Eastbourne in April 2012

Eastbourne is a town on the south coast, east of Brighton. Since the takeover of Eastbourne Buses and the town's Renown operations by Stagecoach, it has had one of the most changing bus scenes on the south coast. Here are how the buses looked back in summer 2010. This blog entry documents the changes in just two years...

Stagecoach are the main operator in the town- still trading at Stagecoach Eastbourne although the legals give Canterbury as the address. The most recent investment is a fleet of Scania N230UD/Enviro400s for the 99 between Hastings and Eastbourne. They have received "Wave" branding - I think this particular livery looks quite good actually. 15775 (GN61EVY) loads passengers in Eastbourne town centre on a 99.

There is one unbranded example operating alongside the branded Scanias - here is 15780 (GN61EWE) again in Eastbourne town centre. The 99 operates every 20 minutes Mon-Sat, with an hourly frequency on Sunday.

The older Volvo Olympians still serve Eastbourne on the hourly 98 to Hastings. This is 16386 (N386LPN) unloading passengers. Eastbourne railway station can be seen in the background.

Go Ahead serve Eastbourne in the form of the 6 an hour 12 from Brighton. Many of Brighton & Hove's longer Scania Omnidekkas are branded for the "Coaster" - route 12. Here is Omnidekka 907 (YN56FFH).

Acquiring the Eastbourne operations has meant the acquisition of a number of non-standard bus types for Stagecoach. One of these batches are MAN/Evolutions, such as 39639 (AE56LWC), pictured here on the "Loop".

One of the most recent and rare acquisitions is this MAN 18.220/Alexander 300 single decker - 22187 (T187MVM) which was new to Stagecoach Manchester. It is pictured on the cross town route to Eastbourne's North Harbour on route 51.

Since Stagecoach's takeover, the premier town route 1 has been upgraded in terms of frequency and bus allocation. The latest addition are a number of 61 plated ADL Enviro300s, such as 28606 (GN61EVK). I noted 5 on the day of my visit.

To finish off with, here is an unbranded Brighton & Hove Scania Omnidekka. This is 623 (YN04GJK) which has recently been repainted into plain B&H livery. There are various branding changes at present within the Go Ahead company, such as the previously single-decked route 50 becoming double deck. 623 could feature new branding in months to come...

To sum up my trip to Eastbourne now. Eastbourne is a great photography day out, as there is plenty of variety - albeit not as much as before the Scanias for the 99 arrived. There are also open toppers in the summer on the Eastbourne tour, coupled with B&H's extra X13 service. Hastings is also just half an hour by train up the coast, and is on my radar for my next visit. Eastbourne is well worth a few hours - as well as the town photos shown above, you can also get coastal shots of B&H's 12 and Stagecoach's 99, which are on my to-do list next time.