Thank you
@TheGrandWazoo for your interesting report. I have posted a number of reports on areas you know very well from the past, this tile it is the other way round, from about 1968-1975 I explored the whole London Country area comprehensively and I have visited since. It is interesting to see red buses now in Dorking and Redhill, this never used to be the case. In my day red buses just reached Leatherhead on the 71, down to Dorking it was the 470, 712/3 and 714 while Redhill had the 405 and 414 from Croydon providing the luxury of former Routemaster coaches every 15 minutes - nothing red south of Purley. The 414 continued to Reigate, Dorking and Horsham and would have been your first bus in those days. yes you would have passed the old Dorking bus garage but I'm not sure anything remains. Horsham was always a border town with London Country running in from Dorking and Crawley, Aldershot and District from Guildford and Southdown, who I think had a depot there. Now Metrobus rule the roost. The route to Crawley was run with standee AEC Merlins (aka Swifts) for many years, this route running on to East Grinstead and Edenbridge, most unsuitable buses.
I agree that it makes no sense how Arriva couldn't make money in Crawley, this is good bus operating territory with several substantial estates but the town centre is pretty awful. In the 1970s there was just one bus an hour between Crawley and East Grinstead, this has improved quite a bit. However Edenbridge is much more genteel and as a result now has far less, perhaps also because it is in Kent as opposed to Surrey. I have always thought the town centre quite pleasant. Routes do survive here to Westerham and Tunbridge Wells but the Sevenoaks service has been lost fairly recently. The 231 and 233 routes to Tunbridge Wells do pass through attractive countryside - they were Maidstone & District routes in the past so for me at that time didn't exist!
I do know Tunbridge Wells now and it seems Arriva are in a state of gently managed decline here. They have a newish depot on the edge of town but presumably rented with a pretty old fleet, especially the deckers, and gradual reductions in services, not helped by Kent's attitude to bus services at the moment. The town centre is very middle class and very attractive but there are some areas of the town with reasonable bus services, although StreetLites seem to be the order of the day for the local services. Shame it would have been dark by the time you did the 291 as the section from Tunbridge Wells to Forest Row is very scenic while, as you say, much of the Surrey roads served by bus are nothing special. The best routes are probably around the North Downs, the Dorking to Guildford corridor and routes off it, plus the hinterland south east of Dorking with Metrobus routes 21 and 22.
I can't tell the difference between an OmniDekka and an OmniCity either, but I've always considered Scania chassis to be decent although the bodywork here is not the best. I've always though Metrobus to be good but now they are part of a big group they've become a bit more corporate and less entrepreneurial, it seems like some investment would be welcome, while Southdown PSV have always looked a quality operation, I could never understand how the big players let good routes like the 410 (the Redhill to Oxted section) get away!
I have always found your posts interesting, thoughtful and balanced - while I too sometimes think 'not this subject again!' and restrain myself from posting where I've nothing useful or insightful to say. I hope you will keep posting trip reports and your other thoughts.
Thanks
@RELL6L - you clearly had the opportunity to explore in very interesting and different times. How it would be to travel back in time and experience those days (and not just to travel on an RF or whatever) and experience those days. I envy you there, but doubtless, you envy my endless trips in the 1980s to Spennymoor and Loftus on vinyl seated Nationals....or maybe not
I knew the 465 reached Dorking but even so, it did seem rather incongruous to see a red bus there. It's curious how much a border area this patch was and is, and in different ways. You have four different counties all meeting up (with different ideas on supporting buses) and the presence of Transport for London lurking into the north and extending south. Historically, London Country and Southdown both had depots in Crawley and East Grinstead (though Southdown's both closed with NBC era rationalisation). M&D ran into EG, and whilst there was a Guildford to Horsham route, it wasn't an LC but an Alder Valley route. Even now, Stagecoach run into Horsham from Brighton but Metrobus run south to Worthing (sure that was a Stagecoach route before?). Horsham was indeed home to a Southdown garage; an early deregulation casualty is putting it mildly - think it closed in early 1987, and it was a fair size (photo Jeremy Chapter)
The Southdown garage at Horsham was seen on 6 March 1977. Leyland Leopard coach 1254 (CUF254L) is nearest the camera, the a DP Leopard/Northern Counties and a couple of Bristol REs and a PD3 appears to be further back. The garage closed in 1987.
www.flickr.com
The decline of Arriva in SE England is perhaps one of the most striking shrinkages of their empire. When Arriva was formed, most of what I travelled on was Arriva territory. London & Country stretched round from Guildford and Cranleigh, Merstham and Crawley, and then up into Kent with the former Kentish Bus and M&D ops. Now much has been ceded, in Sussex to Metrobus, and the L&C business is gone completely.
Disappointed that I missed out on the scenic bit of the 291 by Forest Row - definitely looked like plenty of nice villages in that area. Metrobus was always well regarded, even after Go Ahead bought them, and I must stress that the vehicles all operated and were well turned out internally. However, the fleet is dominated by those 09 deckers (though I did see a newer Gemini in Redhill) and aside from a few Streetlites (2017/2019), the fleet was very much in the mid-life bracket. Not a bad firm by any stretch and perhaps, in all fairness, my expectations were overly high! I did think that the service from Crawley to EG was impressive - how much of that is down to Gatwick, I don't know. There's not much wrong with Metrobus but it probably needs a bit of a refresh.
I was glad to explore somewhere that I'd never really visited; last time I'd travelled in Sussex was many years ago and even then, it was more Worthing, Uckfield, Eastbourne. Who knows when I'll travel there again...
Just so I manage expectations... next report will be later this week and it's a half day grinding around some SE fleshpots. Just cranking up the excitement (NOT)
*** SECOND INSTALMENT ***
I have been threatening this so here goes. For some reason, having not had reason to travel on Essex's buses for many, many years, I have taken the opportunity to experience them three times in just over a year. The first two were concentrated in mid Essex though a trip to Brentwood featured. This time, I was very tight on time with various Essex related commitments so it essentially constitutes about half a day of concentrated exploration around Basildon and the area around Southend. I hope it entertains.
I began the day in Basildon. This is one of the post-war new towns that coped with the flattening of London and provided hope and new jobs for displaced Eastenders. It compares favourably against Crawley that I'd visited beforehand. Even though Crawley has Gatwick on the doorstep, Basildon seems to have a bit more vibrancy in its town centre, and generally the place seems moderately more affluent. As with many new towns, the bus station is awful - cold and miserable. On the plus point, there is plenty of information on the stands and First have even branded the main stand for their Airport service to Stansted. However, with Greggs bacon baguette in hand, I went to my first bus of the day to buy my multi-operator Essex Saver ticket. This is valid across the county but, annoyingly, not for journeys
wholly within Southend unitary borough (who have their own Octopus ticket). Really not very clever as the whole area is a conurbation that extends across two separate counties.
Basildon bus station - feel the joy
I'd already decided that my first port of call was Pitsea, for no other reason than it was there and would allow some form of interchange. The local routes have been rationalised and simplified (thankfully) and I was pleasantly surprised to see my steed was one of only four e350Hs in the First fleet. These had been at Chelmsford but are now at Basildon - they no longer carry their bespoke livery extolling their hybrid nature and indeed, I couldn't determine any hybrid power on my trip. However, this was a terrible machine - one of the very worst I've known with the ride quality and rattles and bangs. 13 mins of uninterrupted internal clattering - I was glad to escape at Pitsea.
My awful e350H - not a smooth operator
Pitsea is a very non-descript place and I elected not to hang around. Already waiting to head to Southend was a First Essex Streetlite, and this was a delight after the 350H. The journey was sedate, the vehicle didn't rattle (not even the emergency door handle), and it didn't have some of the other issues that the type sometimes has, like the jerky transmission or harsh braking. It was a decent machine. I bailed at Benfleet, and onto my next bus. This is the 1, operated by Arriva with a batch of 66 plate e400mmcs between Southend and Rayleigh. I assume it's Arriva's trunk route in Southend, and after just missing one journey, I didn't have too long to wait.
This is a long tendril of a route extending into and through what is mainly First territory, and it was a rather sedate affair. On entering Rayleigh, I saw a flash of orange ahead as the sole remaining ex Weston super Mare e400 in Excel colours passed through. I exited at the rather pleasant Rayleigh station. I had options - I could go to Chelmsford on the infrequent route there but that seemed a high-risk strategy. Instead, I grabbed the 25 which was operated by one of First's ex London and Leicester e400s.
My mmc at Rayleigh Station, with a Versa on the 8 to Shoeburyness
This batch of buses has a really gloomy interior, in keeping with the heavy rain showers. In hindsight, I should've caught the Versa to head around via Rochford and Southend but thought I'd head to Wickford instead. Now, I'm sure the people of Wickford are lovely but the town seemed really depressed/depressing as we arrived. I had hoped to catch the one Hedingham service to Basildon (94) but I suddenly saw it disappearing. Missing buses was becoming a habit! I still elected to get off and have an explore to see if I was missing some hidden beauty in the high street... I wasn't!
Dereliction by the main bus stops in Wickford
I was going to head to Basildon but then had an existential crisis, as I fancied some island life. Looking at the times, I was going to cut things fine to get to Canvey and my commitments. I decided to retrace my steps and was pleased when the 25 arrived. It was one of the 8 former Plymouth/Weston super Mare e400s that arrived last year into First Essex. Now 16 years old, the interiors are showing their age but god, the seats are comfortable. The leg room is also very spacious - only 39 seats on the top deck. I had thought these worked the Lakeside service so this was a bonus.
Good to travel on one of these e400s again - next bus is almost visible!
These vehicles were great value but were worked hard for 10 years on the Bristol to Weston services, and this hard life is noticeable with the leather seats though these are proper leather (I think) and much better wearing that eLeather. Amusingly, it still carried an ad at the top of the stairs for the Avon Wildlife Trust. We splashed through the rain and I again alighted at Rayleigh station and straight onto another Arriva mmc to take me back through Thundersley (what a name) to Benfleet.
A bit spartan after the retrim
Looking across the estuary
Now First Essex did have a horrendously old fleet (and it's still quite bad) with loads of ex London Tridents still operating until recently. Those have now all gone, replaced by the ex West of England e400s and a large batch of ex Arriva London e400s that have had a light retrim and converted to single door. These and a repaint programme is starting to introduce the new green livery in some numbers. I wasn't overly sold on the new scheme but have to concede, it looks bright on a grey day. I was quite pleased to actually catch my next bus (rather than see it disappear into the distance) and it was one of those ex Arriva machines. The seats now have grey eLeather and it's a bit drab inside and the seats aren't the most comfortable. Still, they'll do a job for the next 4/5 years and it's a way of updating the fleet at a minimal cost.
The livery is quite bright - better than I gave it credit tbh
It takes a special person to live here in Canvey
This was quite a pleasant journey to Canvey. You soon leave the main road and then down through suburbia and down through Benfleet to the station. The views here are best described as ethereal; a tidal zone where people live on beached boats, and across to the container ports. I did want to head into Canvey proper but looking at the tracker on bustimes, I had a real crisis of confidence. I bailed early having reached Canvey Island and then deciding I was cutting things too fine. A bus back towards Southend was coming and so I left and ran across the road to await it.
It was one of the ex Leeds B9 Geminis that also work these routes. Now, to be honest, this puzzles me. I've travelled on this batch in Bath, Norwich and now Essex. In each instance, you go upstairs and there are First Bus corporate notices from when the batch was nearly new (so 2013). Perhaps the corporate style has confused people but they are still in situ but relate to Leeds - 0113 phone number, references to West Yorkshire etc. Why hasn't it been removed? In three different places?
Moreover, there are these and a couple of former Green Line examples with high backed seats. I'm not certain why they are allocated to such relatively easy work when First West of England has e400s on its Mendip routes. Also, and I know First South Yorkshire have some ex Leeds B9s of this batch and they've been refurbished; the interiors of these B9s are looking really, really tired now with torn, shiny seat coverings. These are good machines and just think they could be better used on more demanding work rather than pootling around Canvey.
First's Hadleigh depot - what a survivor
We retraced our way out of Canvey and Benfleet and then onto the main road before heading towards Leigh on Sea. En route, we stopped at Hadleigh depot for a driver change. Does seem odd that whilst they are rolling out the green Essex livery, the signage and overall appearance was still faded corporate First. I'm amazed that such a prominently located site has survived this long, especially as Eastern National preferred to close their Prittlewell depot in preference, and they could try to improve the appearance with some new green signage.
I got off at Westcliff to fulfil a commitment there, coincidentally not far from that old EN depot, now recently redeveloped for housing. Things were concluded and I wandered out. Concerned that my timings coincided with the kicking out of the football ground, I went for the first bus in the right vague direction to beat the football rush, and it was the 25 to Basildon (again) and another ex Weston, luxurious e400 that took me back to Rayleigh and Wickford (again) before finally depositing me in Basildon. I walked through the shopping centre, past the Christmas Tree (yes, still there) and into the car park to get on my way home.
I didn't get to travel on Stephensons or Hedingham, and my experience of Arriva was limited. However, it seemed decent enough from what I saw. Much of my five hours was First Essex. They clearly still have a lot to do but they are beginning to face into the issues. The Basildon route network was really confusing - it is now rationalised and whilst that has meant reductions, it clearly needed doing. The fleet is beginning to improve, even if it is with some quite old e400s with a limited shelf life. However, a definite improvement and the image is getting better. That said, they have got some ex Glasgow e400mmcs that are considerably newer;they are still running round in their gold branded livery and various Glasgow area references so they need to get those dealt with. Better but still a lot to sort out, and I hope I never get a bus as bad as that first e350H! The whole area is quite urban and I've not great urge to revisit Wickford or Pitsea but Westcliff is nice enough and Canvey is just a bit weird... as Island Life tends to be.
Hope this mini report (not that mini) is interesting. I would advise exploring Essex and I'm sure that the summer will provide another opportunity to explore in better weather.
Rayleigh did seem ok from what I saw in passing but I think I could live without revisiting Pitsea and Wickford. Still, always nice to visit new places.
