Brighton Area Buswatch

Representing Bus Users

NEWS PAGE

September 2012

Lewes Road bus lanes: Brighton & Hove City Council has announced the results of its consultation on new bus and cycle lanes in Lewes Road. Of those who responded there was clear approval for the proposals. As a result there will be continuous bus and cycle lanes between the Vogue gyratory/the bus garage and Falmer where the A270 meets the A27 Brighton By-Pass. There will also be improvements between the Vogue and Elm Grove but no new bus lanes as there is insufficient space. Subject to agreement at the Transport Committee Meeting on 2 October work could start in December and will continue throughout 2013. Full details of the consultation are available on www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

New timetables were introduced in September on many bus services. Significant improvements on routes operated by Brighton & Hove Buses included more buses on routes 5/5A/5B in the evenings and Sundays, a more frequent service on route 23 (including an evening and Sunday service for the first time) & more daytime buses on route 48. Route 38 is extended from Open Market/London Road to the rear of Brighton Station. Many of these improvements have been made possible by the governments Better Buses Fund.

Improved mid Sussex/Crawley bus services: There are major improvements to services between Brighton and Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Crawley with a new link to Forest Row and East Grinstead. Metrobus has introduced two new services, 270 (Brighton, Royal Sussex County Hospital – Patcham – Burgess Hill - Haywards Heath, continuing to Forest Row & East Grinstead) and 271 (Brighton, Churchill Square – Patcham – Burgess Hill – Cuckfield - Crawley). Route 270 runs hourly. Route 271 is two-hourly but the timetable is combined with existing route 273 to provide an hourly frequency over common sections. Routes 270/271/273 provide a half hourly frequency between Hassocks and Brighton Old Steine. In the same area, Countryliner routes 33, 40 & 40X continue with minor timing changes giving another three buses each hour. Details are available on in Brighton & Hove Bus Times and on www.buses.co.uk which has links to other operators; and can also be found on our website under 'Public Transport info'.

Service 700 timetable: Stagecoach is introducing a new timetable on route 700 from 28 October. Frequencies are unchanged but some timings will alter. Regular users will have noticed that more double deckers have been used on this service lately, including some on loan from route 99 (Eastbourne – Bexhill - Hastings) with ‘The Wave’ branding. These loans allowed all the ‘Coastliner’ branded single decks to be sent to London for Olympic and Paralympic duties. The double deckers reduced overcrowding compared with previous summers and we hope consideration will be given to running more double deckers in future on the 700.

Supported services: Those services which are not commercially viable and are supported by Brighton & Hove City Council were re-tendered: Compass Bus has taken over routes 16/66 (Portslade – Hangleton), 37B (Meadowview – Brighton Station – Bristol Estate), 47 (Brighton Station – East Saltdean), 56 (Knoll Estate – Brighton – Hollingbury – Patcham) and Sunday only 57 (Brighton station – Ovingdean – East Saltdean- which has been extended to Sainsburys, West Hove). On the other hand, the service 16/66 has lost its lunch-time enhancement, and the service 56 extension beyond the Knoll estate has been withdrawn; so no longer serves Boundary Road- Manor Hall Road- Southwick Square- Kingston Lane- and Southlands Hospital.

The Council's re-tendering process has also resulted in the 52 being shortened to only run between Brighton Marina and Woodingdean via Ovingdean and is now operated by The Big Lemon. Brighton Area Buswatch campaigned hard to try to get this service re-extended to central Brighton and while this has not been possible yet, we hope it will be at some stage in the future. We are extremely concerned that the 52A school buses which provided a direct link between Woodingdean, Ovingdean and Cardinal Newman School have been withdrawn without replacement. Tendered services 72 & 96 will continue for another year (possibly with special fares). We wish both Compass Bus and The Big Lemon well in their new ventures and hope they continue to provide a high level of service. We also thank Brighton & Hove Buses for continuing to operate a number of Sunday evening services commercially which are no longer subsidised by the City Council.

Lots more new Buses! Brighton & Hove is introducing 11 new double deck hybrid buses on route 7 and some Brighton to Lewes journeys on route 28. These buses are similar to the two already running on route 7. Hybrid buses use less up to 30% less fuel and are noticeably quieter, especially when stationary as the engine cuts out if there is sufficient battery power. Route 49 will gain some of the 2011 batch of Volvo diesel buses displaced from the '7'. Compass Bus has introduced 7 new single decker buses on its supported services in Brighton & Hove and a similar number for use on East Sussex CC supported local services around Lewes and Newhaven. Metrobus is using some new single deck buses on route 270. These new buses all meet stringent Euro 5 emissions standards which improve the environment for everyone.

News on Countyliner: As can be seen from our home page and Info pages, the Lewes and mid sussex branches of Countryliner have ceased to be, but replacement buses services are said to be running on almost all routes. See 'Public Transport Info' for more details.