 | |
 | |
| Parent | FirstGroup |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1972 |
| Headquarters | Purfleet |
| Service area | Essex Kent East London |
| Service type | Bus services Bus dealer |
| Routes | 12 (April 2020) |
| Hubs | Grays station Lakeside Shopping Centre |
| Fleet | 55 (February 2023) |
| Website | www.ensignbus.com |
Ensign Bus Company Limited, [1] trading as Ensignbus, is a bus and coach operator and bus dealer based in Purfleet, Essex. As of March 2023, it is a part of FirstGroup.
Ensignbus was formed in 1972 by Peter Newman, who remains involved today as chairman and his sons Ross and Steve as directors. Ensignbus commenced with a small number of bus contracts for the Port of London Authority and Lesney Products and later diversified into bus sales and operating open top bus tours. [2]
It was announced on 8 February 2023 that with the retirement of its owner Peter Newman and his sons Ross and Steve, Ensignbus was to be purchased by FirstGroup, with its bus dealer business and bus service operations remaining separate from the operations of First Essex. The company's heritage fleet operation was not included the sale and remains with the Newman family. [3] [4] [5] The last day of independent operations was on 9 March 2023. [6]
The company came to prominence in the UK when London Transport decided to dispose of its unpopular and poor performing Daimler Fleetlines from 1979. Ensignbus was the only company willing to bid for all these buses as one batch, numbering over 2,000 buses, as preferred by London Transport. [2] [7]
As the vehicles arrived, Ensignbus moved to larger premises in Purfleet. While some were scrapped, Ensign sold many of these buses to operators around the country and abroad, with many ex-municipal companies and new operators requiring cheap re-inforcements for enhanced competition following the deregulation of bus services in 1986. Over 400 were sold to China Motor Bus in Hong Kong. [2] [8]
During the London Pride Sightseeing operation, Ensignbus continued selling buses in smaller numbers from a site in Rainham. With the sale of London Pride, Ensignbus moved to another site in Purfleet, and grew its sales business. [2]
Ensignbus was involved in the sale of London's AEC Routemaster buses following their withdrawal from regular use. [9] As of 2013, it was the largest used bus dealer in the UK. [10]
In October 1985, Ensignbus purchased the London Pride Sightseeing open top bus tour business. [11] Through links gained by selling open top buses to other operators around the world, Ensignbus expanded the concept to other cities setting up new tours. In January 1998, the open-top tour business was sold. [2]
Starting in 1998 with an operation in Seville, in 1999, Ensignbus launched the City Sightseeing global sightseeing bus brand with a worldwide franchise model, and proceeded to rapidly expand into several cities. In May 2002 City Sightseeing bought out its main rival Guide Friday.
In November 2000, Ensignbus reacquired the London Pride Sightseeing business but sold it in 2001 to The Original Tour. In June 2004, Ensignbus purchased Bath Bus Company and transferred its City Sightseeing operations in Cardiff, Eastbourne, and Windsor to the company. [12]
In February 2011, the Bath Bus Company business was sold to the RATP Group. [13] [14] In April 2011, Ensignbus sold City Sightseeing to Enrique Ybarra. [15]
As a result of deregulation in the mid 1980s Ensignbus expanded into tendered London Buses work in East London. [16] [17] Starting with one or two routes, Ensignbus gained a network of routes, using several second hand vehicles and batches of new vehicles:
In July 1989, it purchased the business of Frontrunner South East from Stagecoach East Midlands with route 248 and 252. [19] In December 1990, Ensignbus sold its London tendered bus services to Hong Kong company Citybus with the Dagenham depot and 87 buses. It was rebranded as Ensign Citybus and then Capital Citybus. [20]
Ensignbus briefly re-entered London tendered services on 7 February 1999, taking over route 324 (Hornchurch-Lakeside) and school service 648 (Romford-Thurrock College) from First Capital who had bought Capital Citybus on July 8 1998, [21] even later creating a night variant of route 324 numbered N324, which only lasted five nights, when the route was extended to Bluewater from Lakeside and Romford Market from Hornchurch on March 16 1999. Ensignbus also created a school variant of the 324 numbered 623 between Hornchurch and Belhus on the same day that route 324 was taken over, however the service did not last long as it was withdrawn by July 22 1999. Ensignbus later took over London tendered service route 348 (Romford-Lakeside) on June 12 1999 from Eastern National after the route was re-introduced after being withdrawn and replaced by an extension of Eastern National route 351 to Lakeside, and Ensignbus extended route 348 to Gravesend via Bluewater, although this only lasted until December 11 1999 when the route was withdrawn back to Lakeside. [22] Routes 325 and 509 were later added before Ensignbus once again sold its London services on December 11 1999, this time to Town & Country Buses. [2] [5]
In 2004, Ensignbus commenced operating a 12-month rail replacement contract in Kent for South Eastern Trains while the Higham and Strood tunnels were closed to strengthening. To make use of the dead running from its Purfleet depot, route X80 Chafford Hundred to Gravesend via Lakeside and Bluewater Shopping Centres was introduced. It proved successful and hence was kept going after the rail contract finished, albeit being cut back to run between Chafford Hundred & Lakeside to Bluewater only. In 2006, Ensignbus commenced operating services under contract to Thurrock Council and began operating services in Thurrock in competition with Arriva Southend. [23] [24] As at October 2016, it operated 16 routes. [23] In April 2017, Ensign took over two further routes in Thurrock from Amber Coaches. [25]
In June 2019, Jetlink X1, a night bus service between London Southend Airport and London Victoria via Lakeside Shopping Centre, Canning Town, and Embankment stations commenced. [26] It was withdrawn after a few weeks due to Ensignbus being denied access to Southend Airport. [27] [28] It recommenced on 5 October 2019 [29] [30] but was withdrawn again in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
On 17 June 2019, Ensignbus' services in Brentwood were taken over by NIBS Buses. [31] [32] [33]
Today, Ensignbus retains a small bus service network centred on Grays station [34] and Lakeside Shopping Centre. [35] It also regularly provides buses for rail replacement services to train operators including Abellio Greater Anglia, c2c, Southeastern, and Transport for London.
Ensignbus also operates a dealership selling used buses from several major UK and Irish operators. [36] In 2016, it became a dealer for BCI products, starting with the BCI Enterprise high capacity integral double-decker. [37] The company acts as a partner to Vantage Power, a firm developing technology to retrofit existing buses with diesel-electric hybrid engines. [10] [38]
Ensignbus maintains a fleet of heritage buses with AEC Regent III, AEC Routemaster, Daimler Fleetline, Leyland Titan, MCW Metrobus, and Scania Metropolitans represented. [39] As well as being available for charter, Ensignbus operate these at an annual running day on the first Saturday in December each year. [40] [41]
As of February 2023, Ensignbus operates 55 single and double deck buses, which are a combination of new and second-hand purchases. Fleet livery is light blue and silver. The fleet includes six hybrid electric buses delivered in 2012. [42]
Thurrock is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames immediately east of London and has over 18 miles (29 km) of riverfront including the Port of Tilbury, the principal port for London. Thurrock is within the London commuter belt and is an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The borough includes the northern ends of the Dartford Crossing.
Lakeside Shopping Centre is a large out-of-town shopping centre located in West Thurrock, Essex just beyond the eastern boundary of Greater London. It was constructed on the site of a former chalk quarry. The first tenants moved into the complex in 1988 and it was completed in 1990, being opened on 25 October of that year by Princess Alexandra of Kent, Marcus Bradford and Angus Ogilvy. New spaces in the red car park were added as recently as October 2019.
The history of bus transport in Hong Kong began with the introduction of the first bus routes in Hong Kong in the 1920s.
Citybus Limited is a bus company which provides both franchised and non-franchised service in Hong Kong. The franchised route network serves Hong Kong Island, cross-harbour routes, North Lantau, Hong Kong International Airport, Kowloon, New Territories, Shenzhen Bay Port and Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge Hong Kong Port. The non-franchised routes serve mainly City One Sha Tin. It also provides bus rental services and staff bus services for some large companies, such as TVB and China Light and Power.
Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England.
South Ockendon is a town, former civil parish and Church of England parish within the Thurrock borough in Essex in the East of England, United Kingdom. It is located on the border with Greater London, just outside the M25 motorway. The area to the north is North Ockendon. In 2019 it had an estimated population of 22,303 and in the 2021 United Kingdom census it had a population of 22,442
The China Motor Bus Company, Limited, often abbreviated as CMB, is a property developer based in Hong Kong. Before its busfranchise lapsed in 1998, it was the first motor bus operator in Hong Kong, and was responsible for the introduction of the iconic double-decker buses to Hong Kong Island. Currently CMB does not run any transport services and has since shifted into property development as an alternative means of profit.
The Dennis Dominator was Dennis's first rear-engined double-decker bus chassis, it was launched in 1977.
Arriva Southern Counties Limited, trading as Arriva Southern Counties, is a bus operator in Kent, Essex, Hemel Hempstead, and Watford in England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus.
The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new.
City Sightseeing is an open-top, sightseeing tour bus operator. It provides tour bus services in more than 130 cities around the world. As City Sightseeing has grown and expanded, the company now also provides boat tours, sightseeing train tours, and guided walking tours.
Arriva Southend is a division of Arriva Southern Counties, a subsidiary of transport group Arriva which operates bus services in and around the Southend-on-Sea, Rochford, Rayleigh areas of Essex. They operate most services east of Southend and a few services west of Southend, and compete to a limited extent with three other local operators with services in the same areas: First Essex, NIBS and Stephensons of Essex.
The Daimler Fleetline is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983.
The Northern Counties Palatine was a step-entrance 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus body built by Northern Counties from 1988 to 1999 in Wigan, England.
Capital Citybus was a bus operator in London operating services under contract to London Regional Transport.
London Pride Sightseeing was an open top sightseeing bus operator in London.
Green Line routes X1 and X10 were limited-stop express coach services which were operated by Stephensons of Essex as part of the Green Line Coaches network. The services operated between Rochford, Southend and London. The original X1 route was introduced in 1980 by Southend Transport and Reading Transport, and also served Reading.
London Buses route 252 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Collier Row and Hornchurch, it is operated by Stagecoach London.
NIBSBuses Limited, trading as NIBS Buses, is a bus and coach operator in Essex, England.
Media related to Ensignbus at Wikimedia Commons51°29′38″N0°13′54″E / 51.49399°N 0.2317°E
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