Kent Country’s expansion

Tuesday 20th October 2026

Go-Ahead Group’s presence in Kent has been steadily increasing during 2026 so I recently made a couple of visits to catch up on developments. The Group’s ‘Kent Country’ branded operations are part of Go-Ahead London and began a couple of years ago in November 2024, following the company’s success at winning the tender to run the Fastrack network (formerly run by Arriva) including the introduction of a new fleet of Irizar ie tram type battery-electric buses. After a challenging start awaiting deliveries of the new buses, these unusual shaped vehicles now dominate the bus scene in the Dartford, Bluewater and Ebbsfleet area as well as on to Gravesend.

Further changes to the Fastrack network were introduced at the beginning of August including a short extension in Dartford of Fastrack A (to Acacia Hall), an amended route between Bluewater and Ebbsfleet for Fastrack B (using the busway and Castle Hill instead of the B255 and A2) and a new route C to replace routes E and F (which were both withdrawn) making for a through service between Ingress Park, Bluewater (old route F), Ebbsfleet and Gravesend (old route E) via the busway and Castle Hill.

The beginning of August also saw Kent Country win further tenders from Kent County Council – for routes 414 (previously operated by Arriva) and Dart1, Dart2, and Dart3 (previously operated by 1st Bus Stop) while at the end of June it gained the tender for routes 306/308 and 416/417 (previously operated by Redroute Buses). These gains, in addition to route 477, which was taken over when Arriva deregistered it in October 2025, now give Kent Country a sizeable presence in this part of Kent.

Route 308 between Gravesend and Sevenoaks is the longest of these newly won tendered routes, becoming even longer when Kent Country took it over in June with an extension of four journeys beyond Gravesend to terminate at Bluewater making for an end to end journey time of an hour and 41 minutes. Saturday journeys only operate as far south as Vigo Village, north of the M20.

I took a ride on the 11:50 from Bluewater on a Tuesday lunch time earlier this month. It was in the hands of a 2025 plate, plain white, ADL Enviro200 MMC which first entered service last year with Carousel and Oxford Bus.

This presented a nice modern contrast with the other dozen or so buses in the fleet which, aside from the 30 ie trams, are mainly former London dual door Enviro200s which now wear the new green Kent Country livery.

I noticed the bus was parked up in Bluewater when I arrived soon after 11:00 and guessed it had been there since arriving at 10:51 from Sevenoaks so was a bit perturbed when a driver appeared at the departure time of 11:50 but the bus didn’t move.

Once it got past 12:00, and thinking there was probably a problem with the bus, I gave Kent Country’s advertised contact number a ring and was very impressed the phone was almost immediately answered by a member of staff (hooray, no automated push button menus to put you on hold) who said she’d check with ‘control’ and was soon back explaining there’d been a delay on the driver’s previous journey so he needed to take his break before continuing and the bus would be leaving imminently. Which it duly did, pulling forward at 12:03 with a very friendly driver greeting me, but sadly no other passengers, to board.

The journey over to Gravesend goes via part of the former ‘quick’ route (previously used by Fastrack route B, before its recent diversion through Castle Hill) utilising the A2 and then via Perry Street rather than Ebbsfleet and Northfleet making for a journey time to Gravesend of just 20 minutes (compared to 25 minutes on the B) and we picked up six passengers on the way into Gravesend through Perry Street who’d otherwise catch Arriva’s half hourly route 483 (or odd journeys on the 481/489).

These six all alighted in Gravesend’s Barrack Row bus station where there was quite a crowd (14) waiting to board with their shopping to go home as we pulled in at 12:25, still 15 minutes down.

Four passengers soon alighted and two more boarded after which the route south includes a short double run to serve a large Morrisons and Lidl just before the A2 where three more alighted. Then there’s a wander around the residential area of Istead Rise where we lost three and gained one…

…before reaching Meopham and Meopham Green where the seven passengers still on board all alighted, just over half way through the journey. It was then just myself on board for the next 10 minutes as we drove through Culverston Green before the scenic tour around the lovely Vigo Village…

… where we picked up a passenger who travelled through Wrotham…

… to Borough Green railway station leaving myself travelling solo again for the final 28 minutes to Sevenoaks save for one passenger boarding on the route’s wiggle as we entered the urban area to serve the town’s railway station.

Sevenoaks bus station was reached at 13:38…

… only seven minutes down, with the driver having done a sterling job of making up a bit of the time and then leaving almost straight away at the scheduled time of 13:40 back to Gravesend with five passengers on board.

I came away thinking it’s no surprise the Saturday service only reaches as far south as Vigo.

A week later I was back in the area to take a ride on route 414, the route gained at the beginning of August, having previously been operated by Arriva.

It connects the communities of Horton Kirby, Southdowns, South Darenth and Sutton at Hone (all located south east of the M25) with Dartford on an hourly frequency, save for school day variations.

By coincidence it was the same white liveried Enviro200 I’d travelled on the previous week to Sevenoaks.

The bus arrived into Dartford having done a journey on both the local circular Dart2 and Dart1 routes (the three routes interwork) and after a driver changeover the very friendly driver got all eight, complete with shopping trolleys and walking frames, on board with a further 13 boarding at the next stop on Dartford’s town centre one-way system, giving an impressive 21 on board.

One soon alighted and two more boarded as we headed south out of Dartford with eight alighting in Sutton at Hone, seven in South Darenth, four in Southdowns and three in Horton Kirby.

The route includes some challenging conditions for drivers with not only some incredibly narrow sections of roads…

… but also inconsiderate parking by motorists including this gap between a white van and white car…

… which was probably no more than a couple of inches more than the bus’s eight feet, one inch width.

The driver literally took it inch by inch and slowly, slowly, negotiated the gap to everyone on board’s amazement and recognition with clapping and cheering once he made it.

The driver deserves a medal and needs to be immediately installed as Driver of the Year as his task was harder than any set in Blackpool for the annual competition. I let Kent Country know of this driver’s undoubted manoeuvring skills.

Another interesting part of the journey was serving Southdowns Retirement Village. This small community, otherwise isolated, must be very appreciative of having this bus service which entails a reverse to turn round.

The main bus stop in Gorringe Avenue, by the reversing point, is nothing extraordinary…

… but the bus stop by the church at the entrance to the community must include the cutest bus shelter anywhere, albeit your legs would get a bit wet in the rain.

The seat looks to be a fairly recent addition, as it wasn’t there when the Google camera car last passed by.

Once the bus returned to Dartford, the driver set off for a circuit on route Dart2 at 12:43 followed by Dart1. These two routes were introduced back in 2014 with Go-Coach (as it then was called) being the first operator before they passed to 1st Bus Stop on re-tender.

They provide an off-peak hourly circuit linking Dartford’s town centre with the Home Gardens area to the west (Dart1) and Temple Hill to the north east (Dart2).

As mentioned earlier, Kent Country also now operates routes 416 (from Meopham) and 417 (from Cliffe) to Gravesend and Bluewater albeit with only one journey to Bluewater on the former and two on the latter as well as the aforementioned route 477 between Dartford, Swanley and Orpington which, as covered in a previous blog is also served by go-bus on the northern half of the route with the two operators now having nicely spaced journeys to give passengers two buses each hour.

Kent Country also publishes printed timetable leaflets for each service…

… although I wasn’t able to acquire a full set, and it was a bit of a challenge to work out which ones were available from the bus dispenser, but it’s good to see these available and I am sure are appreciated by many of the passengers using these services.

These also contain details of tickets as well as bus times, and I see in a nod to the old days, the company makes available a Green Rover for £5.50 a day or £25 for a week although I’m not sure how many passengers would ride around on the “477, 414 and Dart services as much as you want”.

All in all, it’s a tidy and impressive operation for Go-Ahead in this part of Kent, and no doubt there’ll be further expansion opportunities in the coming months.

Roger French

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