In April 1995, Einkorn was sold to British Bus,[7] which had purchased Kentish Bus in July 1994 and Londonlinks in 1988. In August 1995, Einkorn was renamed Invictaway.[2] Invictaway was previously the name of the Maidstone & District commuter services to London, which were renamed Green Line at the same time.[6]
In July 1996, British Bus was taken over by the Cowie Group.[8][9] Invictaway was renamed Arriva Southern Counties in April 1998,[2] and Arriva transferred London & Country (also owned by British Bus) to it. The subsidiary operating companies therefore became:
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 and 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.[15][16] In October 2009, the Horsham depot and routes were sold to Metrobus with 19 buses.[17]
In March 2015, Network Colchester and Network Harlow operations were taken over from Tellings-Golden Miller, who at the time was an Arriva subsidiary. Both operation companies were rebranded Arriva Colchester and Arriva Harlow respectively.
In April 2021, Arriva announced the Sheerness depot would close in July 2021, with routes 360, 361 and 367 being withdrawn and re-tendered by Kent County Council.[18] All three routes transferred to Chalkwell Coaches on Monday 12 July 2021.[19][20]
On 31 October 2021, routes 306 and 308 from Northfleet depot were withdrawn. Both were taken over by Redroute Buses.[21]
On 18 December 2021, the Guildford depot closed and operations in Surrey ceased.[22] On that date, 6 routes were taken by Stagecoach South, with routes 36/37 being replaced by a new route 6 and an extension to the existing Route 1.[23] Route A was withdrawn without replacement from 14 November 2021.[24] The depot was leased to Stagecoach South.[25]
On 10 November 2024, Go-Ahead London took over the Fastrack routes which will introduce brand new Irizar ie trams by April 2025.
Arriva Southern Counties operate a mixture of local and interurban services across Kent and Essex, although operations in Colchester and Southend-on-Sea are localised to each town.
In Southend, Arriva Southern Counties operate a local network of services covering Rayleigh, Hadleigh, Rochford and Shoeburyness and in Colchester, they operate a number of local services around the town.[26]
Sapphire branded buses were also previously used on routes 101 in 2014 and 700 in 2017 in the Medway Towns but has since been discontinued on these services in 2022.
Southend route 9
Arriva Southern Counties operate branded buses on route 9 in Southend which operates between Rayleigh and Shoeburyness. The Optare Versa buses that operate this service are branded as "We're heading to the beach".[citation needed]
Until February 2022, Arriva Southern Counties operated the Maidstone park & ride under contract to Maidstone Borough Council.[31] The service linked Maidstone Town Centre with two park & ride sites, one on London Road and one on Willington Street.[32] The service was withdrawn in February 2022 due to reduced passenger numbers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[33]
Since November 2007, Route B has connected with the Eurostar at Ebbsfleet International railway station, and Eurostar passengers are permitted free travel on the service.
On 11 February 2008, Arriva began trialling their mobile "m-ticket" system on the Fastrack network before rolling the system out on all Southern Counties services.[35]
Go-Ahead London started operating the Fastrack network from 10 November 2024 which will introduce electric buses by April 2025.[36]
Closed on 9 May 2009, following loss of contracts for operated services
Dartford and Grays garages were the only Arriva Southern Counties depots which did not have commercial services and only handled 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.
As at September 2014, Dartford garage operated London routes 160, 428, 492, B12, B13 and B15.[47] Grays garage operated London routes 66, 346, 370, 375 and 499.[48]
As part of a decision to consolidate all of Arriva's Transport for London routes, Dartford and Grays garages transferred to Arriva London on 1 January 2016.[42][43]
Fleet
As at December 2013 the fleet consisted of 900 buses and coaches.[citation needed] As at September 2014, 113 buses were dedicated to the Transport for London services.[49]
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