The boss of the county's largest bus provider has called for a "transport renaissance" to tackle mounting congestion in Gravesend and Dartford.

Arriva managing director for Kent and Surrey Oliver Monahan also said he would support a tram network, such as the one proposed by KenEx Thames Transit, in the area.

KenEx's £600 million proposal would see a route created to connect Gravesend, Bluewater and Essex, traversing the Thames in a kilometre-long tunnel.

Mr Monahan says Arriva has almost exhausted all its options and will soon "hit a wall" when it comes to combatting traffic, adding that compared to rail, his last line of work, bus transport was considerably harder to get right.

Currently between 30% and 40% of bus milage is lost due to congestion.

He said a tram system could complement bus transport and also be combined with the train network to create a "totally connected system".

Systems such as reserve routes and twilight discount travel have already been brought in across much of Kent to deal with jams and encourage more people to get on buses while Mr Monahan revealed contactless payment will be rolled out by easter.

"Everyone always holds London up as a good example of getting transport right, but it's hard to compete with," he said, adding "That said, we should try. There's no reason we can't do it better."

Speaking of the current situation in north Kent Mr Monahan said: "The other day I was travelling up the A2 and due to delays found it quicker to actually cut through Gravesend town centre. That was at 6.20am.

"Motorists are increasingly in that position — it's happening two or three times a week. Imagine that happening at 11am and the situation becomes far worse, it chokes the town."

He added: "What we need is a renaissance of public transport in north Kent. We need to be bigger than the bus and look at the whole picture.

"Commuters currently see public transport as a series of separate journeys but by improving access to the network and introducing new services they will begin to look at it as a big single trip."