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Green Line is a commuter coach brand in the Home Counties of England. It is owned by the Arriva group.
Green Line has its origin in the network of coach services established by the London General Omnibus Company in the 1920s and 1930s. After the war, the network was part of London Transport Executive/London Transport Board, and from 1970 to 1986, it was operated by London Country Bus Services.
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History
Early history
Green Line Coaches was formed in 1930 by the London General Omnibus Company, which had already built up a network of coach services from London to towns up to 30 miles away. New services rapidly followed, and laying over of coaches in central London began to create congestion. To relieve congestion, some routes were linked to form cross-London services, and a coach station was opened in Poland Street at the end of 1930. In 1933 Green Line passed to the new London Passenger Transport Board, and competing services within the London Passenger Transport Area were absorbed into the network. Poland Street coach station was closed, and almost all routes were linked to cross London.
Post-war era
Services were suspended in the Second World War, and resumed in 1946. More services were started, and the routes were given numbers in the 700 series. Ridership increased to a peak of 36 million passenger journeys a year between 1957 and 1960. In the 1960s, Routemaster coaches were introduced on some routes, and orbital routes were started: the 724 from High Wycombe around the north of London to Romford, the 725 from Windsor around the south of London to Gravesend and the 727 from Crawley around the west of London to Luton.
In 1969, control of Green Line passed from London Transport to London Country Bus Services, which became part of the National Bus Company in 1970. Usage continued to decline, and the last cross-London routes ceased in 1979.
In 1980, the market for coach services was deregulated, and Green Line was able to expand services beyond its traditional area, to Cambridge (route 797), Oxford (routes 290 and 790, in conjunction with the Oxford Bus Company), Northampton and Brighton. New airport services were started, between Heathrow and Gatwick (route 747) and from London to Luton Airport (route 757), Heathrow (route 767) and Gatwick (route 777). By this time the orbital services 724 and 726 (a variant of the 725) had also been revised to serve Heathrow[1]. Green Line also became a National Express operator.
Privatisation
In 1986 London Country was divided into four operating companies to prepare for privatisation. The four companies were sold separately, and ownership of the Green Line network was therefore fragmented. Only a few routes survived. The orbital route 726 was taken over by London Regional Transport in a reduced form and eventually became London Buses route X26[2]. Arriva, which after a few years became the owner of most of the London Country successor companies, became the owner of the Green Line brand. Arriva also licensed the brand to several other operators, First Berkshire & Thames Valley (routes 700, 701 and 702), New Enterprise Coaches (routes 781 and 784 from 2005 to 2009) and Stephensons of Essex (routes X1, X10 from 2002 to 2008).
Current services
- 700, 701, 702: Bracknell, Windsor and Slough - London - Run by First Berkshire & The Thames Valley
- 712: St Albans - London
- 724: Heathrow Airport - St Albans - Harlow
- 757: Luton and Luton Airport - London
- 758: Hemel Hempstead - London
- 797: Hatfield and Stevenage - London
Many services have variations with different route numbers of local services linking to the main terminus of a route.
Gallery
 Green Line airport branded coach in Finchley Road, London |
 Green Line livery for Maidstone, eventually dropped for New Enterprise Coaches white |
 This is the old Greenline logo, still used in some places |
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 A preserved historic Green Line bus, which ran when the network was bigger |
 A London Transport Green Line liveried preserved Routemaster |
 An NBC Green Line liveried cross London Leyland National |
 An intermediate Green Line identity used for Kent services, applied to former Invictaway and Kentish Bus services. |
See also
References
- ^ London Transport E plates website
- ^ History of route X26 by Robert Munster
External links
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