Arriva has purchased 11 new vehicles as part of its ongoing replacement programme. Passengers in Gravesend and Dartford will benefit from features including free on-board Wi-Fi thanks to an investment worth more than £2 million.
As well as the Wi-Fi, the smart blue “Sapphire” brand buses, which will be running from October 12, will have faux leather seats and audio-visual announcements at each bus stop.
The fleet is also one of the first in the country to feature new micro-hybrid technology that harvests waste energy built up from braking and uses it to replenish the buses’ batteries. This allows other parts of the bus to be run electrically, reducing the load on the engine and resulting in a lower carbon footprint.
