Old East Kent Bus Timetables and Guides

[The Unknown Contributor!]

Hi everyone, I'm new here, but some of you may know me from Flickr where I am also The Unknown Contributor and have 2 acounts: https://www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?rb=1&path=&nsid=69558134@N05&page=&details=1, and: https://www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939@N08&page=&details=1, that feature a wide variety of things mostly from Dover where I am from.

To start things off I thought I would share some scans of some Old East Kent Bus Timetables and Guides from 1990 that I found in a box of my Grandfarthers things a few years ago, and I thought I would share them to show how things have, or have not improved in terms of public transport in East Kent over the years.

To start with, here is the Summer 1990 Kent County Council "Local Bus Guide" which gives details of many of the Main and Local Bus Services that year in the various Areas of Kent, and the operators who ran them, many of whom are now gone, plus details of Express and Commuter Coach Services, and some Services beyond Kent, and even Britsh Rail and Network South East Trains!
There is also a big Map on the other side of this guide, but it was too big to scan and piece together when I first scanned these so I probalby won't be able to show it here.

So Enjoy!

[Ken Lansdowne]

Only a few of the numerous operators listed are still operating today.

East Kent still going of course.
Maidstone & District is now Arriva Kent & Surrey (but still the same operator and includes New Enterprise and London & Country)
Kentish Bus is now Arriva Kent Thameside

Others still operating are (but not necessarily still on local stage work)
Kent Coach Tours
Poynters of Wye
Scotland & Bates
Regent Coaches
Clarkes of London
Farleigh Coaches
Spot Hire
Chalkwell
Brighton & Hove
ASD Transport
Kings Ferry
Nu-Venture Coaches
Metrobus

-- 
Ken Lansdowne
The M&D & East Kent Bus Club www.mdekbusclub.org.uk
The PSV Circle www.psv-circle.org.uk
Any photograph attached to this message is copyright © Ken Lansdowne 

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[The Unknown Contributor!]

Hi everyone, Thanks for the views and Thanks to Ken for the extra infomation.

Since my first post has been well recevied I thought I would continue to share some scans of some Old East Kent Bus Timetables from 1990 that I found in a box of my Grandfarthers things a few years ago, and I thought I would share them to show how things have, or have not improved in terms of public transport in East Kent over the years.

Next up, here is a timetable for the Deal local services that in 1990, were East Kent's "Minilink" Services, D80, D81, D82, D96, D97, D98 and 85, and includes timetables for the Deal local services D96, D97 and D98 and route 90 to Mill Hill and Marlborough Road, and services D80, D81 and D82 to Middle Deal and St. Martins Road and route 85 Sandown, which ran every 15 minutes to Middle Deal and every hour to Sandown.

Today Stagecoach in East Kent runs routes 14/14A and 82/82A to Mill Hill and Middle Deal with buses running through to and from Kingsdown, route 12, "Diamond" routes 13/13A, 15/15A/15X and routes 80/80A/80X to Walmer and "Diamond" route 15X and routes 80/80A/80X to Sandown.
 
So Enjoy and I hope these will be of interest to you all.

[The Unknown Contributor!]

Hi everyone, Thanks again for the views and since my first posts have been well recevied I thought I would continue to share some scans of some Old East Kent Bus Timetables from 1990 that I found in a box of my Grandfarthers things a few years ago, and I thought I would share them to show how things have, or have not improved in terms of public transport in East Kent over the years.

Next up, here is a timetable for for services 90, 90A, 94, 574 and 575 between West Whitfield and Deal, Dover and Folkestone that in 1990, were East Kent's "BigBus" Services, and ran every hour to and from Deal and every half hour to and from Folkestone, and were East Kent's "Minibus" Services on Sunday and Pubic Holidays, and ran every 2 hours to Deal and every hour to Folkestone.
Some services were also run by WESTBUS UK Ltd (remember them?) at night between Dover and Folkestone.

Today Stagecoach in East Kent runs "Heart" routes 60/60A and 61/61A to Whitfield and Dover Town, route 12, "Diamond" routes 15/15A/15X through to and from Canterbury and routes 80/80A/80X to Deal and Routes 91/91A and "Wave" routes 100/101/102 to Folkestone with most buses running through to Hythe, New Romney, Lydd, Rye and Hastings, and while the buses used now are an improvment as they are all easy access, some of the services have not improved.

Although daytime buses have improved in both directions, some evening buses have not. While between Dover and Folkestone the service is somewhat better and run by the same company all day and all night, the evening service to and from Deal is Awfull in my opinion.

Whereas in 1990 East Kent offered 3! Route 90 evening buses between Dover and Deal, today Stagecoach in East Kent's idea of a "decent" evening service is one 18:20PM route 15 departure from Dover to Deal, Monday's to Saturday's operated by a Small "Heart bus" Solo, and one 19:05PM route 15 departure from Dover to Deal, Sunday's and Public holiday's operated by a Big "Diamond bus" Enviro E300, and from Deal to Dover, one 19:05PM route 15X departure Monday's to Saturday's operated by a Small "Heart bus" Solo and one 19:50PM route 15 departure on Sunday's and Public Holiday's operated by a Big "Diamond bus" Enviro E300. So how Silly is that?

Incase you can't tell, I sometimes like to complain about stuff...

[DBJ]

Evening services are only likely to be commercially viable if there is a strong evening economy in the locations served. Neither Dover nor Deal really meet this criterion.
The 1990 timetable clearly shows that the later two journeys were funded by KCC, so they were not strictly "offered by EK" in its own right. Plus, the use of a minibus suggests that even then demand was limited. In more recent years, the rail service has been improved, and there are two trains an hour between Dover and Deal up until 2142 (though only until 1841 in the southbound direction). Stagecoach however should be congratulated for managing to fashion a commercial evening service between Canterbury and Deal following the withdrawal of KCC funding last autumn.

[Group_owner]

Hi Jim

Evening services have long been a cause of complaint, but only because far fewer people use them than travel during the day, and some routes only have an evening service because the County Council, or Medway Council has paid for it by awarding contracts.  If someone uses an evening bus just once a week or less, they might regard it as essential for them, but that doesn't make it a commercial proposition compared to one they and others use every day to travel to and from work or school.

The same applies to buses to hospitals or supermarkets, which may seem essential for someone who makes a specific journey perhaps once a week or less often, but these only carry sufficient people to make them long-established if they also serve other destinations further away or on the opposite side of town.

In some places, usage is enough to justify an evening service commercially, but many routes are not like that, and cuts to council budgets (which, in the absence of sufficient fare revenue, has been a valuable alternative source of funding for the past 30 years) mean that fewer such routes can now survive.

In principle, essential daytime services for commuters, shoppers and schoolchildren have to be given priority, and those in the evenings are more likely to be reduced.  On Sundays, in recent years an increase in Sunday shopping has (to some extent) helped to restore better frequencies.

Just to be clear (Jim and Simon), I have no objection to comparisons between services as they once were and those that run today, but please don't let it become a rant against the current operators, whoever they are.  Services change because of changing demand, which in turn depends on a large number of social and demographic factors including where and how people prefer to work or shop and where there are places of entertainment to visit, such as cinemas, theatres and theme parks.

It's the way that services and operators change (as well as the vehicles themselves) that makes the bus industry so fascinating for enthusiasts to follow from year to year, but just because one route has an evening service that has improved, it doesn't mean that this can happen everywhere.

Derek J

On Saturday, 7 January 2017 08:21:10 UTC, The Unknown Contributor! wrote:

[The Unknown Contributor!]

Hi everyone, Thanks again for the views and to DBJ and Derrek for the extra info. Just to Clarify the point I was trying to make about the current service 15/15A/15X is that the Last bus from Dover to Deal is Later on Sundays and Public Holidays than it is during the week, and is operated with a bigger vehicle than during the week, which is what I have allways thought is stupid, and I'm not saying that Stagecoach needs to run an hourly service all night, just one extra bus would do in my opinion, and I also personally know plenty of people that would use an Evening bus between Dover and Deal if there was one.
Interestingly I also learned over the summer of 2016 that when the "Diamond" Network was first introduced 2006, there was supposed to be an evening service of 2 buses to Deal on the 15 and 15X that were to be provided by now departed Cardinal Coaches of Coombe Valley Road in Dover with their ex KCC Passenger Services Optare Solo YF02SKN, but it did not happen for reasons unknown to me.

Anyway moving on since these posts have been well recevied I will continue to share some scans of some Old East Kent Bus Timetables from 1990 that I found in a box of my Grandfarthers things a few years ago, and I thought I would share them to show how things have, or have not improved in terms of public transport in East Kent over the years.

Next up, here is a timetable for services D4, 561, 574, 575, 587, 588 and 589 between Aycliffe, Dover, Elvington and Sandwich, that in 1990, were East Kent's "BigBus" Services and ran every hour, and were East Kent's "Minibus" Services on Sunday and Pubic Holidays, and ran every hour from West Whitfeild with most buses running through to Folkestone and its Sunday Market.
 

Today Stagecoach in East Kent runs routes 60/60A and 61/61A to Aycliffe and Whitfield, routes 87, 88 and 88A to Sandwich with buses running through to Ramsgate and routes 89 and 89A to Elvington with buses running through to Aylesham and Canterbury.

The current services are an example of a mixed blessing, with some improvments as routes 89 and 89A to Elvington offer services through to Snowdown, Aylesham and Canterbury every hour, serving places that prior to 2006 previously had no proper or regular service at all, however there are no longer any proper evening buses on each of these routes though.

[The Unknown Contributor!]

Hi everyone, Thanks again for the views and to DBJ and Derrek for the extra info. Since these posts have been well recevied I will continue to share some scans of some Old East Kent Bus Timetables from 1990 that I found in a box of my Grandfarthers things a few years ago, and I thought I would share them to show how things have, or have not improved in terms of public transport in East Kent over the years.

Next up, here is a timetable for services 15, 15A and 589 between Canterbury, Bridge, Shepherdswell, Lydden and Dover, and services 575 and D25 to Dover Eastern Docks, that in 1990, were East Kent's "BigBus" Services and ran every hour.

 

Today Stagecoach in East Kent runs route 12 via Whitfield and "Diamond" routes 15, 15A, and 15X direct to Canterbury and Route 15B via River and Temple Ewell, routes 89 and 89A via Elvington and Aylesham to Canterbury, and routes 88A and 89A to Coldred and Shepherdswell infrequently with buses running through to Sandwich and Ramsgate and Elvington and Canterbury.

The current services are actually an example where most things have drastically improved though some things have got worse. For example Coldred and Shepherdswell now get 3-5 buses a day, but from the top of the village, not the bottom of the village or the Rail Station since 2006, which run to Dover only, with nothing to Canterbury or Sandwich earlier in the day.

However Canterbury on the other hand, now gets an every 15 minutes service in the daytime with early morning buses in both directions and hourly evening buses all night!, and that's in adition to hourly Sunday and Public Holiday buses!

Which is in stark contrast to the old hourly East Kent service with a first bus from Canterbury to Dover at 09:10AM and a last bus from Dover to Canterbury at 17:40PM! and no Sunday and Public Holiday buses!

 

See, I don't complain about stuff all the time!!

[The Unknown Contributor!]

Hi everyone, Thanks again for the views and to DBJ and Derrek for the extra info. Since these posts have been well recevied I will share the last of some scans of some Old East Kent Bus Timetables from 1990 that I found in a box of my Grandfarthers things a few years ago, and I thought I would share them to show how things have, or have not improved in terms of public transport in East Kent over the years.

So finally, here is a timetable for the Dover Local Services that in 1990, were East Kent's "Minilink" Services, D1, D2, D2A, D3, D4, D5, D5A, D6, D7, D8, D9, D16, D19, D24 and D25 to local destinations, and ran every 10 minutes to Aycliffe, St Radigunds, River, Elmes Vale, or Melborne Avenue and Whitfield, every 15 minutes to Tower Hamlets or Maxton, and every 5 minutes! to The Linces and Buckland Valley, and service D77 every 30 minutes to the Dover Castle.

Today Stagecoach in East Kent runs town routes 60/60A, 61/61A, 62, 63/63A and 68 as the "Heart" Network, and routes 15B, 87, 88 and 89 serving Dover town centre and "Diamond" routes 15/15X and routes 80/80A/80X serving the Castle.

 

Some of the services have got worse, with reduced route frequncies particulary on the 61/61A, 62, and on the 68 that was also run by Regents Coaches of Whitstable for 4 years, and with most buses running through to Temple Ewell, in stark contrast to the old every 15 minutes East Kent service, runing only once an hour from Dover Market Square, with no bus before 09:30!

However the buses themselves have improved, From the old East Kent Fords and Ivecos (including then Brand New G492RKK on the cover), through the Stagecoach N-NAP reg 709Ds to today's Stagecoach easy access "Heart" Bus Solos and what ever else they choose to use.

So Enjoy and I hope these have been of interest to you all.