Two journeys from Eastbourne to Gatwick by bus

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 cathing 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 tourney length compare to the train at around 53 minutes but from places like Hailsham, Uckfield and East Grinstead together with those villages en 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

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