Arriva Southend

Arriva Southend Ltd is a division of Arriva Southern Counties, a subsidiary of transport group Arriva which operates bus services in and around the Southend-on-Sea and Grays areas of Essex. They operate most routes east of Southend, and are in direct competition with three other local operators with services in the same areas; First Essex, Stephensons of Essex, and Ensignbus.

History
The company was formerly owned and operated by Southend Borough Council and was known as Southend Corporation Transport or Southend Transport. Southend Transport was involved in a price war with Thamesway (now part of First Essex) that resulted in the bankrupting of both companies. Southend Transport was sold to the British Bus group in June 1993 for a reported £1, which in turn was taken over by the Cowie group.

Cowie was renamed Arriva in August 1998 and Southend Transport was renamed Arriva serving Southend as part of their rebranding. Although the 'serving Southend' local identity caption has now been phased out, due to the difficulty of keeping them updated as buses were transferred between different Arriva subsidiaries, it can still be seen on the sides of some of their buses.

On January 28, 2000, the old Southend garage at 87 London Road was closed and demolished shortly afterwards, with a new one constructed in Short Street, Southend-on-Sea.

Arriva Southend had continued the route X1 commuter service to London inherited from Southend Tranpsort, latterly as the Green Line 721 service. In 2001 operation of route X1 was taken over by Stephensons of Essex, which withdrew it in July 2008.

A restructuring in 2002 saw overall control of Arriva Colchester and Arriva Southend Ltd pass to Arriva Southern Counties from Arriva East Herts & Essex.

It has been criticised by users and the Southend Area Bus Users' Group for withdrawing services which it considered no longer economically viable due to low passenger numbers even when parts of the route were profitable when Southend Borough Council withdrew bus subsidies of up to £6 per passenger as part of budget cuts in 2005.

Current routes
For a list of all bus services in Essex please see List of bus routes in Essex.

Southend routes
These routes are run from Southend garage.

Grays routes
These routes are run from Southend garage and are subsidised by Thurrock Council under contract.

Transport for London
Transport for London (TfL) contracted routes are run from Grays garage.

On September 23, 2007, routes 7 and 8 were re-routed to directly serve Southend University Hospital.

On January 21, 2008, route 6A was extended to run half-hourly during the middle of the day on Tuesdays in addition to at peak times on Monday to Friday after a successful campaign by the Southend Area Bus Users' Group and Councilor Steve Aylen after having been withdrawn in 2005.

On March 30, 2008, all commercially run routes from the Grays garage (route 373 from Grays via Lakeside, North Stifford, South Ockendon, Aveley, and Corbets Tey to Upminster station and route 383 'Basildon direct' from Ockendon via Lakeside, Grays, and Chadwell St. Mary to Basildon) were withdrawn, with buses used for these commercially run routes moving to Southend garage. This coincided with the extension of the number 5 service from Basildon to Lakeside to partially replace the withdrawn route 383 service. The Grays garage now only operates the Transport for London (TfL) contraced routes and the Grays routes are operated from the Southend garage.

On March 31, 2008, route 7 was extended to continue beyond Shoeburyness to Great Wakering and Little Wakering Corner at late nights on Monday to Saturday at the suggestion of Great Wakering Parish Council and the Rochford Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, who are subsidising the service.

On May 15, 2008, the number 17 service serving Westcliff and Southend Hospital was introduced on a six-month trial to gauge demand and runs hourly during the middle of the day on Thursdays.

On June 8, 2008, Arriva Southend increased the daytime service frequency of the number 9 service from every 15 minutes to every 12 minutes during the middle of the day on weekdays and Saturdays.

Routes 5, 9, 13, and 29 are usually operated by low-floor easy access buses, which make up the majority of Arriva Southend's single decker fleet.

Route branding
In 2008, Arriva Southend began branding some of its low-floor Dennis Dart buses for routes with red and yellow vinyl stickers on the side of its buses, beginning with route 29 as "the twenty-nine", then route 13 as "...the sutton shuttle..." and route 5 as "Basildon direct". The promotion of these routes included new websites with route and fares information for Basildon direct and the twenty-nine. The following buses at Southend have had route branding applied:
 * Route 5: 3318, 3321, 3322, 3402, and 3428. See here for official photographs of 3318 carrying the branding. 3324 and 3325 still have the old dark blue route 5 branding applied at the moment.
 * Route 13: 3307 and 3308.
 * Route 29: 3391 (Blue Bird), 3392 (Friends of Fairways), 3421 (Pride of Fairways) and 3431 (Bus Lightyear). These buses were named by students at the Fairways Junior School in Belfairs as part of the route relaunch, with Arriva making a £750 donation to the school. See here for official photographs of 3431 carrying the branding.

Some buses still carry the old colour-coded route branding, with route 1 red, route 5 dark blue, route 9 light green, and route 17 purple.

Fleet
Arriva Southend currently has a fleet of 69 buses in service, consisting of 46 single-deckers (34 low-floor), 23 double-deckers, one Ford Transit staff shuttle van, F580, one Ford Transit mechanics' van, V168, and one forklift truck, FLT80.

Single deckers:
 * 6 Dennis Dart/East Lancs EL2000: 3004-5 3007-8, 3123-4
 * 4 Dennis Dart/Northern Counties Paladin: 3132, 3145, 3153, 3154
 * 1 Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer: 3175
 * 1 Volvo B6-50/Plaxton Pointer: YDT515 (Driver Training Vehicle)
 * 26 Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer: 3181, 3204, 3307-8, 3387-97, 3400-3, 3421, 3423, 3425-8, 3431
 * 8 Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2: 3318, 3320-6

Double deckers:
 * 4 Leyland Olympian/Eastern Coach Works: 5402-5
 * 13 Leyland Olympian/Alexander RL: 5089, 5090, 5092, 5392, 5394-6, 5399, 5807-8, 5829, 5881-2
 * 6 Leyland Olympian/Northern Counties: 5891-5, 5897

Beginning in July 2008, some Dennis Dart buses from the Southend depot began to have their destination roller blinds replaced with scrolling LED destination displays at Arriva's Gillingham depot, along the lines of previous mid-life refurbishments performed for Operation Overdrive. Buses that have had LED destination displays fitted are: Dennis Darts 3307 and 3308 had already been fitted with scrolling LED destination displays when they were transferred to Southend.
 * Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer: 3307, 3308, 3393, 3394, 3395 and 3396.
 * Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2: 3321, 3323, 3324 and 3326.

Criticisms
Arriva Southend has been criticised by users and the Southend Area Bus Users' Group for withdrawing services which it considered no longer economically viable due to low passenger numbers even when parts of the route were profitable when Southend Borough Council withdrew bus subsidies of up to £6 per passenger as part of budget cuts in 2005.

It has also been criticised by Southend Borough Council for the age of its bus fleet, as some of its buses are over 20 years old and many do not have low-floor, easy-access step-free entry which is important for older people, as Southend has an ageing population with the most senior citizens in the country. Arriva Southend did introduce some new Dennis Trident 2 Alexander ALX400 low-floor double-decker buses branded for use on routes 7 and 8 in 2000, but they were moved to Arriva Maidstone, another Arriva Southern Counties division and Arriva East Herts & Essex, part of Arriva Shires & Essex between August 2004 and July 2005 as Arriva decided that they were not getting enough passengers to justify their use.