As far as possible, we aim to keep you up to date on our website.
Our May Newletter is now available on our 'News' page
This includes the news on the replacement for services 18 and 50; plus new electric buses.
This included:-
- Franchising feasibility
- New Night services
- April service changes
- New Coach route announced
- Electric bus on test
- Fare changes
- Route '18' descision due
- Marthon Day changes
- Buswatch meeting
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There are still deep concerns about Brighton and Hove Council's LTP5 City plan, and likely problems with the Valley Gardens scheme,
especially with regard to disabled access to buses.
Click here for an updated May 2026 view of Valley Garden issues.
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General bus information:
The headlines:
- More fare increases have been announced (Also see April newsletter).
- Several new night bus routes have been anounced,
- plus 'Breeze' services start their enhanced summer timetable (see April newsletter for both stories).
- Service 125 will end on 28th April, Cuckmere bus will provide a limited replacement.
- Flixbus are offering a new Brighton to Milton Keynes- serving three Airports.
- Several local bus companies have won a number of awards over the past year.
All our information is thought to be correct to 6 April 2026.
Many bus fares in the Brighton & Hove area (Stagecoach???) went up in two stages.
On the 31st March some prices
went up, including the weekly tap-On Tap-off fares to £29.80, and the abolition of many return fares. Also see our April Newsletter.
On the 13th April loss of council BSIP support (due to a small reduction of government funding)
has meant support has been withdrawn from most short hop and second stage fares, plus it appears a further 10p added.
These are now £1.80 and £2.90 repectively (the latter is now close to the government's directly sponsored fares cap, which remains at £3).
However, while the council has retained support for accompanied children, the ordinary child fare has more than tripled to £1.60!.
The council is looking towards targeting a few deprived groups, with support.
In February, East Sussex County Council removed subsidy from many fares for similar reasons.
One of the bigger loses is the axing of the £6.10 all day East Sussex ticket (and weekly equivalent), which allowed travel on multiple
bus company's services. The nearest equivalent is probably the Discovery ticket at about £10!
So this leaves West Sussex's 16 to 20 fares, as the probably the best local deal for young people
(and even this is said to be under review).
Different bus operators have their own 'tap-on-tap off' system, so paper Saver tickets are better, if you want to travel on
both Brighton & Hove and
Compass Travel buses, in the city. Metrobus and Brighton & Hove Bus systems do not share the cap on each other's fares.
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Information by Bus Company:
Brighton & Hove Bus Co.:
From 13th April the Brighton & Hove Bus Company launch new night services N29 and N48. Also it extended the service 1
to Whitehawk and Woodingdean. And introduced summer services on the 77, 78 & 79 'Breeze services'. See April Newsletter for
more details.
Recent awards to the bus company include:
- - Winner of best bus service, for the 1X.
- - Winner of the best use of Technology.
- - Gold- Recruitment and Retention.
- - Gold- Marketing for growth- 1X.
- - Silver - Top City Operator.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Please keep your phone separate from debit cards,
or the system may not know which one to charge!
Click here for Brighton & Hove Bus Company's main website.
Stagecoach: Covering the area between Littlehampton, Worthing, and Brighton (and towards Horsham).
The service 700 from Brighton to Durrington has been enhanced to run 24 hours a day,
seven days a week! From 24th November the service 701 timetable was updated.
Metrobus, south and mid Sussex:
Metrobus won Silver, as the Shire operator of the year, and also won a second silver award,
for the largest introduction of Hydrogen powered buses in the UK. Again Congratulations.
Although with the battery fire (NOT a Hydrogen fire), the bus company may not feel quite so positive about the Hydrogen buses,
as it has needed to create
a borrowed fleet, to make the best of the temporary withdrawal of these buses.
Compass Travel:
Compass Travel took over Big Lemon's supported services 16, 47 and 52- while retaining the service 37/37B.
All eleven new buses have now entered service. Compass Travel is also an award winning bus company-
coming second, to a small operator in the north of England for customer satisfaction. Quite an achievement.
Click here for the Compass Travel's website.
For their real-time information:
Click here.
CTLA & Cuckmere bus services:
We do not generally list changes to Cuckmere bus services, but are providing the following information:
The Cuckmere Valley Rambler bus 47 has restarted at weekends. However from the 28th April
Compass Travel's service 125 will cease, due to the withdrawal of funding. Instead Cuckmere bus will run their
service 25 additionally on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Brighton & Hove may run a summer service to Drucillas.
Continuing with Cuckmere bus, its service 26 links Seaford to Eastbourne, via Alfriston, on Sundays. The company
also runs other services covering this area, including the Art shuttle.
Flixbus are offering a new Brighton to Milton Keynes service, via Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton Airports;
in addition to the Brighton to London and Cambridge service.
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May we welcome new members and supporters reading
our news for the first time.
We are independent from bus companies and local authorities. Our policy
is to influence decisions by building relationships and working with others.
We have meetings four times a year with bus companies and Council representatives
where members concerns are discussed. They also have an opportunity to
explain future proposals.
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Some other recent newsletters are available here.
Includes major changes to Worthing bus services.
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What we do:
Brighton Area Buswatch deals mostly with strategic issues affecting
lots of people. We campaign for improvements to bus services and fares
on behalf of bus users. Our policy is to build relationships with local
Councils, local interest groups and bus companies to find out about their
plans, so we can make suggestions and try to influence them.
We are lucky to have excellent bus services in much of our area which
are well-used and very few require public subsidies. Recently around 50
million passenger journeys were made by bus in Brighton & Hove which
compares with under 20 million journeys in Southampton or Portsmouth which
are similar in size. This is a tremendous achievement but we recognise
that people's expectations are always rising and there are always improvements
that can be made.
If you have a particular problem regarding a bus service or an incident
on a recent journey we advise you in the first instance, to contact the
bus company concerned. In our experience most local bus companies are
keen to receive feedback and will do their best to help if they can. Our
partners at Bus Users UK can deal with appeals if a customer is not satisfied
with the response from a bus company or local authority.
What we have achieved in the past includes:-
- We suggested a one-hour single ticket, which has been introduced,
so enabling passengers to change buses without needing to pay again.
- We successfully campaigned for Saver tickets, Key Card and m-tickets
to be valid on all Council supported bus services in Brighton &
Hove.
- We rejoined the Council's Quality Bus partnership, enabling us to
influence planning decisions affecting all local bus companies.
- We suggested improvements to late night services to Goldstone Valley
and to Lewes; and have been pressing for improvements to route 37 to
Meadowview and the Bristol Estate; plus later Sunday evening journeys
to Worthing.
- We have expressed concerns about the revised Valley Gardens scheme.
We are associated with Bus Users UK.
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