Brighton & Hove Buses 2020
Since our cameras last
visited Brighton in 2017 to record the bus scene a lot has happened! The most important change is the introduction
of a fleet of Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro 400ER ‘electric’ double-deckers. Painted in a smart two-tone teal blue livery
the initial batch of thirty vehicles is seen in service on this programme. Shortly after filming a further similar batch
of twenty-four buses entered service in the city. The Brighton & Hove fleet is part
of the GoAhead group and is the main operator in the city and
surrounding area with their service 12 operating along the coast as far as
Eastbourne. Other operators seen on this
programme are Stagecoach South, appearing in Brighton and Stagecoach
East Kent seen in the Eastbourne section.
Metrobus, another GoAhead subsidiary is also seen
operating in Brighton and Compass Bus (Compass Travel) with their
‘CityBuzz’ brand. The Big Lemon is also present with their small fleet
of electric buses.
This DVD was filmed
over two visits, in September and October 2020 and takes place mostly in
Brighton with a brief visit to Seaford and concludes at Eastbourne.
Our filming in Brighton features a good
number of locations including Old Steine, Castle Square, North Street,
Churchill Square, Queens Road, St Georges Place, Gloucester Place, Marlborough
Place and York Place. During our October
visit we take three rides on Brighton & Hove’s electric buses. Firstly
travelling on 318 (YX69 NWF) to Preston Drove on route 5 towards Patcham and
from here we return on 320 (YX69 NWH) also on route 5 but heading towards
Hangleton alighting at Churchill Square.
The third ride is onboard 307 (YX69 NVS) operating route 5A towards
Patcham alighting at York Place. From
here we travel back to Old Steine on route 25X onboard 106 (BD57 WDE), a
Mercedes-Benz Citaro articulated bus formally operated by GoAhead London. The next part of our programme is filmed at
Seaford in Clinton Place, Station Approach and Sutton Park Road. Here we see Brighton & Hove buses
on the 12 group of services with both the dedicated green and blue ‘Coaster’
liveried Wright Streetdeck double-deckers and the red and cream Brighton
& Hove buses helping out.
Eastbourne
is our final location that is the end of the route for service 12 from
Brighton. Local and interurban services in the town are
operated by Stagecoach East Kent.
Our filming locations include Terminus Road, Cornfield Road and the
Memorial Roundabout. Stagecoach
have a good variety of buses in service, ranging from Plaxton-bodied Dennis
Darts, ALX400-bodied Dennis Tridents as well as ADL and Scania Enviro400
double-deckers, including the MMC type, Enviro 200 and 300 single-deckers and
Optare Solos. We also see Scania/ADL
Enviro 400MMC 15329 (YN67 YLB) in the new local livery.
We hope that you have enjoyed your visit to
the Sussex coast and the experience of the new electric buses in Brighton – the
beginning of the future!