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Ensign Bus are currently Thurrock’s largest bus operator - though I don’t think this was
ever the intention......Arriva’s gradual withdrawal coupled with Ensign’s willingness to
provide a service have combined to accidentally create quite a sizable local network
of bus routes in the Thurrock area for Ensign Bus.
Ensign’s current routes are not the first in Thurrock - indeed they’ve been around for
far longer than many people realise.....
If you can remember all them red double deckers in that massive yard at Purfleet in
the 80’s, well that was Ensign bus, in it’s main guise as a bus dealer. The red buses were
ex London DMS class buses - London Transport couldn’t get on with them and insisted
they were all sold to one bidder...all 2000 of them!! Most ‘experts’ in the bus industry
predicted Ensign wouldn’t shift them; Ensign proved them wrong, and in the process,
became perhaps the most well know bus dealer in the world - and that reputation still
exists today.
Once the DMS’s had been sold off, Ensign got involved in sightseeing buses in London;
something it has returned to recently with it’s city sightseeing brand - this time
however, the brand has a global aim using local operators in franchise type
arrangement, with Ensign providing the vehicles and marketing expertise. Ensign
also got involved in the London bus tender market when that started - but soon sold
the operation to CityBus [of China] who renamed the company Capital CityBus and
and painted the vehicles yellow (having previously been in the familiar blue & silver).
Ensign Bus re-entered the local bus operator scene in 1998 with the acquisition of
Capital CityBus (hmm....recognise that name?) route 324, which it extended from
Lakeside to Bluewater, in Kent. Route 324 was soon followed by another Capital
route - 348 - which also got an extension to Bluewater. Routes 325 and 509 followed
later on as Ensign expanded their network. Ensign wanted to concentrate on their
true calling - dealing & sightseeing - so the local network was sold to Town & Country
buses in December 1999.
Of course the story doesn’t end there - Ensign came back to local bus work in 2004 with
the X80 (Gravesend to Chafford Hundred via Bluewater & Lakeside). The X80 was a
by-product of a long term rail replacement contract that Ensign had picked up in
Kent, making use of the ‘dead’ milage to from & from it’s Purfleet base. The X80 has
proved to be a very successful operation, so Ensign decided to keep running it after
the rail replacement service that caused it’s inception had ceased.
January 2006 saw Ensign win a Thurrock council contract in the shape of route 64, later
to become route 44 (Purfleet to Grays). Following this, were two ‘commercial’ routes;
77 (Tilbury to Lakeside) and 83 (Chadwell to Lakeside) competing directly with Arriva’s
routes 377 & 383.
When Town & Country went bust in September 2006 - Ensign, along with other
operators stepped in to ensure services were maintained until Thurrock Council was
able to re-tender all the contracts. Ensign made some more permanent gains from this
and was able to further develop it’s commercial network too. Arriva were feeling the
pressure from Ensign, which was starting gain a reputation much above Arriva’s and
this has caused Arriva to virtually abandon all it’s operations in the Thurrock area!
Such has been the growth....well it’s like I said at the start - Ensign Bus seem to
have become Thurrock’s largest bus operator simply by being in the right place at
the right time.
Ensign Bus are also the current main contractor for all of c2c’s rail replacement
services on the Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness line.
Will the dealer & sightseeing work cause Ensign to sell up? Only time will tell....
September 2008 saw the introduction of 10 brand new Optare Olympus low floor
double deckers on routes 73, 83 and X80 - a sign of how successful Ensign have been
in developing and running these routes.
More signs of continued success came in the shape of 6 low floor double deckers
introduced on route 22 from November 2009, the buses being Dennis Tridents with
Alexander bodies and were previously operated by East London Bus Group
May 4th 2010 saw further expansion with new peak hours only route 55 between Aveley
& Ockendon station (operating in the peak flow direction only), and route 81 between
Hutton & Brentwood with 1 journey each way on Mondays to Fridays extended to
Lakeside as route X81.
Ensign’s fleet lists, as at Sep 08, Nov 08 and Dec 09, as supplied by Ensign Bus, can be
found by clicking here.
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