mercedes benz citaro in ware in july 2010 parent arriva founded 9 july 1930 service area greater london home counties service type coach services hubs green line coach station operator arriva shires & essex first berkshire & the thames valley website www.greenline.co.uk green line is a commuter coach brand in the home counties of england . it is owned by arriva . green line has its origin in the network of coach services established by the london general omnibus company lgoc in the 1920s and 1930s . after world war ii the network was part of london transport executive london transport board and from 1970 to 1986 was operated by london country bus services . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 post war era 1.3 privatisation 2 current services 3 references 4 external links history edit preserved metro cammell bodied aec regal iv preserved aec routemasters leyland national on oxford street in june 1976 early history edit green line coaches limited was formed on 9 july 1930 by the lgoc which from 1927 had built up a network of coach services from london to towns up to 30 miles away comprising 60 vehicles on eight routes . these services were largely started in response to the emergence of numerous small independent operators often running single routes . as well as express services operated by lgoc some were run by subsidiary companies east surrey traction & autocar services and some on lgoc s behalf by the national omnibus & transport company . the green line livery and fleetname was rapidly rolled out across the existing express services . 1 2 new services rapidly followed with the number of routes increasing to 27 by october 1931 and the number of coaches to 275 . green line also began to acquire some of its independent competitors . the laying over of coaches in central london began to create congestion . in order to relieve this some routes were linked to form cross london services and a short lived coach station was opened in poland street soho at the end of 1930 . 1 2 on 1 july 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 . various vehicles of numerous different types were inherited and much effort was made in replacing these with a standardised fleet of vehicles from late 1936 . poland street coach station was closed and almost all routes were linked to cross london . 1 3 post war era edit services were suspended during world war ii resuming in february 1946 . more services were added 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 1962 aec routemaster double deck coaches were introduced on some routes notably route 721 which ran every 12 minutes at peak times and route 704 conveying tourists to windsor and royal tunbridge wells . 4 5 6 7 orbital coach routes commenced 8 724 from high wycombe around the north of london to romford 725 from windsor around the south of london to gravesend 727 from crawley around the west of london to luton in 1970 control of green line passed from london transport to london country bus services part of the state owned national bus company . patronage continued to decline partly as a result of increasing car use and quicker parallel rail services and the last cross london routes ceased in 1979 . 1 green line through staines in the 1970s . the transport act 1980 deregulated coach services 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 also commenced 747 heathrow airport to gatwick airport 757 london green line coach station to luton airport 767 london green line coach station to heathrow airport 777 london green line coach station to gatwick airport by this time the orbital services 724 and 726 a variant of the 725 had been revised to serve heathrow . 8 green line also became a national express operator . privatisation edit in 1986 london country was divided into four operating companies to prepare for privatisation . 9 they were sold separately and ownership of the green line network became fragmented only a few routes survived . the airport services passed to jetlink and are now operated by national express . the orbital route 726 was taken over by london regional transport in a reduced form and in april 2005 was renumbered london buses route x26 . 10 by the mid 1990s arriva had become the owner of most of the london country successor companies and became the owner of the green line brand . it licensed the brand to other operators first berkshire & the thames valley 700 701 and 702 new enterprise coaches routes 781 and 784 from 2005 to 2009 and stephensons of essex routes x1 and x10 from 2002 until 2008 . following closure of their bracknell depot in 2015 first berkshire services were revised and routes 700 & 701 were discontinued . current services edit first berkshire & the thames valley 702 bracknell legoland windsor and slough to london green line coach station 11 arriva shires & essex 724 heathrow airport to harlow via st albans 12 755 757 luton and luton airport to london green line coach station 13 758 hemel hempstead to london green line coach station 14 references edit a b c d history green line coach services a b jones dwk ; davis bj 1980 . green line 1930 1980 . reigate london country bus services . pp. 4 17 . isbn 978 0 905009 02 5 . jones dwk ; davis bj 1980 . green line 1930 1980 . reigate london country bus services . pp. 22 35 . isbn 978 0 905009 02 5 . the coach rms country bus the long coaches country bus routemaster double deck coaches for green line routes commercial motor 29 june 1962 larger routemaster coaches for green line commercial motor 30 october 1964 a b green line coach routes 724 799 e plates out on its own commercial motor 6 december 1986 page 54 slow death of a green line orbital buses issue 603 june 2005 page 19 route 702 timetable greenline route 724 timetable greenline routes 755 & 757 timetable greenline route 758 timetable greenline external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to green line london coach network . green line coaches v t e arriva group uk uk bus arriva london arriva midlands arriva derby arriva fox county arriva midlands north arriva north east arriva north west arriva buses wales arriva shires & essex arriva southern counties arriva guildford & west surrey arriva southend fastrack new enterprise coaches arriva yorkshire green line coaches tellings golden miller network colchester the heritage fleet yorkshire tiger tiger blue bus brands arriva max arriva sapphire uk trains arriva traincare arriva trains wales crosscountry chiltern railways grand central london overground rail operations 50 % northern former divisions arriva scotland west arriva trains merseyside arriva trains northern arriva north west & wales arriva northumbria british bus london & country londonlinks maidstone & district motor services north western road car company stevensons of uttoxeter glasgow flyer grey green the original tour wardle transport wrexham & shropshire future divisions arriva rail london from november 2016 v t e green line coaches routes uno 797 new enterprise coaches 781 and 784 past routes first berkshire & the thames valley 700 701 and 702 stephensons of essex x1 and x10 past routes not run with green line liveried coaches but still part of the green line network retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title green line coaches & oldid 742607269 categories arriva group bus operators in englandbus transport brandscoach operators in englandhidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more 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