Coastliner 700

Coastliner 700 is a bus service operated in West Sussex and south east Hampshire, England, by Stagecoach South between Brighton and Southsea via Worthing, Littlehampton, Wick, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Havant, and Portsmouth with a general daytime frequency of every ten minutes.[1] The route has its own livery and is usually operated with double-decker buses.[1]

Coastliner 700
Alexander Dennis Enviro400 bodied Scania N230UD in the new 700 Coastliner at The Hard Interchange, Portsmouth in March 2010
Overview
OperatorStagecoach South
VehicleAlexander Dennis Enviro300
Alexander Dennis Enviro400
Peak vehicle requirement47
PredecessorsRoute 31
Night-timeRoute N700
Route
StartBrighton
ViaHove, Worthing, Littlehampton, Wick, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Havant, Portsmouth
EndSouthsea
Length50.1 miles (80.6 km)
Service
LevelDaily
Journey time4 hours 20 minutes

History
logo used from 2010 to 2015
Coastliner 700 liveried Alexander Dennis Enviro300 at The Hard Interchange, Portsmouth in October 2010

The route was introduced in 1975, as the 'Stagecoach 700'[1] 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.[2] 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.[3][4]

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.[4] 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.[5]

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.[6] By 2010 the service carried four million people per year;[7] in 2012, this figure was 4.9 million.[8] Stagecoach introduced new vehicles in March 2010.[7]

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'.[1][9]

Since May 2014, the Coastliner has been split into three services. One route runs between Brighton and Littlehampton, another between Littlehampton and Chichester and a third between Chichester and Portsmouth.[10] 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.[8][4]

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.

Route

The route is operated from three Stagecoach depots, Worthing, Chichester and Portsmouth, and since 2010 has run with branded Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 and Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 vehicles.[7][1] The route has a peak vehicle requirement of 47. Twelve new vehicles were delivered in 2014.[8][10]

See also

The Wave, another South Coast route running from Dover to Eastbourne

References
  1. "Hants & Sussex Part 1". Transport Illustrated. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  2. Osborne, Julian (February 2015). "Plus ca change, as they say in Worthing". Buses (719): 36.
  3. Kraemer-Johnson, Glyn; Bishop, John (2003). The Heyday of Southdown. Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0711029199.
  4. "All change" Coach & Bus Week issue 1137 15 May 2014 pages 23–25
  5. "Horsham blamed over bus failure". West Sussex County Times. 3 February 2006. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  6. "All aboard for ride on the Coastal Expressway". Sussex Express. 18 February 2009.
  7. "South coast bus travel gets a green upgrade". The News. 2 March 2010. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013.
  8. Passengers to gain from more buses on major service Archived 22 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine Bognor Regis Observer
  9. "The Brand Surgery". The Brand Surgery. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  10. Coastliner 700 improved Archived 22 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine Bus & Coach Buyer 17 April 2014

Media related to Coastliner 700 (bus route) at Wikimedia Commons

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