East Lancs Esteem at the Longcross bus rally in April 2007
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Parent | RATP Group |
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Founded | 1980 Spun off from Epsom Coaches |
Headquarters | Epsom |
Service area | Surrey and South West London |
Service type | Bus services |
Routes | 13 (London Buses) 5 (Non-London Buses) Total: 18 |
Destinations |
Cobham Epsom Kingston Dorking Sutton Morden |
Website | www.epsomcoaches.com |
Quality Line is the trading name of the bus division of Epsom Coaches, and operates over 60 buses throughout the South West London and Surrey area, with many under contract to Transport for London or Surrey County Council. On 20 April 2012 it was announced that the Epsom Coaches Group will be taken over by the RATP Group.
In the mid-1980s Epsom Coaches took advantage of the deregulation of the bus industry, and initially began operating hopper type services around the Epsom area.
Since 1997, Epsom Buses have expanded into the London Bus market initially winning the tenders for routes S1 and 413. Other London tenders were successfully tendered for including route 293.
In 2003, Epsom Coaches decided to rebrand its bus division as Quality Line and repainted its vehicles from their traditional cream and brown into all over red to comply with Transport for London contractual requirements.
From July 2006 with the introduction of routes E15 and E16, Quality Line began to return to operating outside London with buses in their traditional cream and brown livery, however since the displacement of Alexander bodied Darts from route S1, buses outside London have been appearing in red once again. In late 2012 out of London buses were starting to appear in all over cream with burgundy flashes.
Until May 2007 the whole fleet consisted of only single decker buses. Since June 2007 Quality Line have operated Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double-deck vehicles on routes 406 and 418. A number of single decker Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart were delivered at the same time.