Buses better than ever
Bus services are being improved for the summer timetable, which begins on 13 April.
Bus travel in the city continues to thrive, with no planned cuts to council-funded services which provide vital transport links to residents in outlying areas and especially in the evenings and weekends.
Brighton & Hove City Council is spending £1,309,570 on supported bus services, some of which is funded from the parking income surplus.
The council funds most of the evening and Sunday services in the Queens Park, Coombe Road/Meadowview, Manor Hill, Furze Hill and Goldstone Valley areas. It is bringing these services into line with the new pattern of commercially run daytime services so the routes are more consistent and easier to use.
This will also lead to journey improvements, such as the increased frequency on new service 18 on evenings and weekends. Together with new service 20 there will be up to six buses an hour between Brighton Station and Queens Park.
Services 21 and 21A will also provide new evening links between Manor Hill, the city centre, Hove and Goldstone Valley and offer additional journeys between Queens Park and the city centre via London Road.
Service 38A will give passengers a new evening and Sunday link between Meadowview/Coombe Road and London Road shops and a more direct route from the city centre to Coombe Road/Meadowview.
Following a successful trial, the 79 bus to and from Ditchling Beacon, which is part-funded by the council, will continue to have two spaces for bikes on board. The 77 bus to Devil’s Dyke will run more often: both the 77 and 79 run every weekend under the ‘Breeze up to the Downs’ partnership.
Other services have been tweaked to improve reliability at busy times.
Councillor Ian Davey, lead councillor for transport at Brighton & Hove City Council, said: “We are pleased to be able to support bus services so that residents have access to bus travel on less commercial routes and at weekends and evenings.
“The improved evening and Sunday services are being provided by Brighton & Hove Buses at no extra cost to the council, and the bus operators in the city have also listened to suggestions made by passengers and bus drivers to make improvements.”
From 4 April Community Transport is providing a new direct service from Brighton to Rodmell to coincide with Friday opening hours at the National Trust’s Monk’s House. From 29 March Sheffield Park Garden and the Bluebell Railway again have a direct link from Brighton on Compass Bus route 769, running every Sunday and bank holiday. Also on Sundays, Metrobus offers a regular direct service between Brighton and Ditchling Village on service 271.
Brighton & Hove Buses are significantly improving the 29 service to Uckfield and the 12 route which runs along the coast from Eastbourne and Seaford into Brighton, with faster 12X journeys all day Monday to Saturday. The company is also introducing a new bus network for Queens Park (buses 18, 20 and 21) - including more links with Brighton Station - and a better Sunday service on the 27 from Saltdean, Westdene and Withdean Stadium.
Further information
The Lewes Road Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) will contribute £55,000 for bus access to Brighton Station in 2014/15 and the ‘2 National Parks‘ ‘ LSTF (New Forest National Park Authority and the South Downs National Park Authority) will contribute £16,000 towards running the Breeze up to the Downs services 78 and 79 on winter Saturdays in 2014/15. The National Trust contributes £20,000 annually towards running Breeze up to the Downs services and also underwrites the cost of running the winter Saturday service on the 77 route.
The parking surplus also makes a substantial contribution to paying for concessionary bus fares which provide older and disabled people with free off-peak travel on local buses. The concessionary fares budget for 2014/15 is £10.615m.
Find out more about buses in Brighton & Hove.