Bendy buses will be leaving the streets of Brighton and Hove by the end of the year.
After more than a decade on the roads, Brighton and Hove Buses has decided to retire its 22-strong fleet and replace them with more environmentally friendly double-deckers.
The 15-year-old Citaro buses are no longer manufactured by Mercedes and getting replacement parts is becoming more difficult.
The news was announced at a meeting of Brighton Area Buswatch earlier this month by the bus company’s managing director Ed Wills.
Chair of Buswatch Andrew Boag said: “They’ve been a familiar sight on Brighton and Hove routes 25 and 25X for the past decade, but they’ll all be gone by the end of 2022.
“They will be replaced by ‘mid-life’ double deckers transferred from London.
“There are several reasons for this. The 22 Mercedes Benz Citaro bendy buses are now 15 years old, and with very few left in the UK, parts are becoming difficult to obtain.
“Their fuel consumption is very high (averaging just 4.5mpg), they don’t meet Ultra Low Emission Zone requirements and it would not be viable to modify them.
“Bendy buses have been well suited to carrying large numbers of students along Lewes Road to and from the universities. However, the current usage of the 25 & 25X is well below pre pandemic levels and with more lectures going online, peak demand is not expected to increase anytime soon.
“Interestingly though, we are told the N25 night service is the only bus route in Brighton which carries more passengers than before covid!”
The buses were first trialled in 2009, and started on the 25 route on Tuesday, 27 April 2010 – almost 12 years ago to the day.
The bus company’s managing director then, Roger French, told Brighton and Hove News: “We got them for a good price as there rather a lot going spare at the moment.”
They were sold by Transport for London, but were sold after Boris Johnson was elected as London Mayor, on a manifesto which included a pledge to get rid of them.
The bendy buses can carry 140 passengers compared with about 90 on a traditional double decker (including standing passengers).
Before the pandemic, they carried thousands of passengers along Lewes Road every day.
A shame it has taken fifteen years to get rid of these idiotic things. These buses were never fit for Brighton roads.
15 years for a bus is about right. The Scania Omnidekkas should be going soon as well.
But very convenient for boarding, transporting, alighting large numbers of students, with 2 big expanding universities.
Double deckers will be slower.
John T
And of course they cover the Football and other major events.
What these brainless moaners forget, if you take away a bus capable to carrying 130 people in one go, it will need to be replaced by two vehicles to make up the difference. I think 10 bendies cover football so that would mean, 20 doubles to replace them. So 10 extra lots of operating costs, plus of course extra vehicles on the road. So more costs as having to put out extra buses and extra staff, no doubt that will mean even more bus fare increases to make it pay.
Not sure of the mentality of some people tbh.
AO
Opinions vary on fitness, never had a problem with these buses personally nor have I heard that any of these buses were unfit for any roads they serve. Heard plenty of problems in London in getting stuck in narrow roads.
Ghastly vessels. Scant, uncomfortable seats.
If they were not fit for Brighton roads how come they’ve been running for 15 years? As for the seats they were built for short urban journeys, never intended as long distance vehicles
They were can utter nuisance to other drivers too. They were meant to run just from the Dteine to the universities but some bright dark decided to send them to Portslade and Palmeira Square too. Two running together east that you had to wait ages to get on the stop to allow your own passengers off. The students would fram onto the first one and the one immediately behind would be almost empty as they ran on a 3 mi ute headway when I was there. Those students took ages to get off as they’d removed one of the exit doors. All I can say is good riddance to these horrible things.
Ghost Bus Driver
Hmmm, you sound very bitter. B&H not take you on as a driver ?
What routes a bus company decides to operate is entirely up them and also what type of vehicle is used. I’ve seen plenty of these buses full and standing actually leaving people behind and you’re moaning because your held up for a few minutes, gosh how small minded to let that wind you up so much.
And two buses running together is common in Brighton no matter what route it is. Even Stagecoach 700’s run in two’s or three’s and guess what, they prevent other buses serving bus stops too and guess what, those drivers have to wait.
Should have used this opportunity to put in trolly busses running directly of the power grid. They are fast and don’t sit around at bus stops for days like the double deckers, I will miss the fact it only takes 8-10 mins to get from the bus garage to the center of town.
Trolley buses need expensive infrastructure and unsightly overhead wiring,bendybuses use existing roads, carry far more passengers and look superb. What’s not to like?
Not as expensive as building a tramway system, look at the years of upheaval it took to build the Croydon Tramlink system and what a sucsess it has been.
I’m confused at your comment Dave of “don’t sit around at bus stops for days”? What does that even mean? You realise that even with Trolley buses there would be a timetable and passengers which would still make them sit around at stops..
@LANCE trust me they don’t look superb theyreca pain in the neck. They were supposed to stay on the University to Old Steine run but they got extended to Palmeira Square. They’re unreliable and constantly break down or require maintenance and the most unreliable parts are the hydraulic rams for the articulation (basically what allows a bendy bus to, well, bend. They block up the road and cause delays to other buses. Too big for Brighton and too unreliable. Like I said. Good damn riddance.
Ghost Bus Driver
We all have our opinions on things. I think they look quite good.
You say they were supposed to stay between Old Steine and University, was that made a law and the bus company breaking it.
As mentioned elsewhere, the various bus companies can run routes to where they like to meet demand and operational needs, what might have been a case ten years ago may not be the same now. Lots of routes change for various reasons.
Stagecoach 700 used to be a fast limited stop, it no longer is and now a slow boring excessively long journey that forces people back into their cars like myself who needs to travel to Portsmouth, but hey ho, it is what it is.
Interesting comments about breaking down and require maintenance.
I have seen plenty of Double deckers on the back of wreckers going into B&H depot at Lewes Road, most of those appear to be only a few years old.
I would expect bendies to fail considering these are 15 years old now and around the life expected.
So according to a reliable source, B&H require for it’s peak operating requirement 22 vehicles. Removing high capacity buses and replacing them with smaller double decker’s would increase the peak requirement to 30, or 8 extra buses and increase frequency from it’s current format.
Think about that…
That doesn’t make much sense. There’s a fair few bus garages around Brighton too 😂
It’s one style of bus being replaced and you think it’s opportunity to waste billions installing the infrastructure for obsolete transport which has zero route flexibility.
Dave
Hate to tell you this, but any form of Bus, will be sat at bus stops dropping people off or picking them up. Every bus will have the same problem getting into and out of bus stops and moving along roads, it’s called other traffic no matter how ‘fast’ they are !!!
Great idea with trollies, let’s spend millions of pounds on putting up electric poles and cables all over the city that would make the city look even more of an eyesore to start with.
Or perhaps we might think of having electric buses, maybe install power charging points at garages, but there again I think we might already be doing that with B&H and big Lemon introducing such vehicles over the last few years, hmmm.
Trolleybus systems should have never been done away with but some did last in to the 1960’s, many Tramway systems went before world war 2, if it was not for the second world war the London system would have gone possibly in the late 1930’s or 1940’s, where i live in Crawley Metrobus is very soon going to get new Electric buses, it is very likely that the Scania Omnicity single deckers which are about 15 vyears old will be withdrawn.
Bendy buses are brilliant, why not build more.
Bus 103 – long gone… Lowest number is 105, the one with the gas seat finally switched out to a rigid seat a year ago. Weird thing bouncing up and down as the pedals and everything stays still.