Cavendish Motor Services

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.

A Cavendish Motor Services Dennis Dart SLF in Eastbourne on route 11, shortly before Stagecoach Group acquired the company.
ParentStagecoach Group
Founded2006
Defunct2009
HeadquartersPolegate & Eastbourne
LocaleEast Sussex
Service areaEastbourne
Service typebus service
AllianceEastbourne Buses
HubsEastbourne, Polegate & Hailsham
Fleetfleet list
OperatorStagecoach Group
Websitewww.cavendishmotorservices.co.uk

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.[1] Cavendish's parent company, Renown Coaches, has retained its separate identity and ownership.

History

Cavendish Motor Services started operations on 13 March 2006.

Initially they ran just two routes:[2]

  • route 10 from Eastbourne Old Town (bottom of Central Avenue) to The Crumbles ASDA via the Town Centre and Seaside
  • route 11 from Eastbourne Old Town to Hailsham Town Centre via the Town Centre, Seaside and Stone Cross.

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Sainsbury's in Hampden Park, Eastbourne's District General Hospital, Cherry Garden Road, the Town Centre and Meads was withdrawn.[3] The route was replaced by re-routing service 10 between Hill Road and Old Town, and providing a new service 20 from Meads to Langney from Monday 8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.[3] 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.[4]

Sale to Stagecoach

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.[5]

Stagecoach later announced 40 job losses.[6]

Fares

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,[2] although that was quickly increased to £1.30. This difference was maintained in subsequent fare rises.[7]

Services

Cavendish worked with their parent company Renown Coaches to run services to Hailsham and Seaford via Polegate. Some routes were in direct competition with parts of the Eastbourne Buses network: in at least two cases services withdrawn by Eastbourne Buses were partially re-instated by the firm,[8][9] which has given them some additional public support.[10][4]

See also

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cavendish Motor Services.
  1. UK Competition Commission Gives Eastbourne Bus Merger All Clear Archived 24 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine govmonitor.com
  2. "NOSTALGIC LOOK TO NEW BUS SERVICE - Eastbourne Today". TR Beckett Newspapers. 23 March 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  3. "Improvements to bus services - Eastbourne Today". 4 September 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
  4. "Cavendish Motor Services - Timetables". 8 September 2008. Archived from the original on 19 November 2007. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
  5. "Stagecoach buys Cavendish". TR Beckett Newspapers. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  6. "Stagecoach axe Cavendish Buses and 40 jobs". TR Beckett Newspapers. 15 January 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
  7. "Rival bus firm puts up fares - Eastbourne Today". TR Beckett Newspapers. 21 April 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
  8. "Competitor steps in to Save bus route - Eastbourne Today". TR Beckett Newspapers. 29 February 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  9. "Village's bus service saved - Eastbourne Today". TR Beckett Newspapers. 25 March 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
  10. "12/03/08: Write directly to Renown - Eastbourne Today". 12 March 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2008.
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