As far as possible, we will try to keep you up to date on our website.

Click here- for our latest June 2022 Bus User newsletter-

This month's Buswatch News includes:-

• Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).
• Bus service recovery plan.
• Could the 23 be extended along the A259.
• Big Lemon goes electric for a day.
• Printed timetables to return.
• Brighton Area Buswatch quarterly meetings.

Coronavirus update: It is passengers' choice whether to wear a mask, or not. However, safety enhancements such as keeping windows open, and enhanced cleaning; have been maintained.
Bus services have stabilised, so timetables only rarely change.
From 25th July, for at least the School holidays; East Sussex County Council has created a £5 East Sussex day ticket (and many other ticket initiatives), for passengers travelling within, to, or from East Sussex. This is using expected BSIP money to encourage bus usage. While the county is trying to get more operators on board (Stagecoach- East Sussex- so has far only limited uptake), the change to Compass Travel fares are noteable; and both Brighton & Hove and Metrobus now offer a £5 East Sussex dayticket, on their apps, for journeys involving East Sussex.

All our information is thought to be correct as of 1st August 2022.

Brighton & Hove Bus Co. : Sightseeing and summer services are now running (including Breeze up to the Downs services). The bus company is also running a summer service 11X, to Drusillas Park etc.

The fares promotion on Contactless payments (Tap-on, tap-off), ended in late June, and the weekly cap has increased to £24 for an Adult CitySaver. While tap-on, Tap-off (ToTo) is almost always the same or cheaper than cash fares; if you are maximising value for money, then other options are often cheaper.
For example: a weekly (or longer) ticket on the 'app' or 'Keycard' is now cheaper for travelling five plus days a week, compared to Tap-on, tap-off.
If travelling up to 4 days per week, day CitySavers on the App or Keycard, are usally cheaper. Although if travelling on consecutive days, 2, 3 or 4 days Saver tickets on the app, can save you more money. However, buying 60 singles on the Keycard can be the cheapest of all! Although most do not offer the flexibility of Tap-on, tap-off; which can include short hop & Centrefare tickets; and when you do not know how many days a week you are travelling.
At this point I should mention there are also family tickets, centrefares, short hops, Network Savers; and when two, or four people are travelling together, there are special tickets available on the app. A few other special fares are available. Plus there can be child and student, derivatives.
While the fares landscape is undeniably complex, these extra tickets varieties are there to help you save even more money. A useful bonus, to further help you enjoying using the comprehensive bus services available.

Brighton & Hove has its all encompassing app. While Apple Express (on iphones) is available, please keep your phone separate from debit cards, or the system may not know which one to charge!
Click here for Brighton & Hove's main website.

Stagecoach: Covering the area between Littlehampton, Worthing, and Brighton.
The daytime service 700 runs every 12 minutes. From 23rd May, the Pulse service was reduced to run every 15 minutes and the
services 5 & 10 saw their daytime frequency reduced to half-hourly. Click here-for the Stagecoach website.

The Big Lemon: The Big Lemon has reintroduced its summer walks program, when the bus takes you to a different countryside location each week, and passengers can take a good walk, all without needing a car. For the latest information, visit the the Big Lemon website, or phone 01273 681681.

Metrobus, south and mid Sussex:
For the latest information click here- for the Metrobus website

Compass Travel: Click here for the Compass Travel's website. Many single and return fares have been reduced as part of an East Sussex County Council initiative, to encourage usage to recover, using future BSIP money.

CTLA & Cuckmere bus services: are no longer listed here. To contact them, phone 01273 517332.

What we do:

Brighton Area Buswatch deals mostly with strategic issues affecting lots of people. We campaign for improvements to bus services and fares on behalf of bus users. Our policy is to build relationships with local Councils, local interest groups and bus companies to find out about their plans so we can make suggestions and try to influence them. Criticising authorities after they've implemented changes is usually too late to make a difference, so we try to avoid this situation occurring. However we will sometimes suggest lessons to be learnt, especially if we think it could help to avoid mistakes being repeated.

We are lucky to have excellent bus services in much of our area which are well-used and very few require public subsidies. Recently around 50 million passenger journeys were made by bus in Brighton & Hove which compares with under 20 million journeys in Southampton or Portsmouth which are similar in size. This is a tremendous achievement but we recognise that people's expectations are always rising and there are always improvements that can be made.

If you have a particular problem regarding a bus service or an incident on a recent journey we advise you in the first instance, to contact the bus company concerned. In our experience most local bus companies are keen to receive feedback and will do their best to help if they can. Our partners at Bus Users UK can deal with appeals if a customer is not satisfied with the response from a bus company or local authority.

What we have achived in the recent past includes:-

• We suggested a one-hour single ticket, which has been introduced, so enabling passengers to change buses without needing to pay again.
  
• We successfully campaigned for Saver tickets, Key Card and m-tickets to be valid on all Council supported bus services in Brighton & Hove.
  
• We rejoined the Council's Quality Bus partnership, enabling us to influence planning decisions affecting all local bus companies.
• We suggested improvements to late night services to Goldstine Valley and to lewes; and have been pressing for improvements to route 37 to Meadowview and the Bristol Estate; plus later Sunday evening jouneys to Worthing.
• We have expressed concerns about the revised Valley Gardens scheme. This would reduced the number of lanes for general traffic, so risks causing buses severe delays and unreliability problems, particularly when traffic is busier (especially at weekends and on nice summer days).

More News:
Below, you can see our poster which has appeared on buses. If you are interested in joining, also click here for our 'takaway leaflet'