Educating SMI

[Chris]

St Mary's Island is, like its larger cousin Kings Hill, the sort of "new build" housing estate that has more buses at school times than any other time of the day. At present, all four school buses are operated by Nu-Venture, although the main daytime service, such as there is one, remains with Arriva on Mondays to Fridays and Nu-Venture at weekends. I've featured the two numerically lower routes, 600 and 652, here before, and on 8th May I caught up with the other two. 

The single-deck 671 runs from Hoo Academy (formerly Hundred of Hoo School) via Liberty Park (Wainscott) and the Medway Tunnel, and I was delighted to capture the blind on recently-painted 885 heading northbound to "the Island" at the Ship and Trades. 

The double-deck 683 started with the opening of Maritime Academy at the start of the 2024/25 academic year. Like the 671, it runs through the Medway Tunnel, before continuing across a northern arc of Medway to terminate at Rainham. DE461 has been over the bridge to the main stop for the Island, and is now returning southbound for the rest of the journey. I still don't like the shipping containers spoiling the view, but there is a bush in the way that stops a good angle if I use the bus to block them!

Chris