New Enterprise Coaches
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
bus and coach company, based in Tonbridge
Tonbridge
Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. It is an arm of Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a regional division of Arriva.- History :...
Ltd, itself a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
of Germany.
History
The company started in 1974 as a small West Kent-based family-run business.In the early 1980s New Enterprise started running local bus services in the Tonbridge area, mainly competing against Maidstone & District
Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd
Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd was a bus company based in Maidstone, Kent. The company operated bus and coach services in Mid and West Kent and East Sussex from 1911 until 1998. The company's surviving operations were absorbed into Arriva Southern Counties.-Early years:In 1908 a hired...
, which eventually bought the company in June 1988. In 1997, British Bus - the company that owned Maidstone and District - was bought by Arriva
Arriva Southern Counties
Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a regional division of Arriva.- History :...
.
Unlike many of Arriva's acquisitions which have adopted a corporate livery of all-over aquamarine with a champagne scoop at the front and yellow coachline along the skirt, New Enterprise retains its all-over white with red and blue ribbon livery on their coaches, and white, blue and red standard livery on their service buses. However, buses are sometimes seen in service in Arriva corporate livery prior to being repainted, or when they are on loan.
Discontinued operations
New Enterprise operated commuter services 781 and 784 to London from the MaidstoneMaidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
area out of Arriva's Maidstone Depot, which were inherited from Green Line
Green Line Coaches
Green Line is a commuter coach brand in the Home Counties of England. It is owned by the Arriva group.Green Line has its origin in the network of coach services established by the London General Omnibus Company in the 1920s and 1930s...
in August 2005. However this service was withdrawn from 19 January 2009, replaced by an alternative service provided by Chalkwell Coaches of Sittingbourne.
From 18 March 2008, New Enterprise began to run the new EB3 easyBus
EasyBus
EasyBus provides UK express coach services to and from London and its main airports. It was founded by entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 2003, and is part of the EasyGroup...
service from Gatwick Airport to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Victoria, using a fleet of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is a light and heavy commercial vehicle, built by Daimler AG of Stuttgart, Germany as a van, chassis cab and minibus, and sold as a Mercedes model, except in the U.S. where it is built from complete knock down kits and was sold by Freightliner until 2010 when Mercedes...
/Optare Soroco
Optare Soroco
The Optare Soroco is a mini-coach body built for Mercedes-Benz chassis. It was recently overhauled to form the Soroco+ but this brand name seems to be abandoned. It featured a complete restyle of the front and rear sections as well as a restyled interior to give a luxury coach feel.-External links:*...
. A new outstation at Gatwick was opened for this operation. While the new vehicles are awaited, some older easyBus minibuses were on loan from Arriva Shires & Essex
Arriva Shires & Essex
Arriva Shires & Essex is a division of Arriva, with operations in Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and London. It is one of many private operators of London Buses. Until 2002 its operations included Colchester...
. Route EB3 was replaced by route EB4 (introduced in August 2008) from Gatwick Airport to Fulham Broadway in Central West London, with the EB3 eventually stopping on 21 September 2008. From early 2009, the Gatwick base was moved into Tellings-Golden Miller
Tellings-Golden Miller
Tellings-Golden Miller , a subsidiary of Arriva, is a bus service and coach operator in the United Kingdom.-Golden Miller:Reputedly, Fred Varney began the Golden Miller company with the winnings from a bet made on the horse Golden Miller, which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in...
's (also owned by Arriva) Gatwick depot. The operation by New Enterprise was discontinued in late 2009, when Easybus took this and other similar sub-contracted routes 'in-house', from a base in London NW10.
Current operations
New Enterprise now operates a number of local bus services in the Tonbridge and SevenoaksSevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
areas under contract to Kent County Council
Kent County Council
Kent County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 84 elected councillors...
from their Tonbridge base. They also offer a wide range of daybreaks and holidays from the Tonbridge and Maidstone areas, as well as coach hire with a choice of coaches from 49 to 53 seaters.
Routes operated
| Route Number | From | To | Notes | |
| 7 | Tonbridge | Hadlow | College Days only | |
| 200 | Hildenborough | Hildenborough Station | Monday to Friday peak hours | |
| 204 | Tonbridge | Underriver | Saturdays only | |
| 210 | Tonbridge | Charcott | Saturdays only | |
| 211 | Tonbridge Castle | Tonbridge Cottage Hospital. | ||
| 522 | Seal | Tonbridge | Schooldays only | |
| 532 | Kemsing | Tonbridge | Schooldays only | |
| 540 | Sundridge | Hugh Christie Tech. College | Schooldays only | |
| 541 | Larkfield | Hugh Christie Tech. College | Schooldays only | |
| 542 | Leybourne | Hugh Christie Tech. College | Schooldays only | |
| 543 | Chipstead Corner | Hugh Christie Tech. College | Schooldays only | |
| 544 | Sevenoaks | Hugh Cgristie Tech. College | Schooldays only | |
| 552 | Badgers Mount | Tonbridge | Schooldays only | |
| 572 | Hildenborough | Tonbridge | Schooldays only | |
| 577 | West Malling | Tonbridge, Weald of Kent School | Schooldays only |
Maidstone Arriva depot
- 2 Volvo B7RVolvo B7RThe Volvo B7R is a coach chassis available with a range of bodies. It is promoted as a rear engined lightweight coach chassis. It is primarily intended for tourist and long-distance duties...
/ Plaxton ProfilePlaxton ProfileThe Plaxton Profile is a coach built by Plaxton for the Volvo B7R and Dennis Javelin chassis. It is the smallest of Plaxton's full-sized coach range.... - 1 DAF SB3000 / Plaxton Prima
Tonbridge depot
- 1 Mercedes-BenzMercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
711D/Plaxton BeaverPlaxton BeaverThe Plaxton Beaver, originally known as the Reeve Burgess Beaver, is a minibus body built by Plaxton. It was built at the Pilsley, Derbyshire factory of Plaxton's Reeve Burgess subsidiary from 1987-1991, at Plaxton's main Scarborough factory from 1991, and from 1995 at Anston in South Yorkshire.The... - 1 Kassbohrer Setra / Kassbohrer
- 1 Volvo B10MVolvo B10MThe Volvo B10M is a popular mid-engined bus and coach chassis built by Volvo between 1978 and 2001. It was built as the successor of the B58 and was equipped with a 9.6-litre horizontally-mounted Volvo THD100/THD101/THD102/THD103/THD104/DH10A diesel engine mounted under the floor, near the middle...
/ Caetano Enigma - 1 Transbus JavelinDennis JavelinThe Dennis Javelin is an underfloor-engined bus and coach chassis originally built by Dennis in the United Kingdom. It was unveiled in 1986 and acted more or less as a modern replacement for the discontinued Bedford Y-series...
/ Plaxton Profile - 6 DAF SB3000 / Plaxton Prima
- 4 DAF SB3000 / Van Hool Alizée
- 1 DAF SB3000 / Ikarus Blue Danube
- 1 DAF MB230 / Van Hool Alizée
- 2 Dennis Dart SLF / East Lancs SpryteEast Lancs SpryteThe East Lancs Spryte is a single-decker bus body built by East Lancashire Coachbuilders. It was designed to body the Dennis Dart chassis, but a handful had been built on others, for example, the Volvo B6...
- 2 Volvo B6Volvo B6The Volvo B6 is a midibus manufactured by Volvo between 1991 and 2000. Its low-floor variant, the Volvo B6LE, was first built in 1994.The Volvo B6/B6LE chassis was built to compete with the Dennis Dart/Dart SLF chassis. It could be fitted with Volvo TD63E/TD63ES engine...
/ Plaxton PointerPlaxton PointerThe Plaxton Pointer is a successful single-decker bus body manufactured during the 1990s by Plaxton and latterly built by Alexander Dennis.With the launch of the Dennis Dart in 1989, Plaxton's subsidiary Reeve Burgess made the Pointer body on the short 8.5 m... - 3 Leyland OlympianLeyland OlympianThe Leyland Olympian was a double-decker bus built by British Leyland/Leyland Bus in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production before the demise of Leyland Bus.-Construction:...
/ Leyland