Welcome to new buses for Fastrack

Thursday 5th June 2025

It’s good to see the promised new battery-electric buses are now being introduced on the Kent Thameside Fastrack network.

Readers will recall Go-Ahead took over the contract for this high profile operation in the Dartford-Bluewater-Ebbsfleet-Gravesend area last November and have been using mainly London cast offs for the last few months.

This interregnum is pleasingly coming to an end as the new ‘head turning’ buses enter service.

I had a ride on Monday afternoon when four of the six buses running on route A were of the new type but only one of the 12 buses on the much longer route B was a new one, so it’s early days so far of the new regime. Indeed yesterday, only three busses on route A and none on route B were new.

But it’s a noticeable huge improvement for passengers which a new bus ambiance always serves up especially compared to vehicles that have been workhorses for so long.

The new buses are light and airy inside and wear a smart red and dark grey colour scheme outside with silver coloured antler style flashes on both sides.

The seats are comfortable and smart looking and there are clear indications which are prioritised for passengers with accessibility needs…

…and also where two wheelchairs can be parked on both the nearside…

… and the offside, which is good going for a single deck bus with two doors.

All told there are 31 seats (no tip up seats due to the fad for lower glass panels), but as I wrote when reviewing the buses when they were displayed at the Euro Bus Expo at the Birmingham NEC last November, there’s not a lot of space for feet in the rear section…

…particularly when using the double seats facing each other on either side of the bus…

… where, unlike on the similar buses Go-Ahead are using on TfL route 358, these have a table which complicates and limits available space even more.

Size 10 boots take up way more than half the width…

… and on a similar theme, a couple more millimeters of foot room for the first pair of seats in the rear section would have been nice to have.

But I appreciate with the wheel arches and the centre doors, not a lot more can be done with the restricted space.

Although I think it would be better to lose the tables. They just get in the way and are very awkward to get up from if your hemmed in by other passengers on the outer seats. Four strangers sitting at the table are going to be rather cosy together – it was bad enough when Geoff and I travelled on the 358 without a table.

More positively, the electronic next stop sign is very clear to see and read…

… the USB A and C sockets welcome…

… and the overall quiet smooth ride these buses provide is brilliant.

I’m guessing it’s going to take some time to get the whole fleet of 28 into service as the ‘opportunity charging’ equipment hasn’t been installed at Dartford or Bluewater so buses on route A have no facilities to do a battery top up and route B only has the infrastructure I saw on a recent visit to Gravesend.

Or perhaps that’s all that’s intended and the buses have a battery range large enough to last all day? That’s not what the driver I met when travelling on route A was saying – he was quite worried about the battery range.

One up side of the new buses being drip fed into service alongside the old timers is passengers really do notice the difference and can appreciate the improvements being made to the service which are much welcomed.

Now the new buses are starting to enter service hopefully Kent County Council has plans to upgrade and improve the provision of information at the bespoke shelters along Fastrack route A.

They look noticeably uninviting and a bit down at heel with blank screens where ‘real time’ could be displayed and there’s also a lack of timetable information displayed at the Dartford terminus.

But, all in all, a great and positive development for these services which I’m sure passengers will appreciate.

Roger French

Blogging Summer timetable: 06:00 TThSSu

30 thoughts on “Welcome to new buses for Fastrack”

  1. As GO Ahead have had to open a local garage I suspect they will be looking to expand in the area as well

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    1. Probably as a detriment to Arriva at Northfleet, which perhaps isn’t a bad thing.
      AB

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  2. Since introduction, route 358 has not seen a full weekday’s allocation of the Irizars – there always seem to be a Dart or Streetlite helping out for some reason. Some Sundays have seen only Irizars operating the route.

    Having said that, so far today the run-out is 100% Irizar, but I’m sure that will change! Anyone know any reason for the reluctant Irizars?

    MotCO

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    1. If there has been a full run out today (on the 358) it would indeed be a first! Even Sundays with a pvr of only ten there is always a proper bus deployed at some point.

      What seems to have escaped attention is that not only has an extra vehicle been quietly inserted, the headway has been widened from 12 to 13 minutes. Thus adding yet another 36 minutes to a round trip! Goodness what it must cost per mile now to operate in comparison with the previous diesel vehicles, but no matter, this is TfL land.

      Terence Uden

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      2. @Terence Uden – the headway widening on route 358, and the addition of extra running time, is due to roadworks (at Park Langley, I believe) and the delays they are likely to cause.

        As far as I can tell, that has nothing whatsoever to do with the use of electric buses.

        Malc M

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  3. I wasn’t expecting to like the electric ie-not-trams, but they are very nice vehicles, and the interior has been done well with comfy seats and no garish colours like some operators use. A smooth quiet ride too, and they additionally have wireless phone chargers at some seats which was impressive. The next stop displays were not working though on my trip. 

    There’s also a lot more Mercedes Citaros operating than a few months ago, which despite seeing better days, are a massive step up to the original cheap and nasty E200s which have gradually been replaced – these E200s feel like they will fall apart at any moment – awful things! 

    New ‘green’ bus shelters are being installed on the B route in Dartford which is good to see. Knowing the fondness of slingshots in the local area, I hope they are robust! A lot of the rest of the infrastructure has seen better days, and more timetable information/maps would be good. 

    Bluewater bus station has seen better days too – the next stop displays all broken, and there’s no bins. 

    The negative aspects of Fastrack are all down to Kent County Council, but Go Ahead seem to be putting a lot of good effort into the Fastrack, which is a positive after years of managed decline from the other large operator there. 
    AB

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  4. These things look absolutely awful. In a very short time they will look simply dated and weird. Inside they look cramped and claustrophobic with an absolute minimum of personal space. For anyone like me who suffers from feeling crowded, this bus would be a no no, far better to keep the nice spacious Citaros!

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  5. A second pantograph stand was installed at Gravesend very recently so that’ll enable more Irizars in due course, and subject to planning permission another three will be installed in Dartford.

    Considering ZEBRA 1 overall, that still leaves three schemes where not a single bus has entered service since the 2021/22 awards. Hertfordshire has some but they appear to be waiting until September (term time schedules); West Midlands / Blackpool don’t even have confirmed orders to my knowledge.

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    1. To be fair on Hertfordshire, their bid was somewhat derailed when Arriva pulled out of its planned electrification of Stevenage depot, on which the bid had been based. The funding has since been reallocated to Uno and the first five electic buses (BYD B12 single-deckers) have recently entered service on the University Shuttle. A further 22 electric vehicles will be placed in service in two phases, in September this year and next April.

      Julian Walker

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    2. WMCA papers show that it has returned £13.2m of their ZEBRA grant to the DfT. It further states that the remainder is enough to fund 130 double decks, plus 24 artics for the Sprint network.

      I suspect they could not find a commercial partner who either wished to fund or operate a hydrogen bus, the only fuel type listed in the original bid.

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      1. I think the Birmingham City Council funded & championed by Labour’s Brum Councillor Waseem Zaffar; NOT TfWM under Sir Andy Street CBE; debacle over the purchase of the Walsall – City 51 Wrightbus hydrogens which are stuck in the TfWM Garage in Walsall & are rarely seen in service with NXWM is a major factor in the lack of future West Midland hydrogen bus procurement.

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        1. And Mike Bird (now returned) actively hostile to sprint.

          Bring back Travel A2Z on the 51!!!

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  6. It’s really good to see the huge investments made by KCC coming to life. They promised that they would ‘revive Fastrack’ after years of decline by Arriva and they have been true to their word. They’ve brought in Go-Ahead and totally overhauled a tired brand. I think these new buses while not my cup of tea, are a nice positive change of tone for the area and I hope Go-Ahead maintain them. Service reliability is 10x better than it was a year ago under Arriva and my faith in the service has been restored. I also like the new shelters that are being rolled out and can’t wait to see them in Gravesend too. I just hope these new vehicles can cope with the extra demand when Arriva do finally shut up shop and the abysmal unreliable 480 service ends.

    SMC

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  7. I agree with the comment about the facing seats towards the rear of the IE Trams. On my only 358 journey, the passengers in the gangway seats generally sat at right angle to the seat, with their legs overhanging the gangway.

    Sadly, seat spacing on many single decks barely leaves sufficient room for your legs.

    I agree with the comment about the Fastrack E200s, the one I rode on had no visible bus stopping sign for passengers sitting behind the centre door = just a display box full of wires!

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  8. I really like these buses, especially in this application as they are being correctly used on a bus rapid transit system (BRT), which therefore needs to look and operate differently to avoid the uninformed classing it as just a bus (JAB). The livery application here looks stunning.

    I’m hoping that something similar will operate in Bristol. The city council is in the process of modifying some key city centre road junctions to create a traffic free cross city rapid transit corridor that will enable the M2 Metrobus service to be extended. While trams have been mentioned I think it will be a BRT initially, and it needs to look better than Metrobus which is visually just a bus.

    https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-could-tram-line-city-10195260

    Peter Brown

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  9. What conceivable advantage, other than to voyeurs, do those lower glass panels give? Apart from losing possible seat space they add nothing to the outside appearance. Neither do the spats, which to me are just naff.

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  10. Interesting that you mention that the drivers have EV range anxiety. And I thought it was only something suffered by car drivers 😂

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  11. I’d rather have an old bus with plenty of seats and room for shopping rather than a new bus where 4 bags have to be handled on actual self and no leg room, either that or stand with 4 bags. My journey time can be up to 30 minutes, I want a seat for that time after work!

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  12. My shoe size is seven to seven-and-a-half. I find it awkward if ever I get to sit up top and at the front offside (over the driver’s cab) on a WVL (EG “SL7”). My feet being diagonal across the floor in front of my seat. That seat is on top of a cabinet yet the front upper deck seat on the nearside has a void under the seat making my ride much more comfortable.

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    2. My shoe size is 11 & being 6ft 1inch & 16 stone I fully agree that modern buses are not built with anyone over 5ft 8inch in mind especially in seat pitches & take no account of the fact passengers are taller & broader than the previous generation. I find E200 the worst designed.

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  13. Bedfordshire-based Cozy Travel is to join FlixBus in a new partnership unveiled today.

    The partnership will begin on 13 June, adding Brighton as a new destination for the UK-wide coach network. Serving the seaside city for the first time, the route will link Brighton to Gatwick Airport, London and Cambridge twice a day in each direction. A direct service between Cambridge and London will also operate four times daily.

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  14. I happened to read this article whilst in Zaragoza where they have a number of variants of these.

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  15. Having made a journey earlier today that was heavily crowded, a couple of criticisms are the lack of handholds around the centre door, and the non-visibility of the bus stopping sign from much of the rear of the bus. Unlike some systems, it does not repeat on the Next Stop screen, and the bell could not be heard from the back of the bus.

    Unsurprisingly, some of those rear facing seats were not occupied, even on a bus with around 20 standing. Oh, and the centre doors wouldn’t shut easily at two stops, possibly a safety feature triggered by the number of people standing near them. Quite a few people exited via the front door.

    KCC

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  16. . . The first thing that I noticed, were the heightened BLIND SPOTS for the driver (.. leading to A-C-C-I-D-E-N-T-S !!).

    Both the offside ‘A’ post/pillar and, ‘B’ post/pillar ~ are wholly UNFUCTIONAL ~ from a SAFETY perspective.

    Lovely styling ~ but totally impractical !!

    As is the norm these days; styling guru’s win over COMMONSENSE SAFETY.

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  17. I have to take issue with the statement “One up side of the new buses being drip fed into service alongside the old timers is passengers really do notice the difference and can appreciate the improvements being made to the service which are much welcomed”. I’d suggest that much of the wow factor from noticing the difference will be lost if on the next journey an old bus appears, or if after they tell their friends, a different experience results. A relaunch should have been new buses (at least on a given route), new operator and new infrastructure as close to overnight as possible. In that way positive words spread exponentially and passenger numbers should increase. I can’t think of any example in retail or a case in any marketing text book that would drip feed a new brand in this piecemeal way.

    I should add that I like fastrack – it has something of a tube/tramlink feel of simplicity to the network. It was a real pity that the operations and infrastructure were allowed to decline in the way they were. This means the relaunch has to be all the more impactful, not half-hearted!

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  19. Re the rear seating.

    Did the designer not test the seating layout before committing the company to building these things?

    Needs an extra 6-9 inches after the rear wheels – redesign with a longer length.

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  20. I had a ride on what I think was a Fastrack Route A yesterday (I didn’t see the front, just the side destination display) from Greenhithe station to Bluewater. The vehicle was SEN61, one of the TfL cast-offs. No sign of the new pseudo-trams.

    Fast: yes, the driver didn’t hang around. Track: no, of course, just rubber tyres on the road like any other bus.

    I noticed that the driver didn’t make much use of the bus lanes on that short journey, but there wasn’t a lot of other traffic around.

    John M.

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