Fastrack (bus)
Fastrack is a bus rapid transit scheme in the Thames Gateway area of Kent. It consists of three routes, operated by Arriva Southern Counties on behalf of Kent County Council with Prologis and Amazon respectively. Measures used to allow buses to avoid traffic include signal priority, reserved lanes, and dedicated busways. Routes. Construction work on Fastrack started in September 2004, and it began operating with the introduction of Fastrack B on 26 March 2006 between Dartford and Gravesend, serving Darent Valley Hospital, Bluewater Shopping Centre, Greenhithe station (and Ebbsfleet International station since it opened on 19 November  2007). Services operate from 05:30 until after midnight. The 9.5 km (5.9 mi) long Fastrack A was added on 3 June 2007. It operates up to every ten minutes between Dartford and Bluewater along the western side of Temple Hill, The Bridge Crossways Business Park and Greenhithe station. Fastrack A is part-funded by Prologis, the developers of The Bridge. On 23 August 2021 the 24-hour route AZ was added to the network serving the new Amazon LCY3 distribution centre in Dartford. The route runs between Dartford and Gravesend up to every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. The  route is operated by Go-Coach using Alexander Dennis Enviro400 vehicles.This service will only run until April 2022, at which point Kent County Council will adopt both routes A and AZ as part of its own network, alongside route B. Route changes. When Fastrack B began it was divided into five fare zones. They were replaced with the current three zones when Fastrack A began to simplify the fare structure and to ease the introduction of off-vehicle ticket machines. Prior to the opening of Ebbsfleet International on 19 November 2007, Fastrack B ran through Northfleet. The diversion along  Thames Way to the station, connecting with Eurostar and Southeastern High Speed services, added 2 km (1¼ mi) of junction priority and segregated lanes. Northfleet is still served by conventional Arriva routes 480 and 490. For the first four months of operation, Route A ran on a temporary alignment via Junction 1a of the M25 motorway to link The Bridge, Dartford, development site with Crossways Business Park. From 30 September 2007 it was diverted via a dedicated bridge over the Dartford toll plaza and under the QE2 Bridge of the Dartford Crossing, avoiding a congestion hotspot and allowing the original  six-minute peak frequency to be improved to five minutes. On 10 December 2012 the Everards Link Phase 2, which links Greenhithe station with the Ingress Park housing development via a stretch of busway, opened. From 2 September 2018 Fastrack B was rerouted within Ingress Park to serve the whole of the development following the completion of a new section of road linking the development with London Road. In August 2020, Fastrack B was rerouted again, between and Gravesend along the newly constructed Springhead Bridge so that buses now serve the Springhead Park development. Fares and ticketing. The network is  split into three fare zones. Tickets are sold by the driver and from roadside machines, at certain bus stops, to allow for faster boarding. M-tickets, bus tickets on mobile phones, were successfully trialled in early 2008 and are now available across the Arriva bus network. Vehicles. The original fleet consisted of 26 Wright Eclipse Urban bodied Volvo B7RLEs. These had passenger information screens, voice announcements and CCTV. In July 2015, these were replaced by 21 Wright StreetLites. From 21 March to 9 May 2018 Fastrack took part in a trial scheme which saw an additional hourly journey made by  an electric Volvo 7900e, with a main charging point installed in the form of a generator at the front of Greenhithe railway station allowing the bus to fully charge inside six minutes. On 4 August 2019 Arriva Kent Thameside retained the contract to operate the Fastrack B service. As part of this, the 14 Wright StreetLites on the route were replaced with newer Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC vehicles transferred from the Medway area which were refurbished to Fastrack specification. 7 of the Wright StreetLites continue to operate on Fastrack A. Between August 2021 and April 2022, whilst the Fastrack AZ  service was operated by Go-Coach, a total of eight Alexander Dennis Enviro400 vehicles worked on the service. When this route was transferred to Arriva Kent Thameside, the Enviro400 vehicles were withdrawn and an additional Enviro200 MMC now works on the AZ service.