London Country --> Arriva --> Kent Country
It is worth remembering that many of the bus routes in the Dartford area were run by London Transport's green buses ...
... others in West Kent by Maidstone and District.
Arriva became the dominant operator post deregulation by acquiring both.
As well as the 477 (yesterday's blog) GoAhead has taken over FOUR other ex-Arriva routes, but this time indirectly.
... was a well established Arriva service.
Arriva could not make a go of the service commercially, so, out to tender it went. The latest incumbent was Redroute ,,,
... who lost out to GoAhead's burgeoning Kent Country business.
The timetable is somewhat messy Monday to Friday, less so on a Saturday.
A longer distance route from Gravesend to Sevenoaks ..,
But you would guess that not many passengers would willingly sit on a 308 for a one hour and forty minutes full length journey!
For some time the 414 was also part of Arriva's network ...
... but not destined for huge passenger numbers. Its commercial service ceased to be replaced by a tender won by Redroute buses.
The 416 and 417 were treated as a pair, again by Arriva.
Back in the heady days when helpful leaflets were printed (as opposed to today's unhelpful on-line offering) ...
... you also had a map!
Both routes started from Bluewater shopping paradise; or is it the shopping home to the prophetic burning fires that never go out?
Both routes were later with Redroute ...
The 416 heading is misleading. The main service runs from Vigo ...
A bit of a modern mystery were the Darts 1 and 2 with a school trip as Dart 3.
fbb assumes that the present timetables have not changed, nor is there any obvious record as to why the company lost out to KC.
Dart 1 serves areas to the west of Dartford Town Centre ...
... whereas Dart 2 strikes out towards Temple Hill on roads that used to be part of an estate called Joyce Green.
1st Bus Stop still trades running numerous school services in North Kent area with just one all day route, namely the 489 to New Ash Green.
Unsurprisingly, the 489 was once operated by ...
... Arriva!
So we see a steady decline in the Arriva business now supplanted by an uprising from GoAhead Kent Country.
When, do our readers think, might Arriva sell their declining Kent business to GoAhead?
There are rumblings!
Next Ecclesiastical bus blog : Weds 11 Nov
No comments:
Post a Comment