Arriva Guildford & West Surrey

Arriva Guildford & West Surrey is a bus operator based in Guildford, England, part of the Arriva group. The company operates services in West Sussex and Surrey, as part of the Arriva Southern Counties division. The company also has the Guildford Park and Ride contract.

History

Buses in the Guildford area had been operated since the pre-war period by the expanding private operator Aldershot & District Traction. In the late 1960s as part of the process of nationalisation, this company became a subsidiary of the National Bus Company (UK) National Bus Company (NB).

In the early 1970s the subsidiary was renamed, becoming part of the enlarged Alder Valley NBC subsidiary. In preparation for the deregulation of bus services, services in the area passed to a smaller NBC subsidiary, Alder Valley South. This company was privatised in 1987, and rebranded itself Alder Valley once more.

The Guildford & West Surrey brand name was first created in 1990, when the Guildford operations of the new Alder Valley company were sold to London & Country, becoming a part of that company. London & Country at the time was owned by the Drawlane Group, one of the predecessor companies of Arriva. London & Country itself was a rebranding of the privatised London Country South West NBC subsidiary. Buses in the are began wearing the Guildford & West Surrey fleet name and livery in the style of the new London & Country colours [ [http://davidheath.fotopic.net/p47329564.html Image of a Guildford and West Surrey branded London & Country double decker bus] ] [ [http://davidheath.fotopic.net/p47766021.html Image of a Guildford and West Surrey branded London & Country single decker bus] ] , although London & Country branded buses also operated in the area [ [http://davidheath.fotopic.net/p47422277.html Image of a London & Country double decker bus in Guildford] ]

The company was renamed Arriva Guildford & West Surrey Ltd in 2001 with the launch of the Arriva corporate brand, with buses being repainted into the corporate livery, initially with the strapline "serving Surrey and West Sussex"cn|date = September 2008.

The company was later incorporated into the Arriva Southern Counties division, dropping the strapline, and trading as Arriva Southern Counties [ [http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/__80256E6A006CD1EE.nsf/vWeb/wpUNIP5Y2FTL Arriva official site] Southern Counties history page, accessed 11 September 2008] .

Operating area

The company operates in parts of West Sussex as well as Surrey. The route network is centred on hubs at Guildford, Woking, and Horsham with Cranleigh and Dorking acting as smaller hubs. Services also reach the towns of Redhill in the East, Weybridge in the north east, Haywards Heath in the south west and Camberley in the west [ [http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/__80256E280053B5B6.nsf/vWeb/flINVA6UXFZG/$File/Surrey&WSussexNtwrkDgm(Oct06).pdf?Open arrivabus.co.uk - area map of Surrey and West Sussex services] Accessed 11 September 2008] .

Routes

Services 26/27 and 36/37 are the clockwise/counter-clockwise services of two circular routes. Services 3, 4 and 5 are jointly operated with Safeguard Coaches. Service 465 is operated under contract to London Buses. See London Buses route 465.

Guildford park and ride

Arriva operates the Guildford park and ride for Surrey County Council. [ [http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Guildford+town+park+and+ride?opendocument Surrey County Council - "Guildford town park and ride"] ]

There are 5 car parks.

*Artington: Route 200 (Monday - Saturday)
*Spectrum Lesiure Centre: Route 100 (Monday - Friday)
*Ladymead: Route 101 (Saturday only)

The Ladymead P&R site replaces the Spectrum Leisure Centre car park on Saturdays because the Spectrum car park is too small for Park and Ride and the lesuire centre purposes on a Saturday.

*University of Surrey Car Park 3: Normal Arriva Routes 3, 26, 27, 36, 37 (Saturdays only)
*Merrow Construction began of a new site at Merrow in 2007, it opened on 29 September 2008 but is operated by First Berkshire & The Thames Valley.

Mercedes-Benz World

Service 436 is operated in partnership with Mercedes-Benz [ [http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/unitedkingdom/mpc/mpc_unitedkingdom_website/en/home_mpc/MB_World_Brooklands/home/t5_test/getting_here/Take_the_bus.html Mercedes-Benz World Take the bus page] , accessed 11 September 2008] because it calls at the Mercedes-Benz World complex at Brooklands historic racing circuit near Byfleet, on its journey from Weybridge railway station to Woking railway station.

In addition, the route is operated using specially branded Mercedes Benz single-decker buses, a fleet of three Citaros. Despite being 56 registered, the buses are only Euro 3-engined.

The route used to run past Woking on to Guildford, on an inderect route via Send village, and also did not serve Weybridge, terminating at a retail centre near the circuit. Arriva later withdrew the Guildford to Woking section (replaced in part by Countryliner Coaches), and extended the route to Weybridge.

Liveries

Most service buses in the company are branded in the standard Arriva UK bus livery of aquamarine and cotswold stone. As per Transport for London contract stipulations, the buses used on London Buses route 465 carry a red version of the Arriva livery, as used by Arriva London.

The Mercedes-Benz World buses are in the normal style of Arriva livery but with light blue instead of Cream, and Silver in place of the aquamarine.

The Guildford Park and Ride buses are painted in an oak leaf livery, matching the branding used by Surrey County Council, with buses painted in variety of different base colours.

In 2006, as was done in other Arriva locations, Arriva painted one its buses in a centenary livery reminiscent of Aldershot & District company [ [http://davidheath.fotopic.net/p29944114.html Image of an Arriva centenary bus for Aldershot & District] ] .

Depots

Guildford is the location of the main bus garage of the company, although outstations are maintained at Cranleigh and Warnham, Horsham.

Fleet

Guildford

The fleet in Guildford is mainly low floor Dennis Darts with Plaxton Pointer bodywork (with a few Pointer 2 and East Lancs Spryte examples), and DAF SB120/Wrightbus Cadets. There are also 3 Dennis Dominators with East Lancs bodywork; 5 Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse Urban for Guildford Park and Ride (new in 2004); and 3 Mercedes-Benz Citaros, for the service to Mercedes-Benz World. "Bus of the future" is a Volvo B7L/Wright Eclipse. [British Bus Publishing - "Arriva Bus Handbook 2008" ISBN 1-904875-27-7]

Cranleigh

This depot's allocation again comprises mainly Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointers and DAF SB120/Wright Cadets, but also includes a Leyland Olympian double decker.

Horsham

The vehicles here include different varieties of Dennis Dart SLFs, and again a Leyland Olympian. There are also six Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts for use on route 465.

ee also

*List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References

External links

* [http://www.arrivabus.co.uk Arriva Bus UK official site]
* [http://davidheath.fotopic.net/c1420227.html Image gallery of the Arriva Guildford & West Surrey fleet]