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Southend Transport was owned by Southend Council, though it succumbed to privatisation
when it was sold to the British Bus group in 1993.
Southend Transport came to Thurrock in 1980, when the Transport Act of that year de-
regulated the long distance coach market. Southend Transport joined forces with Reading
Transport and launched the X1, running between the two towns, and central London, every
two hours.
By 1982, the two companies had gone their separate ways - though both ran X1’s !!
Southend went as far west as Heathrow, while Reading came as far east as Aldgate. Rail
strikes in 1982 saw additional help provided by another well known Thurrock operator -
Ensign Bus!
Southend Transport continued to develop the service, adding different variants to the route
(such as X10, X11, X21, X30, X31 and X41 - remember any of those?) - by 1986 the coach
fleet had grown to 66 vehicles whilst the local bus fleet numbered just 63!
In an effort to find work for the commuter coaches during the day (off-peak) in London,
Southend Transport acquired the Culture Bus sightseeing service from Ensign Bus. This
state of expansion couldn’t last for long - by the end of 1987 Southend Transport had such
financial problems that Culture Bus was sold back to Ensign Bus and the X1 group of
of services were cut back.
1990 saw the opening of Lakeside shopping centre and the X1 served it during off peak
hours only. 1992 saw Thamesway introduce a competing ‘Citysaver’ service (numbered
S1) and cheekily, they ran it 5 minutes in front of Southend’s vehicles with cheaper fares.
As mentioned at the start, the British Bus group came along in 1993, which went on to be
taken over by Cowie group. The local Southend Transport name remained during this time.
In 1998 Cowie was renamed Arriva and the national company we now know was born. It
took a little while, but in the end the Blue & White livery gave way to the Arriva
Aquamarine Blue & Cotswold stone corporate livery - well it least it did on the local buses
[which sometimes substituted for the usual coach] - Southend had adopted the Green
Line banner for it’s X1 services, and this started to show on the coaches from 1995.
By 1999 Arriva had secured an agreement with First Thamesway which saw the two operators join forces to provide a single service under the Green Line banner.....and numbered 721. The partnership lasted until 2001, when Thamesway pulled out - then
Arriva gave up in 2002. Another Southend operator, Stephensons stepped in and took
over in a limited capacity - a situation that continued until July 2008 with a few peak hour
only journeys appropriately numbered X1, of course!
**text updated 19/6/08 following information provided by Steven Salmon**
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