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.

### 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.

#### 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
- **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.

### Current Depots

The locations of Arriva Southern Counties' depots and the divisions which operate them are:
|Depot|Division|
| --- | --- |
|Colchester|Arriva Colchester|
|Gillingham|Arriva Medway Towns|
|Maidstone|Arriva Kent & Sussex|
|Northfleet|Arriva Kent Thameside|
|Tunbridge Wells|Arriva Kent & Sussex|
|Southend|Arriva Southend|

### Former Depots

Former depots of Arriva Southern Counties were:
|Depot|Division|Fate|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Cranleigh|Arriva Guildford & West Surrey|Closed during 2011|
|Crawley|Arriva Kent & Sussex|Transferred to Metrobus on 30 March 2001|
|Dartford|Arriva Kent Thameside|Transferred to Arriva London in January 2016|
|Gatwick|easyBus (New Enterprise Coaches)|Closed on 5 December 2009|
|Guildford|Arriva Guildford & West Surrey|Closed on 17 December 2021, leased to Stagecoach South|
|Grays|Arriva Southend|Transferred to Arriva London in January 2016|
|Hawkhurst|Arriva Kent & Sussex|Closed on 17 February 2008|
|Horsham|Arriva Guildford & West Surrey|Closed on 2 October 2009 when operations were transferred to Metrobus|
|Sittingbourne|Arriva Medway Towns|Closed on 2 July 2006|
|Sheerness|Arriva Medway Towns|Closed on 11 July 2021|
|Tenterden|Arriva Kent & Sussex|Closed on 9 May 2009, following loss of contracts for operated services|

## 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.

## Other websites

- Arriva website

## Infobox (bus transit)

- **name**: Arriva Southern Counties
- **image**: MX61AXK Forstal Road Aylesford. Service 155 Maidstone to Chatham.jpg
- **image caption**: Wright Gemini 2 in Aylesford in 2022
- **parent**: Arriva UK Bus
- **headquarters**: Maidstone
- **service area**: Essex
Harlow
Hemel Hempstead
Kent
Watford
Ware, Kent, Ware
- **service type**: Bus services
- **hubs**: Chatham, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells
- **depots**: 11
- **operator**: Arriva Colchester
Arriva Kent & Sussex
Arriva Kent Thameside
Arriva Medway Towns
Arriva Southend
- **website**: [http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/ www.arrivabus.co.uk]