|
By 1982, the two companies had gone their separate ways - though both ran X1’s !!
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**
|
