- Travel Surrey
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Travel Surrey 
A Travel Surrey Dennis DartFounded 2006 Defunct 2009 Headquarters Byfleet, Surrey Service area Surrey Service type Mainly urban bus services Destinations Guildford
Heathrow Airport
Kingston-upon-Thames
Staines
Woking,Fleet Around 50 Operator National Express (2007-2009)
Briefly NedRailways (2009)Web site www.travelsurreybus.co.uk 
One of the 426/446 branded Dennis Darts in Woking.
One of the silver buses for route 555/557.Travel Surrey was a bus operator in Surrey which was originally a subsidiary of the National Express Group. It was given its own brand name (changed from Travel London) from 1 September 2007. In May 2009, the company, along with Travel London, was sold to NedRailways. In October 2009, it was rebranded as Abellio.
Contents
History
In 2005, National Express Group bought the London bus operations of Tellings-Golden Miller, for their Travel London subsidiary. This deal came with TGM's Byfleet depot, and Travel London moved into Byfleet depot in June 2005. The legal company name was Travel London (West) Ltd, but trading as Travel London. All vehicles underwent a repaint programme and had the blue and white colours of TGM replaced with a livery of white with a red skirt. After a slow start and some changes in the management structure the business strengthened.
One of the 441 branded Dennis Darts. At the time the picture was taken, the bus had Travel London names.From 1 September 2007, Travel London rebranded the services from the Byfleet depot to Travel Surrey, to reflect the area served. After National Express took over, some of the Surrey County Council tender routes were lost or given up. However, many are now operated once again. An example of this is the 426/446 Woking - Staines service, which was operated by Flights Hallmark, trading as Surrey Connect. However, Flights wound up their operation, so Travel Surrey took over the routes and some vehicles.
On 11 November 2007, National Express Group announced plans to re-brand their UK bus service companies under the National Express identity. The new name for Travel Surrey would have been National Express Surrey.
However, due to the global recession at the time, National Express Group were experiencing financial difficulties with their East Coast Main Line franchise. Speculation mounted that they were looking to sell Travel London to reduce their debts.
On 21 May 2009, National Express Group agreed to sell Travel London to NedRailways, a subsidiary of NS Dutch Railways, for a price of £32 million. The sale includes the 27 Surrey County Council routes, as well as the 39 routes run from the London depots. All vehicles and premises used were sold, and all staff will transferred to NedRailways.[1]
Despite earlier saying the name would remain (as all other National Express operations had been rebranded), it was decided the Travel prefix of the name was still part of the large and pre-existing National Express brand structure. Thus, from 30 October 2009, along with Travel London, the company's trading name became Abellio Surrey.
Garage
Travel Surrey had one depot, in Byfleet. It was in two parts, held 50 buses, and ran Surrey County Council bus routes 218, 400, 426, 438, 441, 446, 451, 461, 471, 472, 513, 514, 515, 515A, 555, 557, 564, 566, 567, 570, 571, 572, 574, 637, 662, 663, 690. The parts were at either end of the Wintersells Industrial Estate.
Branded routes
A number of services were branded with buses running in special colours, and continue to be so under Abellio.
- 441 - Plane and Easy: This route is run between Heathrow Airport and Englefield Green via Staines, and is supported by BAA. It received new buses in 2006, with grey swoops at the rear.
- 426/446: These routes were branded with green swoops at the rear, it was notable in serving Thorpe Park, which was included in the branding.
- 555/557: These routes were run with silver liveried buses, and were run with BAA support, between Heathrow central bus station and Walton-on-Thames railway station.
References
External links
Categories:- Bus operators in England
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