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 & SussexCompanies House extract company no 114841  Arriva Kent & Surrey Limited formerly Arriva Kent & Sussex Limited formerly The Maidstone & District Motor Services Limited operates in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. Buses go to Chequers bus station, Tenterden, Snodland, Tonbridge, High Brooms and Kings Hill.

 Arriva Kent ThamesideCompanies House extract company no 2005266  Arriva Kent Thameside Limited formerly Kentish Bus & Coach Limited formerly London Country Bus (South East) Limited operates in Dartford. Buses go to Bluewater shopping centre, Dartford, Orpington, Greenhithe, Gravesend.

 Arriva Medway TownsCompanies House extract company no 3943257  Arriva Medway Towns Limited operates in the Medway Towns and parts of Kent. Buses go to the Medway Towns, Bluewater shopping centre and Gravesend.

 Arriva SouthendCompanies House extract company no 1992873  Arriva Southend Limited formerly Southend Transport Limited 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.Maidstone Quality Bus Partnership  Kent County 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.

Depots

Current Depots
The locations of Arriva Southern Counties' depots and the divisions which operate them are:
DepotDivisionColchesterArriva ColchesterGillinghamOperator summary for licence PK0003562  Vehicles & Operator Services AgencyArriva Medway Towns MaidstoneOperator summary for licence PK0000208  Vehicles & Operator Services AgencyArriva Kent & Sussex NorthfleetOperator summary for licence PK0001285  Vehicles & Operator Services AgencyArriva Kent ThamesideTunbridge WellsArriva Kent & Sussex SouthendOperator summary for licence PF0000093  Vehicles & Operator Services AgencyArriva Southend 

Former Depots
Former depots of Arriva Southern Counties were:
DepotDivisionFateCranleighArriva Guildford & West Surrey Closed during 2011CrawleyArriva Kent & Sussex Transferred to Metrobus on 30 March 2001DartfordArriva Kent ThamesideTransferred to Arriva London in January 2016Arriva London adds four more garages Arriva LondonArriva London Buses Issue 731 February 2016 page 66GatwickeasyBus (New Enterprise Coaches)Closed on 5 December 2009GuildfordArriva Guildford & West Surrey Closed on 17 December 2021, leased to Stagecoach SouthSurprise tenant for Arriva's Guildford depot Buses issue 806 May 2022 page 14GraysArriva SouthendTransferred to Arriva London in January 2016HawkhurstArriva Kent & SussexClosed on 17 February 2008HorshamArriva Guildford & West Surrey Closed on 2 October 2009 when operations were transferred to MetrobusGo-Ahead to acquire Arriva's Horsham Bus  Bus & Coach Professional 3 September 2009SittingbourneArriva Medway Towns Closed on 2 July 2006SheernessArriva Medway TownsClosed on 11 July 2021TenterdenArriva 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.

 References 

Other websites
Arriva website

Category:British bus companies