Arriva has made a £1.2m investment in six new high-specification Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro400 buses for its ‘Sapphire’ Service 101 between Medway and Maidstone, following a similar investment last last August.
The new buses are due to enter service at the beginning of April, enabling the older but fully-refurbished buses they replace to bring the benefits of the Sapphire brand to another route, yet to be announced as CBW went to press.
Arriva Marketing Manager Richard Lewis said: “We are pleased to make yet another big investment in the services provided by our Gillingham depot and to be able to extend to more of our customers the extra features that our ‘Sapphire’ buses bring.
“Since launching the Sapphire buses on the 101 at the end of last August, we have seen a large increase in the number of people using the service and this has enabled us to increase the frequency from last November to run every 12 minutes instead of every 15.
“In addition, we bought sixteen brand-new buses for use on local services in the Medway area last year, these also featuring free WiFi and environmentally-sourced leather seating, and representing another investment of around £2.2m.”
