Buses began operating services in the Basildon area as long ago as the early
1900s. Naturally transport was horse drawn, but from around the 1920s onwards motor vehicles
took over when, among others Fred Hinton of Laindon ran a double decker open top bus from Laindon
Station to Wash Road. A company run by Tom Webster also operated services in Laindon, while in
Pitsea a family called Campbell established a business which would later be acquired by Eastern
National. Between the mid 1930s to the mid 1950s the Brentwood based City Coach Company ran
numbered local bus routes as well as providing services to Ongar, Brentwood, Billericay and
Wickford.
The first locally operated services by Eastern National Omnibus Company occurred
in 1954 when a service to serve the new developments in Whitmore Way commenced.
Eastern National's first bus garage was in Bull Road (now Clay Hill Road) Vange, having opened in
1951, but this proved too small and a new garage for 70 buses was constructed in
Cherrydown (now Cherrydown East) at the junction with Clay Hill Road. Work began in 1960
and the garage was formally opened in April 1961. At the same time the Vange depot was closed
and demolished to make way for a new regional neighbourhood shopping centre.
Eastern National were in operation in the Basildon district until the early 1990s when local
services were deregulated.
Bus services in Basildon are now operated by First Thamesway,
Crown, Jackson's and Wickford based company NIBS (Nelsons Independent Bus Services).
Text written 2001 with revisions 2002-2007.
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