M&D 5781 on route 4 at Gillingham
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Derek Jones
Mar 21, 2011, 7:08:01 PM3/21/11
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Between August 1981 (when the Maidstone co-ordination scheme was launched) and 1986, M&D extended the 5/5A routes between Maidstone and Hastings to start at Gillingham, taking up one journey per hour on the Gillingham-Maidstone corridor. The 5A (renumbered 4) was similar to the 5 but ran via Vinehall and Whatlington (just north of Battle).
This resulted in buses appearing at Gillingham and Chatham with Hastings as a destination, something that had previously been limited to the occasional seaside special.
A side-effect was the appearance of the Hastings & District fleetname (then applied to vehicles based at Hawkhurst) in the Medway Towns, as illustrated by former South Yorkshire PTE (and originally Sheffield) East Lancs-bodied Bristol VRT 5781, seen at Gillingham Bus Station in May 1982.
This extension had echoes of the traditional network, which had involved through journeys between Gillingham and Hastings on a regular basis between 1924 and 1957, then reduced to a summer-only facility plus occasional positioning trips up to July 1962.
Derek J
This resulted in buses appearing at Gillingham and Chatham with Hastings as a destination, something that had previously been limited to the occasional seaside special.
A side-effect was the appearance of the Hastings & District fleetname (then applied to vehicles based at Hawkhurst) in the Medway Towns, as illustrated by former South Yorkshire PTE (and originally Sheffield) East Lancs-bodied Bristol VRT 5781, seen at Gillingham Bus Station in May 1982.
This extension had echoes of the traditional network, which had involved through journeys between Gillingham and Hastings on a regular basis between 1924 and 1957, then reduced to a summer-only facility plus occasional positioning trips up to July 1962.
Derek J
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