Arriva The Shires has announced that it intends to cease operating Green Line services between Hemel Hempstead and London Victoria, with last day of service being 4 December.
Arriva says that prior to Covid-19, service 758 was already experiencing a decline in passengers numbers, leading to the service being operated from its Luton depot. Whilst this operational move did help with ensuring all 758 services operated as per the advertised timetable, passenger numbers still remained low. Despite this, Arriva says it remained committed to delivering services throughout the pandemic, maintaining a minimum level of service to enable key workers to travel to and from London/Hemel Hempstead.
Linsey Frostick, Luton Depot General Manager, said: “I recently asked for feedback on the service with a view of trying to get things to improve, unfortunately, over recent weeks we have not seen a rise in passenger numbers and at the current levels the service is not sustainable. We would like to thank all our loyal and long serving customers for their custom over the years and want to convey that this is an extremely difficult decision for us to have made.”
This latest revision to the Green Line network, that used to operate a vast network of coach service radiating from London Victoria to surrounding counties, means that it is now down to eight routes:
- Reading Buses-operated 701 from London Victoria to Windsor and Legoland, 702 from Reading, Bracknell, Windsor and Slough to London Victoria and 703 from Bracknell and Slough to Heathrow Airport, operated with Green Line-branded Alexander Dennis Enviro400MMCs and a Green Line-livered Enviro400 City;
- Arriva Kent Thameside 724 from Harlow, Hertford, St.Albans and Watford to London Heathrow Airport, which is operated with 2017 Arriva-livered Alexander Dennis Enviro200MMCs
- Arriva The Shires-operated 755/7 from Luton and Luton Aiport to London Victoria, operated with recent Mercedes-Benz Tourismos.
2020 was the 90th anniversary of the iconic Green Line brand, which saw Arriva’s 2020 intake of coaches – originally intended to launch a new London to Stansted Airport service just as the pandemic hit – feature Green Line 90th anniversary branding.
