The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) was a pioneer in the field of excursions to the countryside at weekends before the First World War. It made sense to utilise the vehicles that would be otherwise idle - but soon, daily services were running from central London to destinations such as Westerham, Windsor, St.Albans, Wormley and Epping Forest, which were extremely remote from the bustle of London at the time. War-time shortage and requisition of transport put an end to the services, and they didn't resume until the turn of the decade. By 1930, over 30 daily services formed a radiating pattern to almost every principal town within a 30 mile radius of the Capital.
General didn't have it all to themselves, and a large number of competitive services began to clog the streets of central London. It seems incredible that buses alone could cause traffic congestion! The Metropolitan police were strict - and insisted on absolute control over service licensing in central London, but the 1924 London Traffic Act did not cover the outer London Traffic Area (up 25 miles radius from Charing Cross). The way was therefore open for coaches to operate as short-stage carriages into London from this area, and a large number of 'pirate' services started up at this time. Examples are:
The next step was the registration of Green Line Coaches Limited on 9th July 1930.
Within weeks, new services started running to Guildford, Brentwood, Sunningdale, Maidenhead,
Ascot, Tring, Welwyn and Harpenden. Many of these were operated by National and East Surrey
on their behalf - but branded Green Line. Many more were proposed but not implemented.
On Christmas Day the new coach station at Poland Street was opened to answer criticsm from the
police that excessive congestion was caused by coaches laying over in central London - also
remedied by linking pairs of routes into through services. 25 vehicles per hour were passing
through Poland Street at this time. There soon started a desperate race to
get services operating before the cut-off date of 9th February 1931 - after which the Traffic
Commissioners would grant a license only if a need for a service was demonstrated.
From February, the use of letters to distinguish coach routes started - carried on the route
boards and publicity material - often taking the initial letter of the destination, such as:
There now began a process whereby the competitors were systematically absorbed or driven off
the road - and thus companies such as Skylark, Bucks Expresses, Regent, Associated Coaches,
Blue Belle, Acme Pullman, Red Rover and Queen Line passed into oblivion or concentrated on
out-of-town business. In 1933, Green Line was itself absorbed - into the new London Passenger
Transport Board. Poland Street coach station was closed, and almost all routes were
re-organised into a newly-lettered, cross-London route structure. The new powers granted to the
LPTB were put to use in acquiring the businesses of Prices Super Coaches, Batten's Luxurious,
Premier Line, Hillman, Upminster, West London, Sunset Saloon, Strawhatter, Fleet Transport and,
finally, Tilbury Coaching. The remaining years to the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939 were taken
up with recasting the various competitive services into an efficient and carefully-timed network.
With the impending outbreak of War, all services were summarily withdrawn, and buses were
substituted on sections of route which thereby lost all service. The vehicles - all single-deck
coaches - were immediately converted to Ambulances by removing seats and installing stretcher
racks. They were positioned ready to evacuate hospitals in case of air-raids. History shows that
the raids did not come for nearly a year, and the folly of having such a huge fleet of vehicles
standing idle became apparent. When bombing began to disrupt rail transport more severly,
the flexible nature of the Green Line network became apparent. Slowly, services built up again,
often run by red buses! By September 1942, fuel and rubber shortages resulted in the suspension
of services once again, and many redundant vehicles went into the bus fleet. Others became mobile
canteens for the US Army abroad, and a dozen never returned.
When services resumed in February 1946, it was obvious that the pre-war system was not going to
be restored. Hitchin and Chertsey were linked for the first time, and services were numbered in
a new series from 700 upwards. By mid-summer, the new services were almost all running, and
carrying the new, yellow blind with black lettering. The network was carefully planned to
make the best use of the staff shift patterns, with one round, cross-London trip occupying a
full shift and including a meal break at the distant end. Loadings were quickly built
up, and soon pre-war ridership was restored, but on a vehicle mileage reduced by 20 percent -
showing the efficiency gains at work. Virtually all services were worked by single-deck vehicles
of Q, TF and 10T10 classes, with utility Daimler double-deckers quickly coming to the
high-frequency, short routes from the East-End into Essex. Services operated for many years with
almost no modification apart from attention to the fares tables in 1950 to harmonise the cost
of transport modes within Greater London. Passenger journeys rose from 25 million in 1947 to 30
million in 1952 - and later to a peak levels of 36 million in 1957, 59 aand 60. This was in
contrast to the central area where journeys peaked in 1951. New RT type vehicles displaced the
utility buses running from Romford garage on routes 721/22/26.
In 1951 (Festival of Britain year) the first
RF type coaches appeared, and 263 spread throughout
the network within 10 months (apart from the East-end) where they rapidly set new standards of
comfort and reliability. 1953 saw the introduction of the first 'orbital' route to the south of
London, where loadings quickly built up, as other transport modes did not provide this function.
The reshaping of services to serve the New Towns began in 1954. With the ending of fuel
rationing as a result of the Suez crisis, private motoring began to increase substantially.
From 1960, the story is a sad one of decline.
The first Routemaster coaches appeared in 1962, allocated to the New Town services 715/6/8/9/20.
Since the new coaches offered greater capacity, there were some reductions in frequency to match.
More Routemasters, of the stretched RCL class appeared in 1965. Sadly, neither did anything to
revive the network's flagging fortunes. The new, electric railway services to the East-End and
Euston marked a major change in the competitive environment. The eldely RF fleet was updated by
re-styling and refurbishing from 1965, and the first One-Man-Operated orbital service 724 was
introduced in 1966. The orbital routes were the most successful of the many experiments of these
years - 724 High Wycombe-Watford-Harlow-Romford, 725 Windsor-Kingston-Croydon-Gravesend,
727 Crawley-Gatwick Airport-Heathrow-Watford-Luton. Double-manning with conductors was
unsustainably expensive, and all the single-deck routes were converted by 1969, often with
reduced frequency as well. Not a move that attracted passengers - particularly as timekeeping
became worse with traffic congestion.
On 1st January 1970, Green Line passed with the country area buses to the National Bus Company.
There continued a spiral of decline in which conductors, vehicles and routes were pruned back
to the point where the remaining services were unattractive and unviable. New one-man
Reliance coaches replaced all the double-deckers from 1972,
and RF coaches were swept away by a tide of off-the-peg
Leyland Nationals.
These were replaced, in turn by 'proper' Reliance coaches from 1977 on
routes that returned to a radial pattern, which reduced the effect of congestion on timekeeping.
Harking back to the 'orbital' routes was the introduction of a number of fast JETLINK services
which provided useful transfer journeys. Emerging traffic centres such as Thorpe Park and Brent
Cross Shopping Centre were served by diversion from established routes. In addition, many
services were worked on a seasonal basis, for example to the South coast resorts. In 1979 the
last cross-London route finished
To finish on a political note, Green Line is a brand owned and operated by a group of
constituents of the internationally prominent ARRIVA company (previously Cowie). The only local
identity to avoid the otherwise all-encompassing turquoise livery, or London variant, is........
GREEN LINE. Go to the Green Line web pages and look
at the routes, timetables and tours. Let's look forward to a Centenary celebration, rather than
backwards to a less than happy Golden Jubilee.
In 1980, the market for coach services of over 30 miles was de-regulated, and Green Line was
able to extend its routes to logical termini in good traffic centres such as Cambridge,
Oxford, Northampton and Brighton. In addition, commuter journeys were encouraged by starting
early-morning services from edge-of-town locations and running via the motorway network to
central locations, avoiding tube transfer where possible. Airport links were developed into
an important network, with new routes established from Luton to London via Brent Cross (757),
Gatwick to Heathrow (747), Gatwick to Victoria (777) and Heathrow to Victoria (767).
Also, by association with other National Express operators, Green Line coaches could be found
in far-away places like Cardiff, Wolverhampton Manchester, and Southend. In 1989 a new company,
Speedlink Airport Services was established
(now renamed AirLink), which took over the Flightline
and Jetlink brands from the successors of London Country - although still within the same
holding group. Now the Speedlink services are owned by National Express.
It is sad to relate that the initiatives such as motorway routing have turned into a
disadvantage, now that the London motorway network has turned into a virtual car park at peak
hours. Surely, the answer lies in reducing the number of cars using what would otherwise be
an excellent network? London Transport has tried to axe the popular
Expresslink 726, remnant of the first orbital route, which is popular simply because it cuts
across other transport links and enables journeys that would otherwise involve several changes.
Fortunately, it survives, operated by Capital Logistics, but now only runs as far as Bromley.