Buses are Surprisingly Frequent in Brighton

[Class455/8]

I was looking at some bus timetables and noticed how frequent bus routes are in Brighton and also very frequent Night bus routes. I live in London but have travelled to a few major cities in the UK. Liverpool, Manchester, Portsmouth, Tyne and Wear, Cambridge and a few others but I have never experienced bus routes quite this frequent. Take the 25 in Brighton for example, it runs every 4 min with bendy buses. Very impressive to me.

 

[peterblue]

It has a fantastic service for a relatively small city. Many cities even larger than Brighton have very limited or even no night bus service. I would attribute the main reasons for this as follows:

1) It has a young population comparably, with a lot of students who tend to rely on public transport over having their own car.

2) Geographically, the city is easy to serve as it runs east-west mainly. Fewer routes would be needed to cover the city compared to a city radiating out in all directions.

3) GoAhead in Brighton are a good company; I do not think Brighton would have fared so well under e.g. Arriva operation.

 

[Class455/8]

It has a fantastic service for a relatively small city. Many cities even larger than Brighton have very limited or even no night bus service. I would attribute the main reasons for this as follows:

1) It has a young population comparably, with a lot of students who tend to rely on public transport over having their own car.

2) Geographically, the city is easy to serve as it runs east-west mainly. Fewer routes would be needed to cover the city compared to a city radiating out in all directions.

3) GoAhead in Brighton are a good company; I do not think Brighton would have fared so well under e.g. Arriva operation.

Yeah, i agree Go ahead are putting a lot of money in Brighton and Metrobus and yeah on your other points that makes sense.

 

[mister-sparky]

2 universities and a high student population to move around helps!

 

[Arbitor5]

25’s generally run every 5 minutes during the day. The artics are currently being scrapped/sold so make the most of them. I think it’s also down good leadership too, have a nose of Roger French’s book Pride and Joy.

 

[Class455/8]

25’s generally run every 5 minutes during the day. The artics are currently being scrapped/sold so make the most of them. I think it’s also down good leadership too, have a nose of Roger French’s book Pride and Joy.

Oh when are they going? Will i be able to ride at the start of June?

 

[nesw]

There’s a reduced service from 11 June when the universities finish for the summer, so fewer buses will be needed.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There are a lot of factors behind the Brighton example.

Firstly, you had a very enlightened management team over several years under the guidance of Roger French. Various innovations and a focus on service delivery meant that some of the inherent advantages in the area (e.g. affluence, geography, population growth, growth in universities etc) were better exploited. This was also supported by Go Ahead once they bought the business having also invested heavily.

Also, you have a very pro-public transport council and that meant decent bus priority exists. Much of Lewes Road has 24 hr bus lanes and these measures have both insured that PVR increases due to growing congestion have been tempered (so helps the cost of operation) whilst also establishing an advantage (or at least removing some of the disadvantage) over the private car. The council has done their bit and so has B&H.

 

[Arbitor5]

Oh when are they going? Will i be able to ride at the start of June?

Probably. Some have already gone, more are going this coming week.

There are a lot of factors behind the Brighton example.

Firstly, you had a very enlightened management team over several years under the guidance of Roger French. Various innovations and a focus on service delivery meant that some of the inherent advantages in the area (e.g. affluence, geography, population growth, growth in universities etc) were better exploited. This was also supported by Go Ahead once they bought the business having also invested heavily.

Also, you have a very pro-public transport council and that meant decent bus priority exists. Much of Lewes Road has 24 hr bus lanes and these measures have both insured that PVR increases due to growing congestion have been tempered (so helps the cost of operation) whilst also establishing an advantage (or at least removing some of the disadvantage) over the private car. The council has done their bit and so has B&H.

This was the case with the council back in the day, however now they’re only interested in Cyclists so bus priority has actually been reduced in recent years with examples such as the dedicated St Peter’s Bus Lane being removed.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Probably. Some have already gone, more are going this coming week.


This was the case with the council back in the day, however now they’re only interested in Cyclists so bus priority has actually been reduced in recent years with examples such as the dedicated St Peter’s Bus Lane being removed.

Yes, and whilst some of that has been unpicked, it still explains why Brighton managed to follow an upward trend.

 

[Hophead]

It seems that the Citaros no longer run on Sundays, so you should time any visit for another day if you intend to ride a few.

 

[planetf1]

Overall Brighton is pretty good for public transport in frequency. Less so for daytime journey times.

I’m an hours walk away from the centre and last normal bus from Center is around 00:25 min-sat. But then there’s three more night buses until around 0330.

Trains also crazy with expensive London trains from 0413 and last train arriving back after 0230?

Best deal is thameslink only to London . Weekend only 9 ukp or 12 with travel card. Bargain. Or London and Brighton plusbus also around 12 (keygo)

Overall Service much better than other cities I’ve seen outside London Manchester etc