nationalrail
Member
Before the Corona Virus there was an extensive network of Gatwick Airport Hotel Bus Routes (which i believe were the G1/G2/G3/G4/G5/G6/G7/G8 bus services) operated by NSL using a mixture of Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 and Mercedes Benz Citaro vehicles.
Then the Corona Virus started and all of these routes were withdrawn and NSL then sold their entire fleet of Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 and Mercedes Benz Citaro vehicles which have mostly passed to new operators around the country.
But earlier in the beginning of 2022 they seem to have restarted hotel bus operations but it is now just one bus route numbered GH1 so the full service has not returned and according to information online BM Coaches are running it.
From what i can see BM Coaches are a coach operator who mainly do private hire and i can find no record of them owning any buses. But i can imagine they would be using coaches to operate such routes. So they must have some buses now.
To confuse things even further the bustimes tracking is showing buses with five digit fleet numbers but it is not showing reg numbers. But i do not think BM Coaches are large enough to be using five digit fleet numbers. So i am wondering if someone else is running these routes.
Has anyone been to Gatwick Airport in the past few months and seen the GH1 service? Who is actually running it? What type of vehicles are being used? Can anyone clarify the current situation?
Additionally the timetable shows that throughout the day there are two buses departing together every twenty minutes and then following each other around the entire route? Is this actually correct? Or is this an error? If it is correct then why do they not space it out to even ten minutes instead which would use the same exact amount of vehicles and drivers?
Then the Corona Virus started and all of these routes were withdrawn and NSL then sold their entire fleet of Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 and Mercedes Benz Citaro vehicles which have mostly passed to new operators around the country.
But earlier in the beginning of 2022 they seem to have restarted hotel bus operations but it is now just one bus route numbered GH1 so the full service has not returned and according to information online BM Coaches are running it.
From what i can see BM Coaches are a coach operator who mainly do private hire and i can find no record of them owning any buses. But i can imagine they would be using coaches to operate such routes. So they must have some buses now.
To confuse things even further the bustimes tracking is showing buses with five digit fleet numbers but it is not showing reg numbers. But i do not think BM Coaches are large enough to be using five digit fleet numbers. So i am wondering if someone else is running these routes.
Has anyone been to Gatwick Airport in the past few months and seen the GH1 service? Who is actually running it? What type of vehicles are being used? Can anyone clarify the current situation?
Additionally the timetable shows that throughout the day there are two buses departing together every twenty minutes and then following each other around the entire route? Is this actually correct? Or is this an error? If it is correct then why do they not space it out to even ten minutes instead which would use the same exact amount of vehicles and drivers?
