Tuesday 12th May 2026
I travelled by bus from Eastbourne to Gatwick Airport last Thursday. It took three hours and 41 minutes using three buses.
I made the same journey yesterday afternoon when it took two hours and 24 minutes using just one bus.
That’s thanks to new bus route 500 introduced on Sunday by Metrobus in partnership with both East and West Sussex County Councils and Gatwick Airport.
Here’s how it was last week for an intrepid airport bound passenger living in Eastbourne not wanting to use the train….
I caught the 10:10 route 54 departure in Eastbourne’s town centre, a stone’s throw from the railway station. It’s the route Brighton & Hove took over after Stagecoach lost interest in it last September. It links Eastbourne with Hailsham, East Hoathley, Halland and Uckfield.
It’s an hourly service across an extensive span of the day (05:40 to 22:45 from Eastbourne) and two hourly on Sundays.
The three Eastbourne depot based buses used on the route were a bit ‘off brand’ on Thursday being the Enviro400s bought specifically for the Coaster 12/12A/12X routes to Brighton in 2024 but I very much enjoyed the sumptuous comfortable seats these buses offer along with seven other passengers who boarded with me at the Gildredge Road terminal point.
We did some good business heading towards Uckfield with 19 more passengers boarding at various stops on the busy corridor through Polegate to Hailsham as others on board alighted.
After Hailsham the pace noticeably quickened along the A22 through Lower Dicker to Golden Cross as we followed a Regency branded bus on route 28 to Brighton and passed another heading into Eastbourne, reminding me just how improved the bus service through this area is thanks to BSIP funding.
Further north we diverted off to serve the delightful village of East Hoathley where one passenger alighted then onwards via Halland back on the A22 to Uckfield where we arrived a couple of minutes early at 11:15 with nine of our ten passengers on board alighting…
… with the tenth continuing her journey to the Manor Park area where the bus runs around some residential roads as shown on the brilliant map on display in Uckfield bus station with its revamped bus shelters.
My second bus of the journey was on the 261, a route that links the East Sussex town of Uckfield with East Grinstead in West Sussex running via Maresfield, Nutley, Forest Row and Ashurst Wood.
Operated by Compass Travel the timetable offers seven journeys on a two hourly frequency Mondays to Saturdays.
After a leisurely 33 minute connection between the 54 and 261 my journey north continued leaving the bus station on time at 11:50 with two on board…
… and three more joining at the next stop in the High Street, one of whom alighted after a couple of stops and two in Nutley where three boarded travelling to Wych Cross (one) and Forest Row (two).
The other two from Uckfield travelled all the way to East Grinstead with three more boarding in Ashurst Wood and East Grinstead itself with our arrival at the town’s station nine minutes late at 12:33, yet we hadn’t dawdled along the way indicating the timings are a bit tight.
Four passengers boarded for the journey back towards Uckfield and the bus left straight away as it had been due to leave at 12:30 and I had another leisurely connection for my third bus of this journey, Metrobus route 400 to Caterham-on-the-Hill which would take me to Gatwick Airport.
The 400 is an intensive route with two buses an hour for most of the day and a two hour end-to-end journey time. The section of route I travelled on takes in Crawley because, as of last week when I travelled, there wasn’t a direct bus from East Grinstead to Gatwick Airport.
The bus I was catching at 12:54 was running 11 minutes late, turning up at 13:05 with five already on board as it had started out at Stone Quarry Estate, serving Queen Victoria Hospital and East Grinstead’s High Street before the station.
It was a busy journey towards Crawley with 13 more passenger joining and eight alighting including at Three Bridges station. In Crawley itself eight alighted at the bus station with another 13 boarding there and at the next stop in Broadway. Ones and twos boarded and alighted as we continued north alongside Manor Royal towards Gatwick where we arrived at 13:41 and where nine passengers boarded.
But that’s all in the past as it’s now time for yesterday’s much improved experience.
Both routes 54 and 261 have been swept away by the all new route 500 running hourly on Mondays to Saturdays (two-hourly on Sundays) across 24/7, day and night. Readers will appreciate the considerable uplift in service particularly between Uckfield and East Grinstead and, of course, a much more convenient direct link to Gatwick from all stops along the route, not least between East Grinstead and the Airport.
That idyllic village of East Hoathly now enjoys buses to Uckfield and East Grinstead at 00:38, 02:38 and 04:38 as well as to Eastbourne at 01.11 and 03:01, for example, which is a mind blowingly amazing facility for villagers, albeit I doubt there’ll be much custom at those times.
The route between Eastbourne and Hailsham has been perceptively speeded up by omitting Polegate High Street (and therefore the level crossing by the station), previously served by the 54, although I see only a minute has been shaved off the timetable on that section.
I caught the 13:35 departure from the same stop in Eastbourne’s Goldredge Road as Thursday’s 54 adventure and a similar number of passengers boarded making for a fairly busy journey up to Hailsham stopping a dozen times and, not surprisingly for the first weekday, with a few passengers enquiring if we served Polegate and then changing their mind when hearing not.
Hailsham to Uckfield saw a less busy stretch with seven passengers on board having picked three up on our way north out of Hailsham. They all alighted in Uckfield which we reached a couple of minutes early and where there’s a pause of four minutes.
This saw a change of driver with something different being an Uckfield based Brighton & Hove driver taking over from the Metrobus driver for whom it was time for a break.
The destination blind was updated to show Gatwick South having erroneously been showing ‘Uckfield for Eastbourne’ since leaving the coast which the Metrobus driver explained was due to a programming error.
Up to last week the two-hourly frequency 261 only offered early afternoon departures from Uckfield at 13:50 and 15:50 so, it now being 14:46 on the new enhanced hourly frequency, I wasn’t expecting many, if any, passengers but in fact one boarded in Uckfield (travelling to just south of Nutley), another got on in Maresfield (to East Grinstead), a third boarded near Nutley (to Forest Row), two more in Nutley and another in Wych Cross (all to East Grinstead).
Another small speeding up sees buses now taking the direct route on the A22 between Forest Row and East Grinstead instead of through the village of Ashurst Wood but despite this, coupled with four extra minutes running time compared to the tight 261 timing, we still arrived into East Grinstead five minutes down and where we emptied out again.
I’m sure the new direct route between East Grinstead and Gatwick Airport taking just 32 minutes instead of 50 minutes (on the 400 via Crawley) will be appreciated by passengers – indeed I can see this being a strong generator of new passengers, especially employees at the Airport and Manor Royal Business District (through which it passes), but yesterday afternoon we only carried two from East Grinstead and one of those just travelled locally in the town with the other to the Airport.
It’s notoriously slow going on the A22 north of East Grinstead as far as Felbridge and yesterday afternoon was no exception…
… meaning we were still five minutes down however we made up a little time on the final section of route to the Airport arriving at the South Terminal lay-by at 15:59 just three minutes behind schedule and two hours 24 minutes after leaving Eastbourne.
Despite the convenience and considerable time saving of not changing buses I’m not sure the route will attract much end to end traffic as it’s still a fairly arduous journey length compare to the train at around 53 minutes but from places like Hailsham, Uckfield and East Grinstead together with those villages on route it offers great journey possibilities.
The two passengers who travelled from Nutley to East Grinstead were trying out the new service and sitting at the front of the upper deck with me as we passed through the delightful Ashdown Forest and they were trying to recall the last time double decks regularly ran on this section of route.
They thought it might be back in Southdown’s heyday of running a route 92, but it was well before my time!
I was hugely impressed on arrival at Gatwick Airport to see all the giant maps in the shelters had been updated to include the 500…
… as had every bus stop along the route.
What a shame the County Council couldn’t have done the same with that display in Uckfield bus station which was still showing route 54 as the way to go.
It was also good to see a timetable booklet together with a route map available inside the bus too.
Route 500 is a great addition to the inter-urban bus network in Sussex and here’s hoping it becomes a success and an established feature. Well done to everyone involved in bringing it to fruition.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
Once again an area of disused/removed railway lines which could be carrying passengers including west of east grinstead.
Is there a danger of the 400 over competing with the 261 , if so, depending on other routes north there is scope to slightly change the roads the 261 takes to from Ashurst Wood.
Is Gatwick (area) a big employment draw for East Grinstead ? I always felt that staff at Gatwick would come more from Redhill/Crawley and at best it was management driving cars from the East Grinstead large houses that were the main traffic flows which bus services wont really appeal
JBC Prestatyn
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The 261 is withdrawn! Ashurstwood (an absolute nightmare because of parked cars) is served hourly by Route 270 (Brighton – East Grinstead).
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Also route 291 Crawley – East Grinstead – Tunbridge Wells hourly
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Thanks , I dont think it was made clear the through route was a replacement service for some / part / of the other routes
JBC Prestatyn
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Well done to Metrobus for introducing this daily initiative which is an excellent way to reach the south coast, with the ability to take a break and step back a bus en route confident I can reach the ultimate destination with the next one.
I look forward to crossing the Ashdown Forest aboard a double decker using a Discovery Ticket in my travels to Sussex.
Many rural services in Kent and Sussex are geared around carrying school traffic and have become virtually unusable to the leisure traveller.
I recently travelled from Hastings to Folkestone and had to tight rely on a connection in the Lydd area on hourly services that use the dreaded A259.
Metrobus has successfully developed services like the 291 to Tunbridge Wells and the 270 group of routes to Brighton as attractive regular long distance services for Sussex.
I wish them well in their endeavours with the 500 and look forward to catching it when I’m next in the area.
John Nicholas
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Great addition to the Bus Netwok. I-m sure people from Eastbourne Town to Garwick will still use the train due to the quicker timings. But for the villages and town on route a great addition. I know the area very well. Fingers crossed for success.
The Wandering Busman
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Not sure about that when they find out the fare difference!
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A few downsides to this for passengers in the Uckfield to Eastbourne section:
– although it’s now 24 hours with ’empty’ buses at 02:00 (two hourly in the middle of the night), during the day the frequency is now worse as the 54 was basically hourly with a clockface, the same minutes past the hour, timetable. Now it’s irregular with the interval between buses often more than an hour, sometimes 75 to 90 minutes.
– not sure many will want to spend more than two hours on the bus all the way to Gatwick from the Hailsham, Polegate and Eastbourne area.
– traffic delays in the northern section, and in the Eastbourne to Hailsham section, will make the service unreliable.
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Thanks to this initiative, one of the last remaining “holes” in the pre-1971 Southdown network has been finally plugged (I think only Newhaven-Haywards Heath is left, but we can’t have everything!). And yes, the last normal double-deckers on the 92 disappeared about the same time, although I do recall the odd “Queen Mary” PD3 appearing amongst the normal 36′ single-deck allocation, but I have probably muddled dates anyway, as I am sure that was withdrawn at the same time. It was a blood bath!
I also stand to be corrected, but I seem to recall that with the section between Forest Row and Maresfield, busless for a considerable period, local fares became available on the National Express Eastbourne-London service which still had a few journeys each day. Whilst the odd resident of East Hoathley, Nutley and a few other places may not appreciate the sound of a Volvo BT9 passing their door at intervals all night, who could have ever imagined these improvements?
Terence Uden
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@Terence Uden – if the link between Forest Row and Maresfield was lost in 1971, it had been restored within a few years.
A 1978 timetable book in my collection shows Southdown route 180 from East Grinstead to Eastbourne via Uckfield, passing intermediately through Forest Row and Maresfield, providing a daily service over that section (5 x Mon-Sat, 2 x Sun in each direction).
Looking at subsequent timetable books, the section between East Grinstead and Uckfield was localised as route 182 in 1980, losing the Sunday service and reduced to 4 x Mon-Sat journeys each way. The timetable for the 182 includes two journeys a day on National Express 061. By 1983, the through service to Eastbourne had been restored, now running as route 780 with 6 journeys per day.
By the early 2000s, the link from East Grinstead through Forest Row and Maresfield to Uckfield was provided by route 261, an East Sussex tendered service operated by Metrobus. I recall there was some through running to/from route 281 (Uckfield <> Eastbourne) at one stage.
With all of that in mind, which 1971-era “network hole” has now been plugged?
Malc M
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Yes Malc M, I am fully aware of all that. My comment referred, and I am sorry if it confused you, to the restoration of a full daily service between East Grinstead and Eastbourne, one of the major Southdown abandonments in 1971 when the 92 disappeared.
Terence Uden
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@Terence Uden – your comment clearly referred to a network “hole” dating from 1971, which was finally now being filled. And yet, as I pointed out in my earlier comment, by the late 1970s Southdown were running a through service (route 180) between East Grinstead and Eastbourne. That through service may have been broken in 1980 but was reinstated a couple of years later, again by Southdown, as route 780 (albeit only running six days a week). In the intervening period, Southdown’s 182 ran between East Grinstead and Uckfield.
If you are implying that Metrobus 500 reinstates a link that has been missing since 1971, I would respectfully suggest you are choosing to overlook earlier reinstatements (as well as ignoring services maintained by localised sections). If that isn’t what you are implying, which 1971 network “hole” has now been filled?
Malc M
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It must be fairly unique (if anything can ever be ‘fairly unique’!), for a bus service to have buses supplied by one operator, but drivers supplied by two different (albeit linked) companies.
MotCO
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It’s all one company, just different brands.
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Maidstone and Dustrict and Southdown ran a joint route from Gravesend to Brighton (route 129??).
Crews would change buses at Tunbridge Wells, and drive buses from the other company on a daily basis.
I’m sure this would’ve happened elsewhere … Carlisle – Newcastle, perhaps?
Nothing new here!!!
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Indeed. After the NBC rationalisation of operations in south Wales, the Cardiff – Ammanford – Carmarthen service was jointly operated by Western Welsh and South Wales Transport, generally with driver changeovers in Neath. From comments I heard at the time, I seem to recall that the Western Welsh drivers from Cardiff were not particularly impressed by the SWT Willowbrook bodied Bedfords that they sometimes had to drive!
RC169
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Carried on with Expresswest Bristol / National Welsh and SWT service Bristol Haverfordwest.
Also TrawsCambria service National Welsh / Crosville.
Fairly common too with National Express services of old on the longer through workings.
Though one company interworking of vehicles to different garages . mainly London Transport Central Area ( though there must have been others around the country ) would tend to see engineering departments sending out their less favoured vehicles to the partner garage . (Did garage duty codes get swapped on these interworkings ?)
JBC Prestatyn
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Also happened with the X52 Aberystwyth to Swansea services where Crosville and SWT drivers would swap vehicles. There is a photo of an SWT Bedford being used on an Aber local service IIRC. Can’t recall the swap point though (Lampeter?)
BW2
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Gravesend to Brighton was route 122, taking 4 hours end to end!
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Shame they’re using the old Regency buses (ex B&H route 1 before that) all over 700,000 miles on the clock at least. They constantly broke down on the 29’s so now the Eastbourne residents will be disappointed about missing buses on the old 54 section.
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Yep, I’m hoping they consider upgrading if the route is a success. I think route branding and maybe space for luggage will also help.
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It is good to see these long distance route return but I do wonder about reliability.
I recall the last through Eastbourne to East Grinstead bus was the 780 – branded Stagecoach! Always wondered why that never got to the airport.
There was also the Maidstone & District 900 which linked the airport and East Grinstead to Maidstone and the Medway Towns, a difficult route by train.
No premium fares for an airport service this time?
Mentioned above was the 122 which used to link Brighton, Lewes, Uckfield, Tunbridge Wells and Gravesend. I believe the drivers at Southdown and Maidstone & District drove each others buses.
Richard Warwick
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The drivers changed over at the M&D garage at Borough Green.
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I predicted that you would “do” new Route 500 as soon as you could. When we get warmer weather and I can throw off a cold, I shall venture forth too. An open question to you all: what is the longest journey one can do on a single group’s vehicles using ENCTS in a single day?
For GO-AHEAD, I suggest from High Wycombe to Heathrow (102) on to Sutton (SL7), on to Gatwick (420) and then to Eastbourne (500).
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Funny story about overnight buses towards airports. The X40 from Oxford to Reading provides a helpful connection in to the RailAir coach from Reading to Heathrow. A local retired couple were delighted that there was a Friday night / Saturday morning bus in the small hours from their village on the X40 route, to Reading, as a cheap way to start their holiday overseas. No taxi needed.
So all set at 2am, hailed the X40 expecting to be the only passengers. Discovered the bus to be full and standing, and extremely “lively”. This bus was clearly the way to get people home after a heavy night clubbing in Oxford. Just squeezed their suitcases between standees apparently.
(CH, Oxford)
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Maybe Connect Bus could look at providing a service to Stanstead from Bury St Edmonds, Konect Bus already run as 2H service Bury to Braintree and another Central Connect route runs Braintree to Stanstead so the cost would be negligible id they combine those 2 routes
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Well done to the two Councils for committing BSIP funds to this project. There may be issues with reliability but it’s a sensible route with lots of possibilities for generating more passengers, far better than infrequent rural no hopers. The success of both Metrobus around Crawley and B&H in general gives it a good chance of success. Who would have ever expected Tunbridge Wells to Brighton to increase over time to its current frequency
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how much did these journeys cost
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Capped at £3 I believe
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I was waiting for this post! It’s a really interesting initiative and is definitely worth me considering from Hailsham to Gatwick when I have an early flight as there are no trains and car parking is £50+.
I assume there’s no provision for luggage? It would be nice if the route takes off (pardon the pun) for them to run newer, specially branded buses with a luggage rack replacing a couple of seats (as they’re running single door deckers, so it’s not like they’ve lost space to the second set of doors already). Maybe a few stretches could drop some stops to speed the service up further? Although for £3 I probably shouldn’t be too fussy, and not even sure if that’s realistic.
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The part of route 54 that went round Uckfield Neville Road area is place by a limited daytime service by CTLA.
CTLA had 3 routes in Uckfield now two. 246 withdrawn due to poor use. 248 withdrawn due to one Village having no passengers. 249 continuing but extended to one Village as replacement to 248. New 245 I mentioned at the beginning.
Dan.
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*Replaced
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The 261 now 500 wasn’t the only service between Uckfield and Nutley. Ctla 246 now withdrawn due to low passenger usage.
I remember when I was younger in the noughties there was a bus service between Eastbourne and East grinsted via Uckfield and at one point at least one journey was extended to the village of Newchapel to replace its service that was axed.
At one point compass travel removed service 122 lewes to baccombe. And extended the 261 East Grinstead – Uckfield Baccombe – Lewes. Has no one used the service between Uckfield and Baccombe they separated the routes back to how it was. The new 500 is the only group between Uckfield and Nutley now
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Sorry for any spelling error or auto correct
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I recall that when Metrobus ran routes 261 (East Grinstead <> Uckfield) and 281 (Uckfield <> Eastbourne), there was some through running between East Grinstead and Eastbourne. I can’t remember if it was advertised publicly.
Something in the back of my mind is telling me Eastbourne Buses later ran both services, possibly under one route number (54?) but I could well be misremembering.
Malc M
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