GoBus (Kent bus company)

GoBus

A GoBus Caetano e.City Gold in Detling in April 2026
Founded	1 February 2008
Headquarters	Swanley
Service area	Kent East Sussex South London
Service type	Bus routes
Routes	40
Hubs	Sevenoaks, Swanley, Dartford, Edenbridge, Tonbridge, Royal Tunbridge Wells
Fleet	52 (December 2025)
Chief executive	Austin Blackburn
Website	www.gobus.uk

Go-Coachhire Limited, trading as GoBus, is a bus operator running a total of 37 bus routes (including school routes) across Kent and Sussex. The majority of these routes are operated on behalf of Kent County Council from their garage in Swanley.

History

Go-Coach was founded on 1 February 2008 by Austin Blackburn. The company began operating as a coach hire company initially just using a single coach.

In April 2010, Go-Coach began operating bus routes for the first time when they took over the Kent County Council tendered routes 401 (Sevenoaks to Westerham) and 421 (Sevenoaks to Swanley) from Arriva Southern Counties. In May 2011, Go-Coach extended route 421 to Dartford to replace the Arriva Southern Counties route 423 bringing the operator into the town for the first time. The companies Dartford routes were further boosted with the instruction of the Dart local town routes in 2014.

In April 2014, Go-Coach expanded its operations into Edenbridge by taking over routes 232, 234, 238, 631 and 632 from Arriva Southern Counties. A number of its Sevenoaks services were altered at the same time.

In 2015, a number of Go-Coach routes were boosted. The company took over a number of Kent County Council-contracted routes as well as introducing new circular town route 8 in Sevenoaks at the same time. Go-Coach also upgraded and took over existing route 401 on a commercial basis in 2015, this being the first time that the company had operated a bus route in this way.

In July 2017, Go-Coach introduced two new routes in Sevenoaks (routes 431 and 435) in response to Arriva Southern Counties withdrawing major parts of their route 402 route at the same time.

In April 2019, Arriva Southern Counties withdrew a number of their local routes in Sevenoaks. Go-Coach introduced a number of replacement routes and at the same time became the network operator of the town.

In December 2020, Go-Coach launched the new E1 circular bus route in Edenbridge, giving the town a dedicated local route for the first time.

On 23 August 2021, Go-Coach introduced the 24-hour Fastrack branded AZ route between Dartford and Gravesend, serving the new Amazon LCY3 distribution centre in Dartford. On 2 April 2022, this route was transferred to Arriva Kent Thameside in April 2022 with the Amazon LCY3 also now served by the current Fastrack A route.

In December 2023, the company was sold to Derbyshire-based Hulleys of Baslow, but retained the Go-Coach branding, fleet and staff. Within a year however, Hulleys sold the operation back to previous owner and founder Austin Blackburn.

In August 2025, the company was rebranded to GoBus alongside its Swanley Garage open day.

Garage, fleet and routes

GoBus run their routes from a single garage in Swanley, which runs a mixture of commercial and school routes as well as routes operated on behalf of Kent County Council with a total of 37 routes. GoBus operate a number of rural routes across Kent and as such, a number of their routes operate at very low frequencies with limited operating hours. GoBus are also the main bus operator in the town of Sevenoaks (since Arriva Southern Counties withdrew a number of their Sevenoaks routes in April 2019) and currently run and operate Sevenoaks bus station.

GoBus currently operate the following routes:

The fleet consists of Optare Solos, Optare Solo SRs, a Switch Metrocity, Optare Versas, an Optare Tempo, a Dennis Dart SLF bodied Marshall Capital C39, Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMCs, Alexander Dennis Enviro400s, a Caetano e.City Gold, Peugeot Boxers, Fiat Ducatos and Rightech RB6s.

Former routes

Go2 Sevenoaks

Since April 2020, GoBus have operated the Go2 demand responsive service in Sevenoaks in partnership with ViaVan. The service is designed to allow passengers to hail buses to their locations to remove the need for unnecessary bus operations.

Go2 Ebbsfleet Valley

Go2 has been operating in the Ebbsfleet Valley zone since 3 February 2025.

As of November 2026, Go2 Ebbsfleet Valley serves Ebbsfleet Valley, Ebbsfleet International railway station, Swanscombe, Greenhithe, Bluewater Shopping Centre, Darent Valley Hospital, Stone and Springhead.

The majority of the areas covered by Go2 Ebbsfleet Valley are also covered by the CB1 bus route.

GoBus acquired a number of Rightech RB6's which are produced by Wrightbus, under sub-brand Rightech, and are used primarily on route CB1 and Go2 Ebbsfleet Valley services, operating since June 2025. GoBus also has a fleet of Mellor Sigma 7s, Optare Solos and on the Go2 Ebbsfleet Valley routes, occasionally minivans are used, such as Peugeot Boxers, Renault Masters and Fiat Ducatos.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

Media related to Go Coach Hire at Wikimedia Commons