British bus operating company
Sullivan Bus & Coach Limited
,
[1]
trading as
Sullivan Buses
, is a bus company based in
South Mimms
,
Hertfordshire
, England. Founded in 1998, it operates local bus services in and around Hertfordshire and north
London
including school services, rail replacement bus services in and near London, bus links in
Surrey
to and from
Thorpe Park
and vehicle hire for television programmes.
History
[
edit
]
AEC Routemaster
on a
London Underground
replacement service at
Baker Street station
in May 2011
Sullivan Buses was founded in 1998 by former
London Underground
manager Dean Sullivan.
[2]
[3]
Sullivan Buses operates public and school bus routes in
Hertfordshire
and
North London
. Rail replacement work, particularly on the
London Underground
, is also operated. In 2004, this work contributed to two-thirds of the company's turnover of £3 million.
[2]
Sullivan Buses vehicles frequently appear in film and television broadcasts and advertisements, partially because of the company location's proximity to the
Elstree Studios
. By August 2007, 20 different buses had been used in over 30 productions.
[4]
[5]
In January 2005, Sullivan Buses purchased Southlands Travel, located at
Pollhill
in
Kent
, but this operation ceased in February 2007, with some of the routes passing to Griffin Bus, who operated initially from Pollhill before moving to
Longfield
. In May 2011 Griffin Bus ceased operations and their routes were transferred over to other operators.
[
citation needed
]
Due to increased traffic congestion,
Hertfordshire County Council
-controlled route B3 was revised with additional running time and made significant changes to timings to meet train arrivals and departures from July 2012.
[6]
Starting from September 2012, Sullivan Buses won TfL tenders for
school routes
628, 653, 683 and 688 from
Arriva London
. This came after the company also won the tender for
route 298
.
[7]
Sullivan Buses won the TfL tender on
route W9
and retained route 298 in 2016, both acquiring brand-new
Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC
buses as a result.
[8]
From 1 September 2018, Sullivan Buses axed a section of commercial route 398 between
Watford
and
Borehamwood
. To minimise inconvenience, route 306 improved its evening frequencies to every 15 minutes.
[9]
In May 2021, it was announced Sullivan Buses would take over the TfL tender for route 549 from 12 March 2022.
[10]
In February 2022, Sullivan Buses announced the takeover of
route 84
between
Potters Bar
and
St Albans
, following
Metroline
's decision to withdraw from the route. The effects took place on 2 April 2022.
[11]
[12]
Depot
[
edit
]
South Mimms (SM)
[
edit
]
As of January 2024, South Mimms garage operates routes
217
,
298
,
299
,
327
,
389
,
399
,
549
,
605
,
606
,
617
,
629
,
640
and
W9
.
[13]
As of April 2024, it also operates 17 other routes either operated under contract to
Hertfordshire County Council
or commercially.
North Mymms
[
edit
]
Sullivan Buses operate a maintenance facility based at North Mymms providing services to all of Sullivan's fleet.
[14]
Staines
[
edit
]
Sullivan operate a small garage based in Staines to maintain their
Thorpe Park
fleet.
[14]
Fleet
[
edit
]
The fleet initially was built up with ex
Transport for London
Leyland Olympians
,
Leyland Titans
,
MCW Metrobuses
and
Volvo Olympians
. As at November 2020, the fleet consisted of 111 buses, including an
AEC Routemaster
heritage vehicle and a driver training vehicle.
[15]
The fleet dedicated to Transport for London operations consisted of 74 buses as at March 2023.
[16]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Sullivan Buses
at Wikimedia Commons
Bus operators in South East England
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Berkshire
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Buckinghamshire
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East Sussex
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Hampshire
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Isle of Wight
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Kent
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Oxfordshire
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Surrey
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West Sussex
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National
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