Taken from their leaflet cover |
First
Essex operates Route 100 in Essex with the route starting from Chelmsford and
ending at Lakeside. The route goes via Billericay, Noak Bridge, Basildon and
Grays.
You
can view the map below
Taken
from Traveline which you can see here
Here
you can view the timetable from First Essex and Traveline.
You
can see the video footage I took of the First Essex route 100 here.
Route
100 Chelmsford to Lakeside via Basildon
Operated
by First Essex from Basildon depot
Volvo
7900H (hybrid)
Registration:
BV13ZBD
Fleet
Number: 69902
Filmed
on 28th September 2015
The
Volvo 7900H is a hybrid bus based on the Volvo
B5LH. The chassis is used on both single deck and double deck bodies. You can
see more on the Volvo B5LH on Wikipedia. The bus service also has free Wi-Fi on
board.
In
my view, since the bus has readers for the ENCTS passes, the same as London
Buses provide, I think First Group should invest in enabling contactless bank
cards to be used in order to speed up boarding to allow journeys to be more
efficient. We will wait and see as time progresses.
The
bus services outside of London are different from London Buses due to the
single door and no smartcard (except for selected areas in Britain) or
contactless payment system; they are old school and still use hard cash. The
advantage of this though is you can get a return ticket instead of paying for
two single fares. You can see more about the First Essex ticket system here
and also Essex County Council have a multi operator ticket which you can see here.
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