Arriva Southend

Arriva Southend

Arriva Southend Northern Counties Palatine bodied Volvo Olympian at the Cobham bus rally in 2009
Slogan	Here to take you there.
Parent	Arriva
Founded	1998
Headquarters	(Arriva Southern Counties) Invicta House, Maidstone, Kent
Service area	Essex
Service type	Bus
Routes	20
Fleet	62
Fuel type	Diesel
Operator	Arriva Southern Counties
Website	Arriva Buses UK company website

Arriva Southend is a division of Arriva Southern Counties, a subsidiary of transport group Arriva which operates bus services in and around the Southend-on-Sea, Rochford, Rayleigh, Basildon, and Thurrock areas of Essex. They operate most services east of Southend and a few services west of Southend, and compete to a limited extent with four other local operators with services in the same areas: First Essex, NIBS, Regal Busways, and Stephensons of Essex.

The company was founded in 1901 as Southend Corporation Transport, and was renamed Southend Transport in 1974. It began operating motorbuses in 1912, and became a limited company on 26 October 1986 due to the 1985 Transport Act. Southend Transport was involved in a price war with Thamesway (now part of First Essex). Southend Transport was sold by Southend Borough Council to the British Bus group in June 1993 for a reported £1, which in turn was taken over by the Cowie group.

Cowie was renamed Arriva in August 1998 and Southend Transport was renamed Arriva serving Southend as part of this rebranding. Although the 'serving Southend' local identity caption has now been phased out, it can still be seen on the sides of some of their buses.

On 28 January 2000, the original Southend garage at 87 London Road dating from the foundation of Southend Corporation Transport was closed and demolished shortly afterwards, with a new one constructed in Short Street, Southend-on-Sea. The old London Road site is now occupied by a retail park.

Arriva Southend had continued the service X1 coach service to London inherited from Southend Transport, latterly as the Green Line 721 service. In 2001 operation of route X1 was taken over by Stephensons of Essex, which withdrew it in July 2008.