
History
Sullivan Buses was formed in 1998 by its owner, Dean Sullivan,
who had previously worked as a manager for London Underground Ltd (LUL).
One of Deans responsibilities with LUL was to deal with railway
replacement bus services on behalf of the company. Independently of
this, Dean owned three preserved ex-London buses and, with the assistance
of a large bus operator, certified one of these buses for class six
(PSV) use. Amongst Sullivan Buses' first PSV jobs was work for the Docklands
Light Railway and London Underground. This success encouraged us to
purchase our first OPO double deck in 1998. The bus was a former London
Buses Leyland Titan (T85) purchased from Leaside Buses Limited. From
here work soon grew and the first two buses were later joined by T890.
T85 & T890 are still owned by the company. In 1999 a depot was established
at South Mimms service area in Hertfordshire. This was joined by the
former White Rose depot in Surrey in February 2002. Our first Transport
for London (TfL) route was the 383 in the Barnet area using single deck
Darts from South Mimms; we have since won the TfL contract for route
606 Edgware - Barnet.
In January 2005
we acquired the bus and coach business of Southlands Travel, Kent and ran operations from Polhill Depot. This operation has since been passed on to its local management.
Sullivan Buses
currently operates regular bus routes in London, Hertfordshire
and Surrey and is heavily involved in assisting railway companies with
replacement bus services when enginerring work disrupts rail travel. Many of our buses have London Transport origins
but more recent buses have been bought new. Several Dennis Dart Super Low
Floor (SLF) buses, a Volvo low floor double decker and a Dennis Trident
have entered the fleet and we are keen to move to full SLF operation in
the near future.
Ticket
Machines
We use the latest electronic ticket machines. Wayfarer TGX Graphics
machines are cutting edge ETMs and are used on our stage carriage
services in London and Hertfordshire. These machines are an updated
version of those in use by Transport for London. The Graphics machines
allow us to produce a wide range of tickets from Singles to full Annual
Passes.
Modern
technology
Sullivan Buses has invested in Satellite tracking and onboard CCTV.
Depots
We currently have two operating bases. Our main operation is at South Mimms in Hertfordshire which gives us excellent access to the M25 and M1. Heavy engineering work is carried out at our works in North Mymms (the different spelling is correct!). We have also established a base at Thorpe Park in Surrey. Depots at Staines (Surrey) and Polhill (Kent) are no longer used.
Filming
Sullivan Buses regularly supplies buses to the BBC for shows
such as Doctor Who, The Bill, Eastenders and Holby City. We often supply buses
for TV adverts and major feature films. Harry Potter is familiar with
our vehicles, even though none of our current fleet exceeds two decks!
Liveries
Most of our vehicles are in fleet livery of red with white relief (buses)
or yellow relief (coaches), although new acquisitions sometimes operate
in their previous owners' colours pending repaint. T1983 is in a special
gold livery, M276 was in an all-over advertisement for ASDA. Two Routemasters
have been restored to London Transport Lincoln Green. Most LLWs nad one DN are
in blue for the Thorpe Park Shuttle 950.
Use the links on the left to view our fleetlist and photos, or see the Latest page for fleet news and forthcoming events.
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