Coastliner 700 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operator | Stagecoach South | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vehicle | Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Peak vehicle requirement | 47 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Predecessors | Route 31 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Night-time | Route N700 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Route | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Start | Brighton | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Via | Hove, Shoreham-by-Sea, Worthing, Littlehampton, Wick, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Havant, Portsmouth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
End | Portsmouth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Length | 50.1 miles (80.6 km) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Level | Daily | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequency | 12 minutes (Mondays-Saturdays) 20 minutes (Sundays) [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Journey time | 4 hours 20 minutes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Coastliner 700 is a bus service operated in West Sussex and south east Hampshire, England, by Stagecoach South between Brighton and Portsmouth via Hove, Shoreham-by-Sea, Worthing, Littlehampton, Wick, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Havant, and Portsmouth with a daytime frequency of every 12 minutes on Mondays to Saturdays; the service runs every 20 minutes on Sundays. [1] The route has its own livery and is usually operated with double-decker buses. [2]
The route was introduced in 1975, as the 'Stagecoach 700' [2] operated by Southdown Motor Services, a subsidiary of the state-owned National Bus Company (NBC). A similar route numbered 31 had existed since the 1920s, but was broken up into shorter routes in the early 1970s to improve reliability; the 700 initially ran as a limited stop service to avoid the same reliability issues. [3] It was operated by ECW bodied Bristol VRs and Charles H Roe / Park Royal bodied Leyland Atlanteans. Southdown became an independent operator following the privatisation of NBC in 1986, and was taken over by the Stagecoach Group in 1989. [4] [5]
In 2006 the route, by now operated by the Stagecoach South division, was upgraded as part of a partnership between Stagecoach and several local authorities led by West Sussex County Council. [5] The partnership, initially marketed as "coastal fastway", included the introduction of new vehicles and electronic passenger information systems with the aim of increasing passenger numbers by 50% in five years. The upgrade provoked some criticism from Derek Deedman, county councillor for the Bramber Castle area, for failing to include benefits to other services linking the coast to towns such as Steyning. [6]
Further upgrades, initially centred on Shoreham-by-Sea before being extended to the section of route between Worthing and Brighton, were announced in 2009, including bus priority measures at busy road junctions. [7] By 2010 the service carried four million people per year; [8] in 2012, this figure was 4.9 million. [9] Stagecoach introduced new vehicles in March 2010. [8]
The service has had its own livery from the beginning. It began with a coloured strip along the side of the green Southdown bus; now it is the regular Stagecoach livery, blue, white, orange and red, with the route description on the side, with individual buses having livery related to a certain town along the route, and slogans such as 'We took the Coastliner 700 to fun and fashion'. [2] [10]
Since May 2014, the Coastliner has been split into three services. One route runs between Brighton and Littlehampton, with the services extending to Wickbourne, just North of Littlehampton, another between Littlehampton and Chichester and a third between Chichester and Portsmouth. [11] Other changes made at the same time included a higher frequency of service between Chichester and Portsmouth and between Littlehampton and Arundel, and the introduction of later evening journeys. [9] [5]
Since April 2017, the Coastliner service no longer serves the tourist town of Arundel. Instead, the town is now served by an hourly service Number 9 to Littlehampton, Shoreham-by-Sea, and Holmbush Shopping Centre. This connects with the Coastliner at Littlehampton.
At the end of May 2021, Stagecoach applied their new yellow and gold 'long distance' brand to Coastliner buses and their associated publicity. [12] [ needs update ]
The route is operated with a peak vehicle requirement of 47 buses from three Stagecoach depots, Worthing, Chichester and Portsmouth.[ citation needed ] Since 2023, the route is operated using branded Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMCs, 30 of which were delivered in 2018 to run on the service between Littlehampton and Brighton due to Brighton's low-emission zone, [13] and 22 more featuring a revised Coastliner livery scheme being delivered in June 2023. [14]
Previously, the route was operated by Alexander Dennis Enviro400 and Alexander Dennis Enviro300 vehicles, which were delivered between 2010 and 2014. [8] [2] [9] [11]
West Sussex is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Crawley, and the county town is the city of Chichester.
The A27 is a major road in England. It runs from its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish in the county of Wiltshire, follows the south coast of Hampshire and West Sussex, and terminates at Pevensey in East Sussex.
The West Coastway line is a railway line in England linking the conurbations of Brighton/Hove/Littlehampton and Southampton/Portsmouth, with 1.3 million people between them. It has short southward branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, which offer direct services to and from London.
The Arun Valley line, also known as the Mid Sussex line, is part of the Southern- and Thameslink-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards. It then runs via Crawley, Horsham and Arundel, before meeting the West Coastway line at Arundel Junction. Trains on the Arun Valley line then proceed to either Bognor Regis or Portsmouth Harbour.
Shoreham-by-Sea railway station serves the town of Shoreham-by-Sea in the county of West Sussex, and also serves the nearby Shoreham Airport. The station and the majority of trains serving it are operated by Govia Thameslink Railway under its Southern brand.
Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company Limited, trading as Brighton & Hove, is a bus company operating most bus services in the city of Brighton and Hove in southern England. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group.
Littlehampton railway station is in Littlehampton in the county of West Sussex, England. The station and the trains serving it are operated by Southern.
Bognor Regis railway station is in the town of Bognor Regis, in the English county of West Sussex. It opened as the terminus of a short branch line in 1864, replacing a more distant station on the Worthing to Chichester main line. Like the town it served, it was known as Bognor until 1929. The junction on the main line is Barnham station, opened on the same day as the branch itself.
Barnham railway station is in Barnham, West Sussex, England around 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Bognor Regis.
Arundel railway station serves the market town of Arundel in West Sussex. The station is on the eastern side of the town, about 550 yards (500 m) from the High Street, across the River Arun. It is 58 miles 28 chains (93.9 km) down the line from London Bridge via Redhill.
Emsworth railway station serves the town of Emsworth, on the Hampshire side of the border between Hampshire and West Sussex, in southern England. It is located on the West Coastway Line which runs between Brighton and Southampton, 35 miles 50 chains from Brighton.
Stagecoach South East is the trading name of East Kent Road Car Company Limited, a bus operator based in Canterbury providing services in Kent and East Sussex in the south east of England. It is a subsidiary of Stagecoach Group.
Stagecoach (South) Limited, trading as Stagecoach South, is a bus operator providing services in South East England as a subsidiary of Stagecoach. It operates services in Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex with some routes extending into Brighton and Wiltshire. It operates 487 buses from eight depots.
Southdown Motor Services was a bus and coach operator in East and West Sussex and parts of Hampshire, in southern England. It was formed in 1915 and had various owners throughout its history, being purchased by the National Bus Company (NBC) in 1969. The company fleet name was lost when it was acquired by the Stagecoach Group in 1989 but buses operated under that legal name until 2015 when the operating licence was transferred to another company within the Stagecoach Group and 1915 company became dormant but still owned by the Stagecoach Group.
National Cycle Route 2 is a route of the United Kingdom National Cycle Network, running from Dover to St Austell. When complete, the route will be 581 km long.
The Brighton and Chichester Railway was an early railway in southern England running between the towns of Shoreham and Chichester in Sussex. It operated between 1845 and 1846.
Worthing, a seaside town with borough status in the United Kingdom, is connected to the rest of the country by a network of major roads, a mainline railway, frequent bus and coach services and a nearby airport. Its 19th-century growth was encouraged by the development of turnpikes and stagecoach routes to London and nearby towns. By the middle of that century railway services improved journey times and conditions significantly. Suburbanisation in the 20th century was assisted by a network of bus routes.
Buses in Portsmouth are a form of public transport in the city of Portsmouth, England. Motor bus services in Portsmouth began in 1919, and were expanded in the 1930s following the closure of the Portsmouth Corporation Transport tram network. Trolleybuses were also operated between 1934 and 1963. Until 1988 the majority of services were provided by Portsmouth Corporation Transport, a municipal bus company owned by Portsmouth City Council. Other services into the city were operated by Southdown Motor Services, latterly as a subsidiary of the National Bus Company.
The Portsmouth to Brighton Railway was built by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and its immediate predecessor in several stages.
The Mid-Sussex railways were a group of English railway companies that together formed what became the Mid-Sussex line, from Three Bridges through Horsham to Littlehampton, in southern England. After 1938 the Southern Railway operated a regular electric train service ran from London to Bognor Regis and Portsmouth using the marketing brand "Mid-Sussex Line", leading to an informal consensus. The Mid-Sussex Railway company ran from Horsham to Petworth, and the Mid-Sussex Junction line of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) extended from the Petworth line to Littlehampton. The Three Bridges to Horsham branch of the LBSCR was at first the sole access from the north to the Mid-Sussex railways, although a line from Leatherhead was used later.
Media related to Coastliner 700 (bus route) at Wikimedia Commons