The end of an era for Southend passengers? Richard Delahoy

Late autumn 1999 witnessed the hasty removal of some lettering on Arriva Southend’s coaches - the offending words had read “365 days a year” but that proud claim was to be no more, as no Arriva bus or coach services ran in south Essex on four days over the Christmas/New Year holiday.

Southend Transport had been one of the very few operators to run on every single day of the year, but even that had not always been so. Going back to the 1960s, the general pattern was that Sunday services were operated on Public Holidays. This included December 26th (Boxing Day) but not Christmas Day - and remember that New Year’s Day was not a public holiday in those days.

I have not been able to trace the last year that normal services were operated on Christmas Day itself - does anyone know for certain? By the mid 60s, there was only an isolated return trip on service 7 running on Christmas Day and this last ran in 1967 (the 0638 Central Station to Ashingdon Schools and 0704 return - this for the benefit of staff at Rochford Hospital). In passing, I should also mention that some buses on Christmas Eve were still out on the road past midnight, so technically there was always some service on Christmas Day. Indeed, in contrast to today’s early run in on Christmas Eve, in the 60s there were extra buses on that night, such as an 0028 Central Station to Golden Cross service 7 (returning dead to garage).

Thus from 1968 onwards there were no buses at all on Christmas Day, and a Sunday service on Boxing Day - this applying to all routes throughout the Co-Ordination Area and hence including operation by Eastern National as well as ST.

Boxing Day special services start

However, in 1971 Boxing Day fell on a Sunday and the following day, the 27th, was declared a Public Holiday instead. ENOC decided not to operate at all on the 26th and ST stepped in with plans to run a limited service on their own, to include services beyond the Co-Ordination Area boundary. Thus, ST buses were to be found on the 2 to Grays, 11 to Chelmsford, 19 to Colchester, 20 to Runwell Hospital and 251 to Wickford, as well as operating on some Co-Ordination Area routes normally run by ENOC.

In subsequent years, ENOC decided not to operate on the 26th whether or not it was a Public Holiday and ST have provided special services. Out of area operations featured the 2, 11, 19, 31, 151, 251 and 400. However, apart from the highly successful 400 operation, the other out of area routes were poorly used and last ran in 1977, although once January 1st also became a holiday, the 251 was reintroduced on New Year’s Day in the early/mid 1980s.

In fact, 1976 and 1977 saw a repeat of the 1971 situation where the Christmas holiday co-incided with a weekend; in 1976, special services therefore ran on both the 26th and 27th. However, from 1977 onwards a more reduced level of service has run on the 26th, as explained later. Services generally ran between about 0800 & 2400 (but with some exceptions) until 1987; from Christmas 1988, the operational day was cut back to roughly 0900 to 1800.

The one exception to all of this occurred in 1993, another case when a weekend intervened. In this year only, December 26th saw a repeat of the 25th’s service, ie, a solitary return journey on the X2 to London, spoiling an otherwise unbroken (until 1999!) record of local service in Southend and environs.

Christmas Day

In 1976, Christmas Day operation was resumed, with a single return journey to London over the 400 route. This continued until 1981, but from 1982 (until 1998) the Christmas Day operation was transferred to Southend’s own X1 route, initially right through to Heathrow but cut back to Victoria from Christmas Day 1988. From 1993 onwards, the service ran as an X2.

The Christmas Day service has only ever offered one journey each way.

New Year’s Day

January 1st became a Public Holiday from 1981 onwards. EN decided to treat it like Boxing Day and therefore did not operate. ST again decided to go it alone, on a similar basis to its established Boxing Day operations but covering a greater number of routes. This reintroduced out of area operations, with the 251 running as far as Wickford again. London was served by the 400, but the following year there was a normal Sunday service on the X1 instead, whereas that holiday, the Christmas Day and Boxing Day operations had been on the 400 to Kings Cross.

More recently, the level of service on New Year’s Day has fluctuated but had latterly - until this year - stabilised with a full Sunday service being offered.

And so to the Millennium holiday . . .

There has been much comment about the premium payments being demanded by workers in many industries, to induce them to work over the holiday period. This has been compounded by Christmas falling on a weekend, thus December 27/28 are Public Holidays, the late decision to declare December 31st as a holiday and January 3rd being a holiday as well (as the 1st is a Saturday). With Arriva Southend being part of a large group, where some drivers were to receive premium payments to work LT routes, this caused further complications.

Accordingly, the decision was made not to run on December 25, 26, 31 and January 1. Never before has December 31 been bus-less. Neither Essex County Council nor Southend Borough Council seemed willing or able to fund any subsidised replacement services on any of these 4 days, partly influenced by the fact that few bus operators believed that they could resource any operations on these days. This is most regrettable, given the emphasis that the Government is placing on improving and enhancing public transport services and we must earnestly hope that it has not set a precedent for subsequent Christmases!

In conclusion

Southend Transport’s special Christmas/New Year services have provided a useful public service (as well as a lot of interest for enthusiasts!). They have always been run without any external subsidy and have normally been staffed by volunteer drivers, including some part time/casual drivers in the period before deregulation, when this was not otherwise permitted, as consequence of an agreement with the TGWU. Even these measures were not sufficient in 1977, and some workings on the 400 were sub-contracted to Ensign Bus, using ST Fleetlines.

An article looking at the early years of the Boxing Day specials appeared in Buses, April 1979.

There follows a listing of the service patterns over the past 28 years.

Southend Transport/Arriva Southend - special Christmas & New Year operations:

Year	Dec. 25	Dec. 26	Dec 27*	Year	Jan 1
1971	No ser.	Special ser + 2, 11, 19, 20, 251
1972	No ser.	Special ser + 2/151, 11/31/19, 251
1973	No ser.	Special ser + 2/151, 11/31/19, 251
1974	No ser.	Special ser + 2/151, 11/31/19, 251			There was a full Sunday service each
1975	No ser.	Special ser + 11, 251, 400			year until New Year’s Day was declared a
1976	1 x 400	Special ser + 11, 251, 400	Special ser + 11, 251, 400		Public holiday
1977	1 x 400	Limited ser + 400	Special ser + 11, 251, 400
1978	1 x 400	Limited ser + 400
1979	1 x 400	Limited ser + 400
1980	1 x 400	Limited ser + 400		1981	Special ser + 251, 400
1981	1 x 400	Limited ser + 400		1982	Special ser + 251, X1
1982	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1	Special ser + 251, X1	1983	Sunday service
1983	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1	Special ser + 251**, X1	1984	Special ser + 251, X1
1984	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1985	Special ser + 251, X1
1985	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1986	Special ser + 251, X1
1986	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1987	Sunday ser + 3
1987	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1	Sunday ser + 3A	1988	Sunday ser + 3A
1988	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1989	Limited ser + X1
1989	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1990	Limited ser + X1
1990	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1991	Limited ser + X1
1991	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1992	Limited ser + X1
1992	1 x X1	Limited ser + X1		1993	Limited ser + X1
1993	1 x X2	1 x X2	Sunday ser + 2 (& on 28th)	1994	Sunday service (on Jan 3 Sun ser + 2)
1994	1 x X2	Limited ser + X2/3		1995	Limited ser + X2/3
1995	1 x X2	Limited ser + X2/3		1996	Sunday service
1996	1 x X2	Limited ser + X3		1997	Sunday service
1997	1 x X2	Limited ser + X2/3		1998	Sunday service
1998	1 x X2	Limited ser + X2/3		1999	Sunday service
1999	No ser.	No service		2000	No service

* December 27 details are only shown where a normal Sunday service was not operated.

** In 1983 ENOC also ran a special service, on the 251 and 400 only; thus there were two separate 251’s from Southend that year, ST to Carpenters Arms and EN to Walthamstow.

The table only shows those days where a normal service was not operated. In order to avoid over complicating the presentation, some details have been simplified. In particular:

“special service” indicates that a significant number of co-ordination area routes were operated, which (pre 1986) included routes normally operated by Eastern National.

“limited service” indicates that a much more restricted level of service was provided and, with minor exceptions, post 1986 this has been restricted to routes normally operated by ST.

(To illustrate the difference in service levels, take 1977 as an example: the limited service on the 26th saw routes 1, 3, 4A, 7 and 29 only running, whereas the special service on the 27th covered the 1, 3, 4A, 6, 7, 8, 17, 22, 23A, 24, 25A, 27 & 29. In both cases, not all routes ran over their full length).

Route numbers are shown for services not normally operated by ST which ran beyond the co-ordination area or, in the case of the 31, entirely outside the area. Terminals were: 2 - Grays; 11 - Chelmsford; 19 - Colchester; 20 - Runwell Hospital; 31 - Chelmsford to Maldon (linked with the 11 and 19 to provide a through service, Southend-Chelmsford-Maldon-Colchester); 151 - Romford (worked from Southend as a 2 to Basildon, changing there to 151); 251 - Wickford (Carpenters Arms only for New Years Day 1985 & 1986) and 400 - Kings Cross.

In the case of ST’s own London service, the X1, the London terminal was Heathrow for all operations until 1987 (in 1987 only, some journeys terminated at Green Park); from 1988 onwards the terminal has been Victoria.

© Richard Delahoy 2000

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