Stagecoach is complementing its Broadstairs-Ramsgate open-top route, introduced last summer, with a second route in Margate.
The daily service will operate daily during the summer school holidays, linking Margate station, the Turner Contemporary art gallery at the harbour and then along the coast to Palm Bay.
While the Ramsgate operation uses the traditional route number 69, the Margate service is unable to use its historic 56 number, as this is already used for a tendered local service that also serves part of the route. It is instead numbered 37.
As East Kent had only two opentoppers, a third vehicle — also an Alexander ALX400-bodied Dennis Trident — has been transferred from Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire, where it was displaced by new Wright Gemini 3-bodied Volvo B5TL-builts.
It has received standard Stagecoach colours; the other two retain their heritage East Kent cream and maroon livery.
