Parent | Tom Druitt |
---|---|
Founded | 2007 |
Headquarters | Brighton |
Service area | Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, Bristol, Bath |
Service type | Bus services, coach hire, festivals, Sunday walks |
Routes | Brighton: 16, 16A 47, 47A 52, 52A, Brighton Metropolitan College, Legal & General Bristol & Surrounding Areas: 2V, X10, 20, 40, 61, X91, 99, 515, K1, P1, Y8 |
Destinations | Brighton, Sussex, UK, Bristol |
Fuel type | Biodiesel, Solar Powered Electric |
Website | www.thebiglemon.com |
The Big Lemon [1] is a bus and coach operator in Brighton, East Sussex, Bristol and Bath. It is registered as a Community Interest Company.
The Big Lemon was founded by Tom Druitt in 2007. [2] After gaining an operator licence, the first public transport route was launched on 1 September 2007. Route 42X originally operated from Brighton Station to Falmer Station, with hopes to expand the operation with more routes. After lower than expected passenger numbers, and competition from Brighton & Hove, the company scaled down the level of service, re-launching it in January 2008, [3] and to reconsider its operating model. From 7 to 29 January 2008, the service operated on a reduced frequency, ending once the original route registration expired after the mandated period.
Route 42/42A/N42 was The Big Lemon's first public bus service, originating from its service 42X. Service 42 operated from Churchill Square to Sussex University via Lewes Road. During the evenings the route number changed to 42A and served West Street. It would later be renumbered N42. The N42 charged higher fares as it operated from 00:00 – 04:00. In 2011 the company renumbered routes 42A and N42 to 42.
Route 43 ran from September 2010 - January 2011, focusing on student trade and operating from Old Steine during the day and Hove during the evening up to Brighton University's Falmer campus.
Route 44 was introduced at the same time as route 43 in September 2010, operating from Churchill Square to Saltdean.
In September 2012 The Big Lemon successfully tendered to operate route 52 between Brighton Marina and Woodingdean which also goes to Ovingdean under contract to Brighton & Hove City Council. [4]
On 17 March 2017, it was announced that Norman Baker, the former Liberal Democrat MP and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport, had been appointed managing director of the Big Lemon. [5] Baker resigned in January 2018. [6]
On 17 September 2017, The Big Lemon took over routes 16, between Portslade and Hangleton, 47, between Brighton station and East Saltdean, 56, between Knoll estate and Patcham, 57, between Brighton station and East Saltdean and 66 which goes in a circular route around Portslade and Hangleton. [7] Additionally, one Saturday morning journey on Brighton & Hove's route 21A, from Goldstone Valley to Brighton Marina, has been operated by the Big Lemon since 16 September 2018. From 29 April 2019, Route 66 was withdrawn and incorporated into route 47, [8] and Route 56 was replaced with an extension to Routes 47 and 52. [9]
The Big Lemon had partnered up with Lewes-based Seaford and District to create a coach company called "Brighton Horizon Coaches" on 4 August 2020. Together they had set up a fleet of 11 coaches. [10]
Five months later, on 9 January 2021, Seaford and District was acquired by The Big Lemon, with Ryan Wrotny taking over management of the company. David Mulpeter, Seaford & District's Managing Director, was said to be taking his first steps into retirement following 10 and a half years running the company since its founding in 2010. The operating licences, however, will remain separate. [11]
In September 2022, following the closure of the HCT Group in Bristol, The Big Lemon announced that they would be operating services in the city [12] supported by subsidy from the West of England Combined Authority. [13] [14] On 30 September 2022, the traffic commissioner approved the licence for The Big Lemon to operate bus services in Bristol. The Big Lemon's four Bristol routes (505, 506, 515 & 516) commenced operations on Monday 3 October 2022 initially using a batch of Enviro 200s previously operated by Bristol Community Transport as well as four Optare Solos transferred from the company's Brighton operations. On 28 November 2022, The Big Lemon started operating services 11, 12 and 20 in Bath following these routes withdrawal by First West of England in October. Their routes in Bath are operated using 3 hired-in Wright StreetLites and an electric Higer Steed transferred from the company's operations in Brighton. [15]
As of November 2024, The Big Lemon operate 17 services (6 in Brighton; 16, 16a, 47, 47a, 52, 52a and 11 in Bristol and Surrounding areas; 2V, X10, 20, 40, 61, X91, 99, 515, K1, P1, Y8). Additionally, they operate shuttle buses for Brighton Metropolitan College and Legal & General [7] Coaches ran on biodiesel that was refined from waste cooking oil until 2017. [16] Buses run on diesel and batteries charged via mix of solar power and the main grid.
As of April 2020, The Big Lemon has a fleet of 19 vehicles, including 3 minibuses and 16 regular buses. The minibuses don't operate regular bus routes, rather operating on the Legal & General and Brighton Metropolitan College shuttles.
Hove is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove.
Brighton and Hove is a city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administered by Brighton and Hove City Council, which is currently under Labour majority control.
Falmer railway station is in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, south-east England, 3 miles 39 chains (5.6 km) from Brighton railway station on the East Coastway line. It is operated by Southern.
Hove and Portslade is a borough constituency in East Sussex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Peter Kyle of the Labour Party, who currently serves as Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology in the government of Keir Starmer.
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.
Brighton and Hove City Council is a unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It was created as Brighton and Hove Borough Council on 1 April 1997 replacing Brighton and Hove Borough Councils. It was granted city status in 2001.
Coldean is a suburb of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Located in the northeast corner of the urban area, it was developed by Brighton Corporation in the 1950s as one of several postwar council estates necessitated by the acute housing shortage in the area after World War II.
Hangleton is a suburb of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. The area was developed in the 1930s after it was incorporated into the Borough of Hove, but has ancient origins: its parish church was founded in the 11th century and retains 12th-century fabric; the medieval manor house is Hove's oldest secular building. The village became depopulated in the medieval era and the church fell into ruins, and the population in the isolated hilltop parish only reached 100 in the early 20th century; but rapid 20th-century development resulted in more than 6,000 people living in Hangleton in 1951 and over 9,000 in 1961. By 2013, the population exceeded 14,000.
Public transport in Brighton and Hove, a city on the south coast of England, dates back to 1840. Brighton and Hove has a major railway station, an extensive bus service, many taxis, coach services, and it has previously had trolley buses, ferries, trams, auto rickshaws and hydrofoils.
Mile Oak is a locality forming the northern part of the former parish of Portslade in the northwest corner of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Now mostly residential, but originally an area of good-quality agricultural land, it covers the area north of Portslade village as far as the urban boundary.
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.
Saltdean is a coastal village in the city of Brighton and Hove, with part outside the city boundary in Lewes district. Saltdean is approximately 5 miles (8 km) east of central Brighton, 5 miles (8 km) west of Newhaven, and 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Lewes. It is bordered by farmland and the South Downs National Park.
Open top buses are used in the United Kingdom for sightseeing and seasonal summer services.
Articulated buses, colloquially known as "bendy buses", were rarely used in the United Kingdom compared to other countries, until the turn of the millennium. This was due to a preference for the double-decker bus for use on high capacity routes. In June 2006, there were over 500 articulated buses in the United Kingdom, although they were still heavily outnumbered by double deckers. The majority of this fleet was used in London, although these buses would be withdrawn by end of 2011.
Buses are the main form of public transport in Bristol, England. Most bus services are operated by First West of England. Other companies offering services include The Big Lemon, Stagecoach West and Newport Bus.
Prestonville is a largely residential area in the northwest of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It covers a long, narrow and steeply sloping ridge of land between the Brighton Main Line and Dyke Road, two major transport corridors which run north-northwestwards from the centre of Brighton. Residential development started in the 1860s and spread northwards, further from central Brighton, over the next six decades. The area is characterised by middle-class and upper-middle-class housing in various styles, small-scale commercial development and long eastward views across the city. Two Anglican churches serve Prestonville—one at each end of the area—and there are several listed buildings.
The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove has a long and varied history of libraries going back over 250 years. Subscription libraries were among the earliest buildings in the resort of Brighton, which developed in the late 18th century; by the 1780s these facilities, which were more like social clubs than conventional book-borrowing venues, were at the heart of the town's social scene. The Brighton Literary Society, its successor the Brighton Royal Literary and Scientific Institution and its rival the Sussex Scientific Institution between them established a "very fine collection" of publications by the mid-19th century, and these books were donated to the town when a public library was founded in 1871. Neighbouring Hove, originally a separate village, established its own public library in 1890.
Brighton and Hove, a city and unitary authority in the English county of East Sussex, has a wide range of public services funded by national government, East Sussex County Council, Brighton and Hove City Council and other public-sector bodies. Revenue to fund these services comes partly from Council Tax, which is paid annually by residents: this tax provides the city council with nearly 20% of its income and also helps to fund the local police force, Sussex Police, and the county's fire service, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. Some of Brighton and Hove's utilities and infrastructure are provided by outside parties, such as utility companies, rather than by the city council.
Coaster is the brand name given to a series of bus routes operated by the Brighton & Hove bus company, running between Brighton and Eastbourne in East Sussex, England.