Dart SLF / Alexander Dennis Pointer
 * Optare MetroRider due for withdrawal
 * Optare Solo SR
 * VDL SB200 / Wright Pulsar (for routes 480 and 490)
 * Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse Urban (for Fastrack)
 * Volvo Olympian / Northern Counties Countybus Palatine 1
 * Volvo Olympian / Northern Counties Countybus Palatine 2

Livery
The main Arriva livery is aquamarine blue, with champagne cream and white separator line. Fastrack buses at Northfleet use a special livery of light blue at the front and grey at the rear, broken with a navy blue band and thin white lines in the middle of the bus. As Dartford operates TfL routes the Arriva London livery is used at this depot. The original London livery was red, with champagne “cow-horns” (a thined version of the aquamarine swoop) and thin yellow line at skirt level. The Arriva “circles” logo is orange, not blue, as the corporate one. The new London livery is completely red, with the thin yellow line at skirt level and the Arriva “circles” in plain white.

A part livery was the Bluewater livery. This was allover blue, with a water shimmer effect. The service using this livery were replaced by Fastrack in 2006.