First Essex is a bus company operating services in the county of Essex. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
History
First Essex arose from an amalgamation of Eastern National and Thamesway Buses. First Essex was originally part of the Eastern National Omnibus Company, founded in 1929, nationalised in 1949 and privatised in a management buyout in October 1986. In 1990, Eastern National was sold to Badgerline (who became part of FirstGroup in 1995) and split - the depots in North Essex continuing to operate as Eastern National and those in South Essex being transferred to a new division, Thamesway. Both were later amalgamated again and rebranded First Essex.
First Essex was criticised by passengers and members of the Southend Area Bus Users' Group for withdrawing services which it considered no longer economically viable when Southend Borough Council withdrew bus subsidies as part of budget cuts in 2005. First said it was due to low passenger numbers, even when parts of the route were profitable. Further criticism came from passengers when First Essex and Arriva Southend decided to withdraw their "Day Rover" ticket, which allowed unlimited journeys on the day of purchase on buses operated by both companies, regardless of which company issued the ticket, so that day tickets could only be used on the buses of the company that issued them. They replaced it with a more expensive "Octopus" ticket, issued by and can be used on any buses operated by companies running in the general Southend area.
Current depots
First Essex operates four bus depots in the cities of Chelmsford and Colchester, and the towns of Basildon and Hadleigh. The outstation at Great Dunmow has closed, with services transferring to Chelmsford depot. Harwich depot was closed in late 2013; its services are now either run by Colchester depot or have changed operators to Hedingham & Chambers. The Braintree depot was closed in late 2015; all of its services are now either run by Stephensons of Essex (21, 30, 131, 132 - converted to 38/38A) or by the Chelmsford depot (70, 352).
Basildon (BN) Basildon garage operates routes B1, B2, B3, B4, 100, 200, 300, 1A, 9, 16, 104, 106, 552, X10 Essex Airlink, 21 (Saturdays only), 25,251 and school services 561/A, 625, 725, 825.
History
Basildon depot is located on Cherrydown East, near to Basildon railway station. It was opened by Eastern National in 1961 to replace premises at Bull Road, Vange.
After Brentwood depot closed in 1995, Basildon ran the Brentwood town services until 1998, when they were transferred to Harold Wood depot. When First London took over Harold Wood in 2004, Basildon again took on the Brentwood town services until 2012, when Chelmsford acquiredthe Brentwood services with the 351 and 73 (Basildon renumbered the 551 to service 9).
Chelmsford (CF) Chelmsford depot operates routes 13/13A, 14, X30 Essex Airlink, 31/B/C/D/X, 32, 35, 36/A/B/X, 37, 40, 42/A/B, 45/A/C, 46, 47, 51, 54/A/C 56/A/B/C 57/A/B/C, 70, 71/A/B/C/D/X/, 72, 73/A, 80A/C, 94C/D, 350/351, 565 and school bus services 525, 570, 620.
37, 80A/C and 565 are Brentwood town services.
History
When the old Duke Street bus depot/bus station was demolished in autumn 2004, operations moved to a new site at Westway. The site was redeveloped, with a new and much reduced bus station opening in March 2007.
Chelmsford had outstations at Great Dunmow and Maldon until 2004. Maldon had previously been a full depot until 1993, with the MN code.
On 20 October 2013, Chelmsford took over the operation of route 888 Luton Airport shuttle from First Northampton.
From its opening in 2007 until 2022, it had been the operator of the Chelmsford Park and Ride service; the contract was lost to Vectare.
Colchester (CR) Colchester depot operates routes under both the "Essex Bus" and the "Colchester Shuttles" Brands.
In 2022, First Essex announced the withdrawal of many routes to introduce the Shuttles branding, Colchester operates the following services as part of Colchester Shuttles. S1, S2, S3, S4, S6, S7, S8 and S9
Colchester operates the following as part of the Essex Bus brand, with services 370, 371 and X71 being shared with Chelmsford Depot. 1A (Sundays & evenings), 2A (Sundays & evenings), 4 (Monday to Friday) 11 (Peak times), 16A (school days) 17 (school days), 68 (evenings), 75, 76 (Sundays), 80, 80A, 81, 81A, 82, 82A, 82B, 83, 83A, 83B, 87, 87U, 88, 88A, 88B, 102 (Sundays and Evenings), 103, 104, 174, 175, 370, 371 and X71