Arriva Southern Counties

Arriva Southern Counties 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. 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.

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.

In April 1995 Einkorn was sold to British Bus, which had purchased Kentish Bus in July 1994 and Londonlinks in 1988. In August 1995 Einkorn was renamed Invictaway. Invictaway was previously the name of the Maidstone & District commuter services to London, which were renamed Green Line at the same time.

In July 1996 British Bus was taken over by the The Cowie Group. Invictaway was renamed Arriva Southern Counties in April 1998, 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
 * Arriva Kent & Sussex
 * Arriva Kent Thameside
 * Arriva Medway Towns
 * Arriva Southend

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. In October 2009 the Horsham depot and routes were sold to Metrobus with 19 buses.

The coach subsidiary, New Enterprise Coaches of Tonbridge, inherited from Maidstone & District continues to trade under its own brand.

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. 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


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.

Livery
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.

Depots
The locations of Arriva Southern Counties' depots and the divisions which operate them are:
 * Dartford - Arriva Kent Thameside
 * Grays - Arriva Southend
 * Gillingham - Arriva Medway Towns
 * Guildford - Arriva Guildford & West Surrey
 * Maidstone - Arriva Kent & Sussex / Arriva Maidstone / New Enterprise Coaches
 * Northfleet - Arriva Kent Thameside
 * Royal Tunbridge Wells - Arriva Kent & Sussex
 * Sheerness - Arriva Medway Towns
 * Southend - Arriva Southend
 * Tonbridge - New Enterprise Coaches

Former depots of Arriva Southern Counties were:
 * Cranleigh - Arriva Guildford & West Surrey (outstation of Guildford) (closed 2011)
 * Gatwick (Copthorne) - easyBus (New Enterprise Coaches) (closed 5 December 2009)
 * Hawkhurst - Arriva Kent & Sussex (closed 17 February 2008)
 * Horsham - Arriva Guildford & West Surrey (closed 2 October 2009, operations sold to Metrobus)
 * Sittingbourne - Arriva Medway Towns (closed 2 July 2006)
 * Tenterden - Arriva Kent & Sussex (closed 9 May 2009, following loss of contracts for routes operated)

Dartford and Grays garages are the only Arriva Southern Counties depots which do not have commercial services and only handle services operated under contract to Transport for London with all buses painted in red Arriva livery.

Commercial routes previously operated from Dartford depot before it became an all Transport for London depot were transferred to Northfleet. Grays depot switched to all Transport for London services after Arriva Southend withdrew both commercial routes 373 and 383 in the Grays area, partially replacing them by extending route 5 from Southend-on-Sea. Routes 44 and 150, the remaining services in the Grays area, are operated under contract to Thurrock Council. The buses used for these routes were transferred to Southend.

Dartford garage operates London routes 160, 286, 428, 492, B12, B13 and B15. Grays garage operates London routes 66, 256, 346, 370, 375 and 499.

Fleet
As at December 2013 the fleet consisted of 900 buses and coaches.