Arriva Southend Route 5

[Deleted]

One for greeny253 perhaps?

Arriva Southend's route 5 was recently extended from Basildon to Lakeside as a partial replacement for withdrawn route 383 - is the whole route operated by Southend garage, or are Grays garage involved?

Looking at the timetable, it looks like Grays garage provide 2 vehicles, but I'm curious as to whether Grays is now an all TfL garage or whether any commercial work is still hanging on in there....

[greeny253]

I can answer this but any more info on it you'll need to get from Arriva themselves. I'm at First now.

Route 5, as you correctly say, was extended from Basildon to Lakeside. The way the service works is every 30 minutes between Southend and Basildon and one bus an hour towards Lakeside. The whole lot is actually run by Southend garage and Grays has no involvement in it at all. Grays used to do the 44/150 on a Sunday and even that is done from Southend now.

Grays is now an all TfL garage with the 256,346,370 and 498 (499 in June) operating from there. There are no commercial services running from there at all now. As for the residents. They now have Ensign operating over most of Ockendon with routes 55 and 22 but unfortunately for them the only bus that serves Ockendon Station is TfL service 347. Seems their customer base wasn't considered in all this.

[Deleted]

That's perfect - just the info I was after.

I worked at Grays about 9 years ago (when it was ThameSide, then briefly under Arriva), when there was a nice variety in the work - it seems to me now that it's only a matter of time before the GY garage code is gone forever

The hourly 5 extension smacks of a token gesture, and with it being run entirely by Southend, I can't see it lasting long. As for the 44 & 150 being run by Southend too........the dead millage must be horrendous - I'm surprised they didn't just pull out of the contract.

So Thurrock (the old London Country/ThameSide/Arriva area) is now solely in the hands of Ensign........I wonder if they saw that coming when started the X80? ;D ;D Ensign do have a nice little network going now, but history suggests they will sell up sooner or later. Interesting times ahead methinks.....

[greeny253]

I wouldn't worry about dead mileage. Apparently one of the Ensign drivers had an Arriva driver stop them and ask for directions once so route learning wasn't top of the agenda either!!

Yeah Thurrock is now solely Ensign operated with First dropping by every now and again with routes 100 and 200 and the obvious Arriva 5. Like you colin I can see history repeating itself and Ensign selling the lot off but time will tell.

[Deleted]

Don't worry, an Arriva driver asking for directions isn't the worst thing to happen.

And also, the last number 5 to Lakeside actually runs back dead to Southend as well.

Sorry if this is counted as bumping an old thread as well.

Cheers

PJ

[greeny253]

Ouch!! Wouldn't fancy that journey.

[Deleted]

Seeing as the thread has been revived, it's also just occurred to me that we used to have a fair bit of dead millage when I worked for Harris Bus; dunno if anyones interested, but some of what I remember:

Mon - Sat: L1 (Orpington to Lakeside), L2 (Swanley to Lakeside), L3 Gravesend to Lakeside) & L4 (Welling to Lakeside); all buses ran dead to & from their outer terminus's.

Mon - Fri evenings: route 23C (Leigh-on-sea to Eastwood); we ran dead to Leigh-on-sea, and dead back from Eastwood.

Wed & Sat: free Asda bus (Canvey Island to Tilbury Asda); dead to & from Canvey Island.

Sundays: route 140 (Basildon to Chelmsford); dead to & from Basildon.

Sundays: route 71C (Chelmsford to Colchester); first bus dead to Colchester, 2nd bus dead to Chelmsford, both buses ran dead back from Chelmsford.

And of course there was the dead millage associated with the London work; initially the 661 from West Thurrock to Petts Wood. The 661 bus was later based at Crayford then Belvedere. The 108's were shared between West Thurrock & Crayford (later Belvedere) and ran dead to both Stratford and Lewisham.

The 180 & 132 were always run from Belvedere; the 128, 129 & 150 all ran from West Thurrock, running dead to any of their terminus's.


EDIT: Almost forgot - Harris did c2c rail replacement work too, so it wasn't unheard to have a dead run to Shoeburyness or Fenchurch Street!!

[greeny253]

Jun 12, 2008 21:39:05 GMT colin said:

Seeing as the thread has been revived, it's also just occurred to me that we used to have a fair bit of dead millage when I worked for Harris Bus; dunno if anyones interested, but some of what I remember:

Mon - Sat: L1 (Orpington to Lakeside), L2 (Swanley to Lakeside), L3 Gravesend to Lakeside) & L4 (Welling to Lakeside); all buses ran dead to & from their outer terminus's.

Mon - Fri evenings: route 23C (Leigh-on-sea to Eastwood); we ran dead to Leigh-on-sea, and dead back from Eastwood.

Wed & Sat: free Asda bus (Canvey Island to Tilbury Asda); dead to & from Canvey Island.

Sundays: route 140 (Basildon to Chelmsford); dead to & from Basildon.

Sundays: route 71C (Chelmsford to Colchester); first bus dead to Colchester, 2nd bus dead to Chelmsford, both buses ran dead back from Chelmsford.

And of course there was the dead millage associated with the London work; initially the 661 from West Thurrock to Petts Wood. The 661 bus was later based at Crayford then Belvedere. The 108's were shared between West Thurrock & Crayford (later Belvedere) and ran dead to both Stratford and Lewisham.

The 180 & 132 were always run from Belvedere; the 128, 129 & 150 all ran from West Thurrock, running dead to any of their terminus's.


EDIT: Almost forgot - Harris did c2c rail replacement work too, so it wasn't unheard to have a dead run to Shoeburyness or Fenchurch Street!!

And I get hacked off running to/from Hackney Central - nothing compared to that lot!!!

[Deleted]

Just last comment on the 5, its been way underpublicised in the thurrock area, I can see it being withdrawn from lakeside to grays soon, with only 2-3 getting on at Lakeside, then just 1-2 more all the way untill chadwell st mary, although if a 100 at grays hasn't been past, you usually get a few more asking if the bus goes to basildon and they usually get on. Love the non stop A13 section but this must lose them so much revenue that could be earned, not complaining mind you because it cuts 25 minutes off the journey time from grays to basildon compared to the 100 that goes through stanford-le-hope instead.
The 5 only ever gets busy where it's been long established, there it goes to standing room only from basildon to southend

[john]

That's like any route though. I mean, the patronage on the 370 has doubled recently. Fantastic move by TfL taking that one over. Still more people using the 372 though.

Arriva really don't publicise anything to do with their routes though. There were no notices about the 370/373/383 changes and then the withdrawal of the 373/383 was no where to be seen. Then they completely withdraw their commercial routes, with nothing major again.

[greeny253]

Jun 27, 2008 12:25:49 GMT john said:

That's like any route though. I mean, the patronage on the 370 has doubled recently. Fantastic move by TfL taking that one over. Still more people using the 372 though.

Arriva really don't publicise anything to do with their routes though. There were no notices about the 370/373/383 changes and then the withdrawal of the 373/383 was no where to be seen. Then they completely withdraw their commercial routes, with nothing major again.

Oh how I can agree there. Despite numerous calls from us drivers at GY nothing was put out and we had to bear the grunt of passengers getting shirty with us cos their £1 fare had suddenly shot up to £2....

[Deleted]

Well, (supposedly in response to pressure from one of the candidates in the recent local elections here), they (Arriva Southend) introduced a new route, no 17, linking the centre of Southend, through Westcliff, up to Southend Hospital.

First thing: the timetable (which is available on their website) is a bit of a joke: it's hourly between about 10am and 2pm, Thursdays only (and the route is being run for a six month "trial period" to see how much custom it picks up...)

I've not seen even a mention of the route (let alone a timetable )at a single bus stop. Methinks they are running empty buses around, 1 day a week for six months, so that they can then withdraw the service and say "tried that, no-one used it, stop bothering us".. the fact the service has not even been advertised (apart from a brief mention in the local newspaper when it began) , and the times it runs at being fairly useless...obviously wouldn't have any impact on the lack of custom, now, would it?

[Deleted]

The 17 is a brilliant service, if all the cretins with passes get on, Arriva get the MONEYYYY!!!

On the subject of route changes in Southend, on Sundays from July, the First number 2 will extend from Southend to Woodgrange Drive/Thorpe Hall Avenue. Leaves Southend at the same time as the Arriva bus down that road as well.

Cheers

PJ

[greeny253]

So that bus in corparate livery sitting in our yard will be out that way - thanks for that ;D

[john]

One thing i don't get is why is GY still Arriva Southend/Kent Thameside when it has NO commercial routes. Surely Arriva should transfer operation over to Arriva London North. Would make much more logical sense