Celebrating a British icon 77
Romford in April 1971 but
continued to work through to
Wood Green on Sundays until
February 1973, while the 151
was withdrawn beyond Romford
in 1976 and by 1981 was
operating only between Basildon
and Canvey.
In 1981 Wood Green garage
closed and the 251 was converted
to driver-only operation and
revised to operate between
Walthamstow and Southend.
Falling passenger numbers saw
withdrawal of the route, by then
operated by First Thamesway, in
May 2001. Eastern National also
operated routes linking Romford
with Basildon and Canvey Island.
On the opposite side of London,
Thames Valley operated two
services linking Reading with
London, route A via Wokingham
and Staines and B via Slough.
These were renumbered 300 and
310 respectively in 1976 and,
following deregulation of long
distance services in 1980, were
relaunched as Londonlink. That
year also saw Reading Transport
and Southend Transport launch
a joint service linking the two
towns via London. By 1982 the
service was operated solely by
Reading Transport, running
only as far east as Aldgate, and it
ceased in 2000.
Independent operators provided
limited services including
Golden Miller, which operated
three services in the Feltham
area. One of these crossed the
GLC boundary to terminate in
Shepperton.Fares and frequencies
The GLC set fares and
frequencies within Greater
London for London Transport
and London Country services.
This meant that London Country
was effectively acting as a
contractor to London Transport.
For as long as bus services were
profitable (or at least covered
their costs) local authority
boundaries were of little real
importance.
As the need for subsidies
increased, councils started to
look more closely at the cost of
providing services and where
they went. Local government canbe very parochial and councils’
interests rarely extend beyond
their boundaries.
The issue of cross-border
services is probably most acute
in Surrey, the boundary of which
comes far closer to central
London than that of most of the
others. There is also the rather
anomalous ‘finger’ of Greater
London jutting into the county
at Chessington and the borough
of Spelthorne, which sits within
the historic county of Middlesex
but now forms part of Surrey,
isolated from the rest of the
county by the River Thames.
London Transport’s costs were
significantly higher than those
of its green neighbour and from
the mid-1970s an increasing
proportion of London Transport
routes was curtailed closer to
the GLC boundary, with London
Country providing some kind of
a replacement service.
An early example was the
withdrawal of the section of route
237 (then Hounslow-Chertsey)
beyond Lower Sunbury in 1978.
London Country’s replacement
service ran no farther into
London than Feltham. More
transfers followed in Banstead
and in April 1982 the long
established Central Area route 84
(Arnos Grove-St Albans) passed
to London Country.
While London Country was
the main beneficiary of such
transfers, smaller operators also
played a part. When LondonTransport withdrew routes 201
(Kingston-Hampton Court) and
215 (Hampton Court-Esher) in
1980, Chessington-based Mole
Valley Transport Service provided
the replacement services, their
frequency reduced significantly
to just a few services running six
days a week.Privatised London
Country
In preparation for the
privatisation of the National Bus
Company, London Country was
split into four operating units in
September 1986, named initially
London Country South West,
North West, North East and
South East.
Each was sold to a different
buyer, but most of them have
since come together again in
Arriva ownership. The exception
was the part of the North West
company serving Slough, which
passed through successive
owners to become part of
FirstGroup.
A critical change came in
October 1986 when local bus
services outside London — but
not inside the Greater London
area — were deregulated
and opened up to potential
competition.
This affected routes crossing
the border. Several were not
commercially viable and were
not registered by their respective
operators. The local authorities
then offered for competitiveBeyond London
ABOVE: Metroline
operates the
shortened former
red bus route 242
from its Potters
Bar garage on a
commercial basis,
with Alexander
Dennis Enviro200s
painted in this
blue, white and
red livery. The
vast majority of
Metroline’s buses
are all-red London
ones.