Green Line Coaches

Arriva Shires & Essex 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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Orbital coach routes commenced: