Celebrating a British icon 79
aspiration that no-one in Greater
London is more than 400m
from a bus stop means that the
London bus network now covers
more of Greater London than
ever before.
The low level of bus fares in
London means that non-TfL
services struggle to attract
passengers on stretches of road
in Greater London that they
share with TfL routes. The costs
of meeting requirements of the
low emission zone have also
affected the viability of services
that are, at best, commercially
marginal.
Consequently, many long
established routes have been
curtailed short of the boundary.
For example, route 310 used to
link Hertford and Enfield but
since October 2006 has not run
south of Waltham Cross. The
348, which linked Watford and
Uxbridge, has been cut back to
Northwood, just inside Greater
London, and has been numbered
8 since 2000. The section on to
Uxbridge is now largely covered
by TfL route 331.
Others have been withdrawn
altogether, although in some
cases TfL has stepped in andinvited tenders for the service,
although many sections of
route outside London have
been curtailed. When route 405
(Croydon-Crawley) became part
of the London bus network in
2001, the section south of Redhill
was dropped. When the 216 was
threatened with withdrawal in
2002, TfL brought it within the
London bus network.
Some routes that have come
within the TfL network have had
their routes altered to reflect
modern needs, for example route
370 now links Romford with the
Lakeside shopping centre and no
longer services Tilbury, while two
TfL routes serve the Bluewater
centre in Kent.The near death of
Green Line
Perhaps the biggest change to
cross-border services has affected
the Green Line network, where
increased traffic congestion and
reduced passenger numbers
mean that little is left of the
routes that London Country
inherited in 1970.
The Green Line brand is now
owned by Arriva, which provides
two services from Victoria toLuton Airport (755 and 757) and
one to Hemel Hempstead (758),
while Reading Buses — owned
by Reading Council — runs
routes 702 (Victoria-Legoland-
Bracknell/Windsor) and 703
(Heathrow Terminal 5-Bracknell).
Arriva also continues to operate
route 724, linking Heathrow
and Harlow via Stansted Airport,
although this is no longer
branded as a Green Line service.
Transport for London’s route
X26 (Heathrow-Croydon) —
described on p110 — provides a
reminder of Green Line routes
725 and 726, which linked
Windsor with Croydon and
Gravesend, although now run
entirely within Greater London.
One area that has seen a large
increase in service provision
is Heathrow Airport, which in
1970 was served only by London
Transport local buses and Green
Line coach 727 (Crawley-Luton),
introduced in 1967.
Alder Valley, formed by merging
Thames Valley and Aldershot &
District, rerouted its Reading-
London service via the airport
in 1976, and in 1977 extended
a service from Basingstoke into
the airport. In 1983, LondonBeyond London
ABOVE: Although
Arriva continues to
operate route 724
linking Heathrow
and Stansted
airports with
Harlow and many
population centres
and transport
interchanges in
between, it has
ceased using the
Green Line livery
applied to this
Mercedes-Benz
Citaro that was
new in 2006.