Brighton & Hove Buses - Bendy Bus Twilight
The Go-Ahead
subsidiary, Brighton & Hove
introduced the ‘bendy’ bus to Brighton in 2011 with a batch of four
Mercedes-Benz Citaro O530G articulated buses transferred from Go-Ahead’s London
fleet when these buses were made redundant in the capital at that time. The fleet grew to 22 buses, all London
examples with some going to Go North East
first before arriving in Brighton. They
all operated on the very busy 25 and 25x routes that link the city and Hove
with the Universities, terminating at the large Falmer Campus, which is situated
near to the large Brighton football stadium.
The ‘bendy’ buses have now been replaced by a fleet of fifteen former Go Ahead London Volvo B9TL/Wright Gemini
2 double-deckers. The final ‘bendy’
buses ran in service on Monday 31st October, but a final ‘farewell’
was arranged by the company on Monday 7th November. Most of the buses have now been sold for
scrap.
In early summer 2022 the independent
transport videos cameras
made two visits to Brighton to film and ride
on these buses in their twilight months in service to capture their
memory forever. In May our filming locations in Brighton
included Lewes Road, Old Steine, Pavilion Parade, Grand Parade,
Marlborough
Place, Gloucester Place, St George’s Place, York Place and Richmond
Terrace. Our cameras also took three
rides on the ‘bendy’ buses. The first was
onboard 106 (BD57 WDE) on route 25 to the Brighton University Falmer
Campus. Alighting here we filmed the
buses running along Village Way on this very frequent – up to every 5
minutes –
service. From here we travelled back to
Lewes Road onboard 119 (BL57 OXK). At
Lewes Road, Brighton & Hove have
one of their three garages in the city and we see two of the ‘bendy’ buses
replacement Volvo double-deckers that had just arrived from London! A further ride is taken onboard 107 (BD57
WDK) working route 25 to Old Steine. The
filming during our June 2022 visit begins at Old Steine. Our cameras then take up positions in Marlborough
Place, Gloucester Place, York Place and at Falmer Campus where we see plenty of
action featuring the ‘bendy’ buses arriving and departing from the campus
area. Our filming is completed at Lewes
Road and York Place. Of course it is not
just ‘bendy’ bus action that is captured on our visits - we have filmed virtually
every bus that we have seen! Not just Brighton
& Hove vehicles but Stagecoach,
Metrobus and The Big Lemon independent with their
electric vehicles. Look out for the Brighton & Hove Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 double deckers in their new ‘Regency
Route’ livery with some adapted for the celebration the late HM Queen
Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee in a similar style. There are also plenty of the battery-electric
ADL Enviro400ER double-deckers to be seen as well.
So sit back and enjoy
the action and see the end of an era of the Brighton & Hove ‘bendy’ buses.