Arriva Southern Counties

Arriva Southern Counties is a bus company. It operates services in East Sussex, Essex, Kent, Surrey and West Sussex. It is a division of Arriva. Divisions Arriva Kent & Sussex operates in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. Buses go to Chequers bus station, Tenterden, Snodland, Tonbridge, High Brooms and Kings Hill. Arriva Kent Thameside operates in Dartford. Buses go to Bluewater shopping centre, Dartford, Orpington, Greenhithe, Gravesend. Arriva Medway Towns operates in the Medway Towns and parts of Kent. Buses go to the Medway Towns, Bluewater shopping centre and Gravesend. Arriva Southend operates in Essex. Buses go to Southend-On-Sea, Rochford and Hadleigh. Arriva Colchester operates in Colchester. Buses go to Greenstead, Monkwick and run a Park and Ride service. Services Local and Interurban Services Arriva Southern Counties operate bus services in Kent and Essex. In Southend, Arriva Southern Counties operate bus services in Rayleigh, Hadleigh, Rochford and Shoeburyness and in Colchester. In Kent, Buses operate from depots in Northfleet, Gillingham, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, they go to towns such as Dartford, Gravesend, Chatham, Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells, Tenterden, Hawkhurst, Sevenoaks, Orpington, Sittingbourne and Sheerness-on-Sea. Sapphire routes 480/490/491 Arriva Southern Counties operate Sapphire buses in Kent Thameside on routes 480, 490 and 491, they go to Temple Hill, Dartford, Bluewater, Greenhithe, Swanscombe, Northfleet, Gravesend, or Valley Drive and Riverview Park. These services are operated by Wright Streetlite buses, they have free WiFi, e-leather seats and USB charging ports. Sapphire branded buses were used on routes 101 (Chatham to Maidstone) in 2014 and 700 (Chatham to Bluewater) in 2017, but they were stopped in 2022. In 2022, Arriva started to remove the Sapphire brand, the buses were painted into the normal Arriva livery or they were replaced with new buses. Southend route 9 Arriva Southern Counties operate branded buses on route 9 in Southend, it goes from Rayleigh to Shoeburyness. Park & Ride Colchester Arriva Southern Counties operate the Colchester park & ride service for Essex County Council. The service operates in a circle, it goes from the Park & Ride site to Colchester City Centre and Colchester Station. Maidstone Arriva Southern Counties used to operate the Maidstone park & ride for Maidstone Borough Council. The service went from London Road or Willington Street to Maidstone Town Centre. The service was stopped in February 2022 because there wasn't many passengers using it and because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fastrack Arriva Southern Counties used to operate three Fastrack services for Kent County Council, Prologis and Amazon. The services were: Route A runs from Dartford to Bluewater via Temple Hill, The Bridge and Greenhithe Route AZ runs from the Amazon LCY3 distribution centre to either Dartford or Gravesend at shift changeover times only Route B runs from Dartford to Gravesend via Darent Valley Hospital, Bluewater, Greenhithe and Ebbsfleet International railway station. In November 2024, Arriva stopped operating the Fastrack services, In November 2024, Go-Ahead London started operating the Fastrack routes. Depots Current Depots The locations of Arriva Southern Counties' depots and the divisions which operate them are: Former Depots Former depots of Arriva Southern Counties were: Fleet As at December 2013 the fleet consisted of 900 buses and coaches. As at September 2014, 113 buses were dedicated to the Transport for London services. References Other websites Arriva website Media related to Arriva Southern Counties at Wikimedia Commons