Game Over
Next month sees Compass throw in the towel and give up running from the mid-Sussex towns into Brighton after just six months. The battle being roundly won by Metrobus after four and a half years of competition which began in September 2012 when they extended their 270 East Grinstead to Haywards Heath service through to Burgess Hill and Brighton in competition with Countryliner. If it was a move to try and see off Countryliner, it wouldn’t have been necessary, as just days later Countryliner went bust anyway. The majority of their mid-Sussex work was taken on, however, by Heritage who used ‘theSussexBus’ name for their new bus operating arm and appeared unphased at competing with the Go-Ahead Group.
At one time Heritage ran three buses an hour to Brighton across their routes 33, 40 and 40X. When Metrobus won the NHS contract for the 40X, Heritage continued it commercially, meaning there were five buses an hour for a while (33, 40, 40X and Metrobus’s 40X and 270). Later Metrobus combined the 40X with other routes, running the 270 hourly and a 271 or 272 alternately every hour. Heritage truncated the 33 to Hurstpierpoint on weekdays. In October 2016, Heritage sold all their routes to Compass, who quickly cancelled the 40X and the 33 extension to Brighton on Saturdays. Now the 40 itself is going. Metrobus is already promising some enhancements across the 270, 271 and 272 from the end of April… it remains to be seen what they are.
A dreary, wet and foggy day at the tail end of 2016, sees Compass Bus YJ05 PXA, one of two former Konectbus DAF DB250s with Wrightbus Gemini bodywork, nearing the end of its journey from Brighton to Cuckfield. Yes, a former Go-Ahead bus competing with Go-Ahead owned Metrobus!
Game Over
Next month sees Compass throw in the towel and give up running from the mid-Sussex towns into Brighton after just six months. The battle being roundly won by Metrobus after four and a half years of competition which began in September 2012 when they extended their 270 East Grinstead to Haywards Heath service through to Burgess Hill and Brighton in competition with Countryliner. If it was a move to try and see off Countryliner, it wouldn’t have been necessary, as just days later Countryliner went bust anyway. The majority of their mid-Sussex work was taken on, however, by Heritage who used ‘theSussexBus’ name for their new bus operating arm and appeared unphased at competing with the Go-Ahead Group.
At one time Heritage ran three buses an hour to Brighton across their routes 33, 40 and 40X. When Metrobus won the NHS contract for the 40X, Heritage continued it commercially, meaning there were five buses an hour for a while (33, 40, 40X and Metrobus’s 40X and 270). Later Metrobus combined the 40X with other routes, running the 270 hourly and a 271 or 272 alternately every hour. Heritage truncated the 33 to Hurstpierpoint on weekdays. In October 2016, Heritage sold all their routes to Compass, who quickly cancelled the 40X and the 33 extension to Brighton on Saturdays. Now the 40 itself is going. Metrobus is already promising some enhancements across the 270, 271 and 272 from the end of April… it remains to be seen what they are.
A dreary, wet and foggy day at the tail end of 2016, sees Compass Bus YJ05 PXA, one of two former Konectbus DAF DB250s with Wrightbus Gemini bodywork, nearing the end of its journey from Brighton to Cuckfield. Yes, a former Go-Ahead bus competing with Go-Ahead owned Metrobus!