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

Click here- for the bus User December 2021 newsletter-

This month’s Buswatch News includes:-

• Season’s Greetings and a big Thank You to all those who kept our buses running in 2021.
• Welcome to Ed Wills, the new Managing Director of Brighton & Hove and Metrobus.
• Lewes Bus Station to close in February?
• Christmas and New Year bus services summary.

Unfortunately due to the worsening Covid situation, the Buswatch meeting planned for Wednesday 12 January has been cancelled. The next meeting will therefore (hopefully) be on Wednesday 13 April.

Coronavirus update:
The latest government Covid rules means that passengers must wear a mask (with medical exemptions); or risk a fine. Windows are kept open, with enhanced cleaning maintained. Bus services have stablised, so timetables rarely change.
All our information is thought to be correct as of 22nd December 2021.

Brighton & Hove Bus Co. : The bus company is offering free fares, for accompanied children, at weekends in December, in the run up to Christmas.

The bus company has introduced an all-encompassing app, a 'how full is my bus' app, and a 'when2Travel' app.
If you pay by Apple phone, Apple Express is also now available. But 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.
Click here for the later October 2021- 700 timetable. The Pulse service is also running on a 12 minute daytime frequency.
The N700 has restarted. This will run from Brighton at 0035, 1.35, 2.35 & 3.35am on Friday and Saturday nights; Returning from Worthing at 2345, then hourly until 2.45am. The N700 is no longer included on the normal 700 timetable, so you will need to look up the 'N700' timetable. Note: There will be no Stagecoach services on 1st January! (as well as the 25th and 26th December). Click here-for the Stagecoach website.

The Big Lemon: 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. Please check the website, if travelling in East or West Sussex before the 3rd January; other than the 37/A, where a Sunday service is running on operational days.

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'