Metrobus (bus company)

Infobox Bus transit
name = Metrobus

logo_size = 250
parent = Go-Ahead Group
founded = 1983
headquarters = Crawley
locale = South London, East Surrey, West Sussex, North-west Kent
service_area =
service_type = Bus service
routes = 100
hubs = Crawley Croydon Orpington
fleet = AEC Routemaster (1) Dennis Dart SLF (178) Dennis Lance (2) Dennis Trident 2 (2) MAN 12.240 (5) Optare Solo (2) Scania CN94UB OmniCity (46) Scania CN230UB OmniCity (2) Scania N94UD OmniDekka (110) Scania N230UD OmniDekka (6) Scania N94UB OmniTown (23) Volvo Olympian (26)
ceo =
website = http://www.metrobus.co.uk/

Metrobus operates local bus services in south and south-east London, and parts of Surrey, Kent, West Sussex and East Sussex. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.

Company history

Initially, its headquarters were in Orpington and became a significant independent operator of routes contracted to London Transport (later Transport for London). Expansion into Surrey and Kent followed following the takeover of East Surrey Buses.

On 24 September 1983, Metrobus Ltd was formed by a management buyout of the London operations from the parent company, Tillingbourne. In 1999 it was acquired by the Go-Ahead Group, a major bus group (with its origins in the North-East of England) which also operates the Southeastern and Southern rail franchises.

Following the decision by Arriva to discontinue its operations in Crawley and most of Surrey, Metrobus purchased Arriva's premises in Crawley to develop a commercial bus network in the town. This led to Metrobus moving its headquarters to Crawley. In addition, Metrobus secured the tender to operate local buses in the Redhill/Reigate area.

Metrobus is the operator of the Fastway guided bus network in Gatwick and Crawley which opened in September 2003.

On 8 December 2007 Metrobus assumed the operations of First Centrewest in Orpington which has been bought out by Metrobus following recent tender losses for First. The transfer which commences on that day, involves all the staff being transferred with all 35 buses based there. Several First vehicles were painted into a plain red livery before the transfer.

Routes 526/527 were lost in a Surrey County Council contract to Southdown PSV in January 2008. Route 100 (Maidenbower - Redhill) became part of the Fastway Network in Spring 2008.

Fleet livery

The main fleet livery is a light blue livery with a dark blue roof and dark blue skirt panels also with a dark blue lower dash panel, see image 1.

There is a special Crawley variation for buses that operate in and around crawley. This also has a light blue base with a dark blue roof which swoops down at the front with a white stripe separating the roof and light blue base. It also has a light blue lower dash panel, see image 2.

The London livery is all-over red with silver fleetnames on the side and white fleetnames on the front although many have all white and all silver fleetnames. Earlier variations included the original Metrobus colours of dark blue and yellow which gradually got reduced due to TfLs livery requirements until all-over red was adopted.

The Fastway livery is a silver base with navy blue curtrail panels and a navy blue lower front panel.

Driver training vehicles are painted red and blue.

Garages

Metrobus has three bus garages currently in use. They also currently share another with Arriva.

Crawley

The garage in Crawley runs non-London Buses routes that are run from here include 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 23, 24, 82, 84, 271, 273, 281, 291, 409, 411, 420, 430, 435, 460, 594, 595, 694 and Bluebell Railway route 473. The garage operates Fastway routes 10, 20 and 100.

History

Bus types in use

*Scania OmniCity

Croydon

The Croydon garage holds 74 buses, and runs London bus routes 64, 119, 127, 130, 202, 293, 359, 405, X26, school routes 612 & 664, Tramlink feeder routes T32 and T33. In 2009, Metrobus is to gain Routes 54 and 75 from Selkent,in May and April respectively. These routes will use 27 new Double Deckers.

History

A new depot opened by Metrobus in December 2005 to house route 127 which had been surrendered early by the current operator Centra. Work is still continuing on the garage buildings, but it is anticipated that Croydon Depot will eventually house most of the TfL contracts held by Metrobus that serve the Croydon area. This garage took over the London routes that ran from Godstone with the exception of the 146 and 246 which moved to Orpington.

Bus types in use

* Scania OmniDekka
* Scania OmniCity
* Dennis Dart SLF / Marshall Capital
* Dennis Dart SLF / Plaxton Pointer 2

Orpington

The Green Street Green garage holds 157 buses, and runs London bus routes 138, 146, 161, 181, 261, 284, 320, 336, 352, 353, 358, 367, B14, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, 119 (Night service only on this 24-hour service) and school route 654.

History

A former farm, Green Street Green depot was for many years the only garage for all of Metrobus' London tendered routes since the award of route 61 in 1986. More recently routes have been operated from Godstone and in December 2005 a new depot was constructed in Croydon to cope with new tender awards. The depot and company have steadily grown over the years and in 1999 the company was purchased by the 'Go Ahead Group' for the sum of £14million. During mid-2005 major reconstruction started on the Green Street Green site to make improvements and provide an expansion. During these works, a temporary base was being used at Polhill in Kent next to the base of what was Southlands Travel, a company once owned by Metrobus, and which was later acquired by Sullivan Buses.

In the early 1990s, Metrobus operated their "Wealdsman" 746 service, as a complimentary service to the Surrey Hills weekend leisure bus network. Metrobus used a specially painted blue and yellow AEC Regal IV (RF-class) vehicle, for the long service between Bromley and Tunbridge Wells, connecting with other leisure services (London & Country Routemaster service 410 to Box Hill) at Westerham.

Bus types in use

* Dennis Dart SLF / Plaxton Pointer
* Dennis Dart SLF / Plaxton Pointer 2
* Dennis Dart SLF / Alexander Dennis Pointer
* Dennis Dart SLF / East Lancs Esteem
* Dennis Dart SLF / Marshall Capital
* MAN 12.240 / East Lancs Esteem
* Optare Solo SE
* Scania OmniCity
* Scania OmniDekka
* Scania OmniTown / East Lancs Esteem

External links

* [http://www.metrobus.co.uk Metrobus website]
* [http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Metrobus Yahoo! Groups - Metrobus]