Fastrack (bus)

Fastrack is a bus rapid transit scheme in the Thames Gateway area of Kent. It consists of three routes, operated by Arriva Southern Counties on behalf of Kent County Council with Prologis and Amazon respectively. Measures used to allow buses to avoid traffic include signal priority, reserved lanes, and dedicated busways.

The network is currently operated by Arriva Southern Counties but is due to be taken over by Go-Ahead London from November 2024.

Routes
Construction work on Fastrack started on 23 September 2004, and it began operating with the introduction of Fastrack B on 26 March 2006 between Temple Hill and Gravesend, serving Darent Valley Hospital, Bluewater Shopping Centre, Greenhithe station (and Ebbsfleet International station since it opened on 19 November 2007). Services operate from 05:30 until after midnight.

The 9.5 km (5.9 mi) long Fastrack A was added on 3 June 2007. It operates up to every ten minutes between Dartford and Bluewater along the western side of Temple Hill, The Bridge Crossways Business Park and Greenhithe station. Fastrack A is part-funded by Prologis, the developers of The Bridge.

On 23 August 2021 the 24-hour route AZ was added to the network serving the new Amazon LCY3 distribution centre in Dartford. The route was initially operated by Go-Coach using Alexander Dennis Enviro400 vehicles, up to every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. On 3 April 2022, route AZ was modified to only run at shift changeover times at the LCY3 centre and at the same time, was transferred to Arriva Kent Thameside.

Route changes
When Fastrack B began it was divided into five fare zones. They were replaced with the current three zones when Fastrack A began to simplify the fare structure and to ease the introduction of off-vehicle ticket machines.

Prior to the opening of Ebbsfleet International on 19 November 2007, Fastrack B ran through Northfleet. The diversion along Thames Way to the station, connecting with Eurostar and Southeastern High Speed services, added 2 km (1¼ mi) of junction priority and segregated lanes. Northfleet is still served by conventional Arriva routes 480 and 490.

For the first four months of operation, Route A ran on a temporary alignment via Junction 1a of the M25 motorway to link The Bridge, Dartford, development site with Crossways Business Park. From 30 September 2007 it was diverted via a dedicated bridge over the Dartford toll plaza and under the QE2 Bridge of the Dartford Crossing, avoiding a congestion hotspot and allowing the original six-minute peak frequency to be improved to five minutes.

On 10 December 2012 the Everards Link Phase 2, which links Greenhithe station with the Ingress Park housing development via a stretch of busway, opened.

From 2 September 2018 Fastrack B was rerouted within Ingress Park to serve the whole of the development following the completion of a new section of road linking the development with London Road. In August 2020, Fastrack B was rerouted again, between Ebbsfleet International and Gravesend along the newly constructed Springhead Bridge so that buses now serve the Springhead Park development.

From 3 April 2022, Fastrack A was rerouted within Dartford to serve the Amazon LCY3 distribution centre, in place of Fastrack AZ which was modified to only operate at shift changeover times. A 24 hour service was introduced on Fastrack A at the same time, running between Dartford and Greenhithe station.

Fares and ticketing
The network is split into three fare zones. Tickets are sold by the driver and from roadside machines, at certain bus stops, to allow for faster boarding.

M-tickets, bus tickets on mobile phones, were successfully trialled on 11 February 2008 and are now available across the Arriva bus network.

Vehicles
The original fleet consisted of 26 Wright Eclipse Urban bodied Volvo B7RLEs. These had audio-visual next stop announcements, air conditioning and CCTV. On 9 August 2015, these were replaced by 21 Wright StreetLites.

From 21 March to 9 May 2018 Fastrack took part in a trial scheme which saw an additional hourly journey made by an electric Volvo 7900e, with a main charging point installed in the form of a generator at the front of Greenhithe station allowing the bus to fully charge inside six minutes.

On 4 August 2019 Arriva Kent Thameside retained the contract to operate the Fastrack B service. As part of this, the 14 Wright StreetLites on the route were replaced with newer Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC vehicles transferred from the Medway area which were refurbished to Fastrack specification. 7 of the Wright StreetLites continue to operate on Fastrack A.

Between 23 August 2021 and 3 April 2022, whilst the Fastrack AZ service was operated by Go-Coach, a total of eight Alexander Dennis Enviro400 vehicles worked on the service. When this route was transferred to Arriva Kent Thameside, the Enviro400 vehicles were withdrawn from the network and three additional Enviro200 MMC now work on the AZ service.

When the Fastrack is taken over by Go-Ahead London in November 2024, a new fleet of 28 Irizar ie tram electric buses will be introduced across the network.

Dover
A further Fastrack system is under construction in Dover and Whitfield.