Cavendish Motor Services

A Cavendish Motor Services Dennis Dart SLF in Eastbourne on route 11, shortly before Stagecoach Group acquired the company.
Slogan	The Lighthouse Line
Parent	Stagecoach Group
Founded	2006
Defunct	2009
Headquarters	Polegate & Eastbourne
Locale	East Sussex
Service area	Eastbourne
Service type	bus service
Alliance	Eastbourne Buses
Hubs	Eastbourne, Polegate & Hailsham
Fleet	fleet list
Operator	Stagecoach Group
Website	www.cavendishmotorservices.co.uk

Cavendish Motor Services was a bus operator running within the Borough of Eastbourne and the surrounding area such as Polegate and Hailsham. It was the sister company of Renown Coaches of Bexhill. The buses ran in a distinctive green and cream livery, similar to the pre-1968 Southdown Motor Services livery.

In January 2009, Cavendish Motor Services were sold to the Stagecoach Group, along with rival bus company Eastbourne Buses. The launch of a combined network branded as Stagecoach in Eastbourne was delayed following a lengthy enquiry by the Competition Commission, which finally permitted this in October 2009. Cavendish's parent company, Renown Coaches, has retained its separate identity and ownership.

Cavendish Motor Services started operations on 13 March 2006.

Initially they ran just two routes:

Gradually more routes were added to their network, and routes which initially only ran on weekdays were expanded to run on Saturdays as well (Cavendish never operated services on Sundays). On 5 September 2008, service 9 which had run between Sainsbury's in Hampden Park, Eastbourne's District General Hospital, Cherry Garden Road, the Town Centre and Meads was withdrawn. The route was replaced by re-routing service 10 between Hill Road and Old Town, and providing a new service 20 from Meads to Langney from Monday 8 September. However, on 1 December 2008, service 9 was re-instated between Meads and the Hospital, but running between the Town Centre and the hospital via a different route.

In January 2009, Cavendish Motor Services was sold to Stagecoach Group. This came a month after the group bought rival bus company Eastbourne Buses. Because of this, tickets for either company were accepted on both sets of services, but not on the Stagecoach-branded Hastings buses. The sum Stagecoach paid for the company has not been revealed.

Stagecoach later announced 40 job losses.

Since starting operations, the normal fares on Cavendish services were set lower than those of their main rival, Eastbourne Buses: initially at an introductory £1 fare, although that was quickly increased to £1.30. This difference was maintained in subsequent fare rises.