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Operation Overdrive is the name of a series of improvement programmes carried out by Arriva in their UK bus operations. The original Operation Overdrive was done by Arriva Southern Counties in the Medway Towns (Kent) in 2004, with further operations occurring in Maidstone (Kent), Merseyside, Leicestershire, County Durham, and Southend-on-Sea (Essex).

Medway Towns

The original operation Overdrive involved the purchase of 61 new buses, upgrading 40 existing buses, upgrades to the route network, introducing GPS tracking, improved lighting at the Pentagon bus station in Chatham, depot upgrades including a vehicle wash, and introduction of a yellow liveried school fleet.

New buses

The new vehicles were 12 Dennis Dart which due to reasons no one knows they have been removed and only have 2 remaining (8.8m) single deckers with Plaxton Pointer MPD bodies (fleet numbers 1606 - 1617), and 49 Volvo B7TL double deckers with Alexander ALX400 bodies (6401 - 6449). The new buses feature interior audio visual next stop information displays, linked to GPS tracking systems provided by Medway Council used for real time display at bus stops which by the way none of them work.

Existing fleet upgrade

Other existing vehicles in the Medway fleet were modernised to bring them into line with the brand new vehicles. This entailed refurbishment and repainting, fitting CCTV, and changing their destination displays from traditional roller blinds to scrolling LED displays.

School buses

Eleven buses 7624-36 (G6xxBPH) were painted in an allover yellow scheme for use on school services, These will now be removed to improve on the environment

Network upgrade

Arriva significantly upgraded services in the Medway area with the rebranding and timetabling of routes and the introduction of new buses. The network was upgraded with 5 routes being increased to 10 minute frequencies and branded as the Red, Green, Purple, Blue and Orange Lines, with appropriately branded buses allocated to these routes. All but the purple line use double deck buses.

The specific colour branding of buses to a particular coloured line was later dropped in favour of a single Medway Mainline branding showing all of the coloured route numbers.

Launch day

On the day of the new network launch, a convoy of 20 of the new buses was organised for the press, crossing the Strood tunnel twice, then running into the depot. The class leader of the new buses, 6401 (GN04 UDM), was specially decorated in a promotional livery for the network launch and headed the convoy. This bus was later repainted into a special network ticket promotional livery.

Complications arose as delays had occurred in removing old vehicles needed to make space in the depot for the arriving new vehicles. Several older vehicles were transferred to other Arriva Southern Counties depots, or to Arriva companies further afield. A number of MCW Metrorider minibuses were transferred to Arriva Northumbria, with a crew of drivers to take these buses to Peterlee having arrived in an Arriva single decker.

Some of the new vehicles were also displayed alongside preserved Maidstone & District vehicles, the predecessor company of Arriva in Medway, at the Chatham Dockyard for the press and local dignitaries.

Maidstone

Overdrive 2 involved the refurbishment of several buses at the Maidstone depot in 2004/5. In 2008, four VDL DB250/East Lancs Myllennium Lowlander have arrived for route 71.

County Durham

In 2005 some new Alexander ALX400s and 14 Scania CN94UB Omnicitys were introduced in Durham and Darlington. Most vehicles have since been moved elsewhere.

Merseyside

In 2008 Arriva purchased many Wright Pulsars for Bootle and Green Lane depots. In 2009, 23 Enviro400s arrived for Laird Street depot. These were in Interurban livery and branded as 'Cross River Express' displacing many Palatines to other Merseyside depots. Further Pulsar 2s have been arriving in many depots including Green Lane, Bootle, St Helens and Runcorn. Laird Street are said to have Pulsar 2s arriving along with Pulsar 2s for Southport.

Leicestershire

In May 2006 Arriva launched Operation Overdrive on services in Leicestershire which saw 54 new buses delivered to Arriva Midlands (Fox County) and numerous buses refurbished. All but eight of the buses were double deckers on VDL DB250 and Volvo B7TL chassis. The eight single deckers delivered were VDL SB200s. All buses delivered were bodied by Wrightbus.

Southend-on-Sea

In July 2008, Arriva Southern Counties sent some of Arriva Southend's Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointers to their Gillingham, Kent depot for refurbishment, entailing repainting, fitting CCTV, and changing their destination displays from traditional roller blinds to scrolling LED displays. In mid 2009, the remainder of the older double decker fleet will be replaced by low-floor buses.

References

1. Fotopic image of a scanned Medway route map
2. Fotopic Image of a Red Line branded bus
3. Fotopic image of the Medway Mainline branding
4. Fotopic image of the launch convoy
5. Fotopic image of the network launch branded bus 6401
6. Fotopic image of the crew bus used in the Medway minibus transfer
7. Fotopic image of a new ALX400
8. Fotopic image of a new Scania OmniCity

External links

• Medway Council Draft Bus Strategy (pdf)
• Medway Local Transport Plan 2006-2011 - details of Operation Overdrive on page 122
• Full details of the new bus orders
• Arriva Medway Towns 'Operation Overdrive' launch Fotopic collection
• Arriva Medway Old and young in The Historic Dockyard Chatham Fotopic collection
• Arriva Medway The launch - June 13 2004 Fotopic collection
• Arriva Medway Towns New Bus Launch 13th June Fotopic collection
• Arriva Press Release on the Medway upgrade

• Transport in Medway
• Bus transport in England