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In 1990, Eastern National was acquired by the Badgerline group and the garages in South
Essex formed a new company - Thamesway. Garages in North Essex continued under
the Eastern National name, though both companies were still ultimately under the same
common ownership/management structure. Services in Thurrock were operated from
Thamesway’s Basildon garage, and mainly concentrated on the East of the borough, up
to Grays. Places served included Fobbing, Corringham, Stanford le Hope, Orsett (Hospital)
and Stifford Clays.
In 1992, Thamesway introduced the ‘citysaver’, a Southend to London express coach
service to rival Southend Transport’s X1 group of services. It was numbered originally as
S1, but soon sprouted variants up to S5. The coaches were initially all ‘secondhand’, but
between September 1995 and January 1996, they were replaced by 19 brand new
Volvo coaches giving Thamesway the upper hand in the image stakes.
By 1995 route 152 had been replaced by ‘Premier 100’ and was using route branded
Dennis Darts with upgraded seating. Also by this time, route 153 had been replaced
between Basildon and Grays by route 37 using Mercedes minibuses. Also added to the
portfolio was route 269 (Grays to Brentwood), a Thurrock Council contracted service as
well as the Lakeside shuttle service to Chafford Hundred station (another Thurrock
Council contract).
In 1995 Badgerline group merged with GRT LTD (Grampian Regional Transport) and
from 1998 this company was known as First group. First, like Arriva, started to adopt
local company identities though they never carried on the vehicles - Thamesway thus
became First Essex, along with Eastern National.........and so the story goes full circle!
But before the First identity took hold and we move on to the current First page of this site;
First Thamesway, as it still was in 1999, secured an agreement with Arriva Southend to
join forces on the Southend to London express coach services. The agreement included
painting all vehicles used into the Green Line livery and re-numbering the service as 721.
The partnership lasted until 2001, when First Thamesway, which was now starting to
adopt the corporate identity and transform into First Essex, gave up it’s interest in the
Southend to London express coach service.
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