A special page to report developments on the Luton Airport - London Victoria link
Visit the "OXFORD & CHILTERN BUS PAGE " Current archives from October 2002
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advise of any mid-week news please let me know
malcolmhc@aol.com
Changes to services between Luton Airport and
London from May 1st.
In the past few months I have been aware of some changes to services between
Luton Airport and London and quite some time before matters became more
public, I was wondering what would happen.
The history of the service is very interesting and goes back to 1967 when
Green Line route 727 running between Crawley and Luton was extended to serve
the airport from March 20th 1971.
At this time Luton Airport was only a shadow of its present busy stage. I
remember flying from Luton to Portugal in 1973, parking my car in a parking
area in front of a much smaller terminal and coming back two days later and
retrieving my car for a very modest cost!!
It was in January 1977 that new routes 707/717, to London Victoria, saw the
introduction of the RS class of AEC coaches from the 29th of that
month.
The express 757 service via the M1 began on November 1st 1980. In
the beginning this only operated Monday to Saturday with the frequency
doubled plus a Sunday service all introduced in January 1982.
A limited night service was added around March 1985, required as the airport
expanded and service grew. With additional 757 services the need for the
707/717 services was unnecessary and they ceased.
The 757 service grew and expanded with the carriage of passengers from
National Express, Terravision, easyBus and Wizz air.
Of course the airlines have a major effect on the numbers carried on
existing services as carriers such as easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz air all sell
tickets for the coach services on their aircraft. The passengers so caught
are a captive market whilst on the aircraft.
The long and the short of it
is
that Luton Airport has granted the concession to serve the airport to
National Express but Lothian Buses did challenge a similar ruling by Edinburgh Airport in 2011, and the
court overturned the restriction which gave exclusive access rights to one
firm.
Indeed the next few weeks should see some interesting developments,
Mike Penn has provided us with an insight into the development of the 757
which I think makes very interesting reading!!
greenline no longer serving Luton Airport after nearly 33 years by Mike
Penn.
I’ve done a little bit of digging and what I have found out so far
is that the 757 started on November 1st 1980 run by London Country from St
Albans garage with RB class AEC Reliances. After the split in
September 1986 it became London Country North East.
Because of a strike by LCNE drivers Luton & District started a new express
service between Luton and London numbered 575 on January 30th 1988.
After the strike this was suspended but L & D filled in for any LCNE
757 journeys that failed to operate and a formal joint operation started on
February 20th 1988 at which time LCNE reduced their operation by half.
LCNE then pulled out completely on June 11th 1988. Luton & District
became LDT in May 1995 and then Arriva The Shires in April 1998.
This information comes from the LOTS London Bus Reviews of 1980 and
1988.
I have now sorted out some photos of coaches on the 757 . It
has come to a total of 51! I hope that’s not too many but that’s only
one and a half per year! There have been five generations of new
vehicles bought by Luton & District/LDT/Arriva the Shires plus a number of
vehicles inherited from United Counties, Sovereign and London Country North
West, not forgetting numerous other secondhand vehicles. There have
been various other vehicles hired over the years and a lot of livery
variations.
London Country Duple bodied AEC Reliance RB129 (EPM 129V) was one of the coaches painted into this livery to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Green Line in 1980.
It is seen at Hyde Park Corner in July 1981.
London Country ECW bodied Leyland Tiger TL3 (TPC 103X), with Flightline 757 lettering, is seen in Luton in April 1984.
This was later transferred to Midland Red (North) and rebodied by East Lancs.
London Country LRC9 (B109 LPH) was one of a number of ECW coach bodied Leyland Olympians allocated to the 757 route from 1985.
It was photographed passing the United Counties garage in Castle Street, Luton in October 1985.
London Country TL27 (WPH 127Y) was another of the ECW bodied Leyland Tigers allocated to the route but at this time lacking the Flightline 757 lettering.
It is seen in Luton in March 1986.
London Country Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger TP64 (B264 KPF) with the added yellow in the livery is seen entering Luton bus station in June 1986.
_B107LPH.JPG)
In September 1986 London Country was split into four parts so when this
photograph was taken in October 1986.
ECW bodied Leyland Olympian LRC7 (B107
LPH) was working for London Country North East.
This was the vehicle that was deroofed under a railway bridge in
Luton when brand new in April 1985.
_B263KPF.JPG)
_YPD116Y.JPG)
London Country North East Duple bodied Leyland Tiger TD16 (YPD 116Y) is seen entering Luton Bus station in Luton in May 1987.
_B264KPF.JPG)
London Country North East Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger TP64 (B264 KPF) with the added yellow in the livery is seen in Luton bus station in May 1987.
At this time some vehicles on the route did a double run; i.e. London to Luton and then back to St Albans garage as can be seen on the blind display.
Luton & District 108 (B500 TCJ) was a Duple Caribbean bodied Leyland Tiger which was acquired from Cheltenham & Gloucester in September 1987.
It was photographed entering Luton bus station in May 1988 during the short period that the 757 was run jointly by Luton & District and London Country North East.
Three of them entered service in all over white livery as seen here. 113 (E663 AWJ) was photographed entering Luton bus station in June 1988.
The remaining two new coaches were in fleet livery from the start. 110 (E882 YKY) is seen here on the same day in June 1988.
From the start of operations on the 757 Luton & District used a wide selection of vehicles.
101 (NBD 101Y) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger new to United Counties which came into the Luton & District fleet at its formation in January 1986.
It was photographed in Luton bus station in August 1988. It still wears National Express livery although Luton & District had pulled out of National Express operation by then.
B125 KPF was a Berkhof bodied Leyland Tiger, one of three hired to Luton & District from Kentish Bus & Coach for a number of months in 1989.
It was photographed in Luton bus station in July of that year.
Luton & District 100 (81 CBK) was one of three high specification Plaxton bodied Leyland Tigers bought new by United Counties in 1984, all having cherished registration numbers.
The lack of destination equipment meant that it was not ideally suited to the 757 route, the sheet of paper with 757 on it being almost invisible.
It was photographed at Park Square, Luton in March 1990.
Luton & District 107 (NBD 107Y) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger new to United Counties. It was photographed in Luton bus station in June 1990.
Luton & District 170 (CNH 170X) was one of three ECW bodied Leyland Leopard coaches transferred from United Counties in January 1986.
It was photographed in Luton in July 1990.
Luton & District 124 (C207 PPE) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from London Country North West in October 1990.
It is seen in Luton bus station in May 1991.
Luton & District 134 (A145 EPA) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from London Country North West in October 1990.
It is seen rounding Hyde Park Corner in June 1991.
Luton & District 119 (C249 SPC) was a Duple bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from Sovereign Bus & Coach in May 1990.
It is seen rounding Hyde Park Corner in June 1991.
Luton & District 132 (B291 KPF) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from London Country North West in October 1990
and was in the short lived London Express livery. It is seen rounding Hyde Park Corner in June 1991.
Luton & District 111 (E661 AWJ) was one of those Plaxton bodied Leyland Tigers which originally entered service in all white livery.
It was photographed in Luton bus station in July 1991 by which time it had been repainted into fleet livery.
Luton & District 125 (B287 KPF) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from London Country North West in October 1990.
It was previously been in the short lived London Express livery but by the time of this photograph in July 1991 the vinyls had been removed.
Luton & District 127 (E325 OMG ) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from London Country North West in October 1990.
It was photographed entering Luton bus station in August 1991.
Luton & District 191 (SMY 630X) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that was new to National Travel (London)
but later transferred to London Country North West from whom it was acquired in October 1990.
It was photographed at Park Square, Luton in April 1993.
Luton & District 147 (A147 EPA) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from London Country North West in October 1990.
It is seen rounding Hyde Park Corner in March 1994, the Red Rover fleet name being somewhat irrelevant for the 757 route.
Luton & District 112 (E662 AWJ) was one of those Plaxton bodied Leyland Tigers which originally entered service in all white livery.
It was photographed at Park Square, Luton in May 1995 shortly after being repainted into the new style green line livery.
LDT 194 (HIL 7594) was one of a number of Plaxton bodied Volvo B10M coaches acquired from Moordale Coaches of Newcastle
but was new to Smiths Shearings as E662 UNE. It was photographed in Luton bus station in August 1995.
LDT 109 (E881 YKY) was one of those Plaxton bodied Leyland Tigers purchased new for the 757 service in 1988. It was photographed at Hyde Park Corner in March 1996.
LDT 192 (GIL 6253) was one of a number of Plaxton bodied Volvo B10M coaches acquired from Moordale Coaches of Newcastle
but was new to Wallace Arnold Tours as D209 LWX. It was photographed in Luton bus station in April 1996.
LDT 4016 (SIB 4846) was a Plaxton bodied Leyland Tiger that had been transferred from London Country North West in October 1990.
It was re-registered from E321 OMG and painted into Chiltern European livery in 1993 but that venture was relatively short lived and it then received Green Line livery.
It was photographed at Hyde Park Corner in August 1997.
LDT 4055 (R455 SKX) was one of a batch of ten DAF SB3000s with Plaxton bodies bought new for the 757 service in late 1997.
It was photographed in Luton in March 1998.
K539 RJX was one of a number of DAF/Van Hool coaches hired by Arriva The Shires for a number of months
for enhanced services on the 757 pending delivery of new coaches. It was photographed in Luton in March 2000.
K534 RJX was another of the hired coaches photographed at Park Square, Luton in March 2000.
Arriva The Shires Wright Renown bodied Volvo B10BLE 3263 (V263 HBH), more used to trundling between Luton and Dunstable on the 31.
It is seen at Hyde Park Corner in April 2002.
It was photographed at Hyde Park Corner in June 2005.
Despite the 755 sign in the windscreen it would have been on the 757 in the middle of the day.
When photographed at Hyde Park Corner in July 2006 it had been partially repainted into the new Green Line livery.
4065 (YJ 55 WSW) was photographed in Luton in September 2006.
used by Arriva The Shires were repainted into “easyBus” livery. 4054 (R454 SKX) was photographed at Hyde Park Corner in July 2008.
Another repaint into “easyBus” livery was 4365 (W365 XKX), also seen at Hyde Park Corner in July 2008.
Another coach hired was YJ 57 BTU, a Van Hool bodied VDL SB4000. This coach was hired to cover for a 55 plate which had a serious accident on the M1.
It was photographed at Luton Airport in October 2008.
and was photographed at Hyde Park Corner in August 2009.
4386 (YJ 58 FFW) was photographed in Luton in February 2012.
4200 (FJ 08 KMF) was photographed in Luton in June 2012.
On
Friday 26 April
There is also a lot of discussion here:
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81380
in which there is a suggestion that Arriva might be
taking legal action against the Airport. It is strange that with four
days to go Arriva have still not made any application to VOSA to vary or
cancel the service. In any case the press release by National Express
about taking over the service occurred less than the required 56 days before
the target date which presumably put Arriva in a difficult situation to
start with."
The next few days could be very interesting.
In addition to the excellent article above from Mike Penn, a number of other readers have also contributed and their results are shown below.
Neil Gow writes "Here are two pics of coaches working the 757 from old London Country Greenline days. First is ECW B51 bodied Leyland Tiger TL6 seen at Ecclestone Place when just two weeks old in July 1982. The second is of ECW coach bodied Leyland Olympian LRC10 seen at speed on the M1 near Leverstock Green in April 1985.
These fine coaches were used pm Speedlink services between Heathrow and
Gatwick and this one spent some time on the 757.
For a period between 2002 and 2008 service buses based at Luton often
appeared on the 757 to aid capacity, a far cry from their usual routes.
This coach also pictured by Mike Penn spent some years on the 757, seen here
in May 2006.
4359 was once the pride of the 757 fleet and in its twilight years can be
seen on London routes from Hemel.
The first wheelchair accessible coaches were cascaded to the 797 after
service on the 757 for a number of years.
4069 is seen passing Marble Arch on April 25th inst.
As shown by Mike Penn above two of the earlier DAF coaches were used on the
757 in full easyBus livery for a period in 2008.
These were notionally replaced by one of the new Acrons in full easyBus
livery when new.
4387 was the only 09 plate of this batch of 16 coaches delivered in 2009.
Repainting of these coaches took place in 2010/11 and they have operated in
the past two years in the livery seen above.
All pictures were taken by Gavin on April 25th 2013 at Marble Arch.
The fourth picture above shows 4387 as it is today, also of note is that
some services only serve Luton Airport.
In the 2012 two tri-axle Levantes from Arriva in the North East were
cascaded on to the 757 and 4201 is shown before the vinyl's were applied.
These two coaches were off the road during last winter but have now returned
to service.
They started work on the 757 in the spring of 2012.
All change
National Express have been very busy installing new branding at Luton
Airport and these pictures were taken on April 24th.
Notably in the first picture they are telling passengers that London
services leave from stand 10!!
The new order for service A1 due to start on May 1st are a fleet of 22
Levante coaches one of which is shown on route training at Marble Arch on
the 25th April.
Flash branding as applied to other NEx services is applied to the rear.
And so a new chapter starts on services between Luton Airport and London Victoria. I understand that Terravision, easyBus, Ryanair and Wizz air tickets on the aircraft are being sold by National Express. From May 1st these tickets will switch from the 757 to the NEx A1.
Some staff from Green Line have moved to National Express at Luton Airport but Green Line staff in London remain and their 757 service is understood to be continuing to Luton town with further developments in the pipeline.
The web site below will keep readers up to date.
http://www.greenline.co.uk/757change/
Malcolm Crowe - Editor - OCBP - 29th April 2013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When readers take copies of pictures from the OCBP site
Some of the contributors to this site have noticed that their pictures are appearing on e-bay sites selling such things.
Needless to say this is a theft of copyright and one which I deplore!
I would not wish to have to watermark photographs, thereby making them unsalable as such but if this practice continues I shall be left with no alternative. I am sure this would detract from the pleasure so many of you get from the OCBP.
May I please ask readers to do two things?
1/ If you see any photos on sale please let me know and where they are appearing.
2/ If you are someone who has copied and sold photos please desist as this is theft and I will have to take legal action against anyone found doing so.
The site is free to all readers and I pay a price to publish the pages which is not passed on.
Please respect those freedoms and I hope I may not have to mention this matter again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The level of contribution to this page by readers, as ever, remains excellent! Thank you all.
Malcolm Crowe - Editor - OCBP - 29th April 2013
Links & Publications
Mike Penn's interesting web site for pictures
You might be interested to know that I have now uploaded 268 photos taken in
Beds, Bucks and Herts in the year 2000 to my website -
http://166emj.piwigo.com/index?/category/50-beds_bucks_and_herts_photographs_2000
One of the
major events of the year was the purchase by Arriva the Shires of the City
of Oxford operation in High Wycombe on December 13th. Two days later, as can
be seen from the photographs, vehicles had received Arriva The Shires fleet
names and legal lettering but retained their Oxford fleet numbers.
The other
major event was the enforced sale of the Lutonian operation by Arriva the
Shires.
Both Arriva
The Shires and Arriva East Herts & Essex continued to repaint vehicles into
Arriva livery though there were still many in previous liveries.
Elsewhere in
the region M K Metro continued their policy of purchasing various
interesting secondhand vehicles. Some of these came from Border Buses – the
company in Lancashire that M K Metro had bought.
Buffalo
Travel continued to run but Seamarks were taken over by Dunn-Line early in
the year.
Many other
independents are also represented.
Mike Penn
Todays buses - Oxfordshire
This review covers the
September 2010 video by Robin Clare
Transport. The issue costs £10 and is well worth this small cost for
over one hour of buses and coaches in our area.
THE FINAL
VOLUME IS
SO
RETAIL
PRICE £25
ORDER NOW
FOR £20+ £3
p&p
This final installment of the
4-volume 800-page history of the Thames Valley Traction Co. Ltd. brings the
story to its conclusion on the last day of 1971.
All route developments and changes
to the fleet are fully detailed, along with special appendices for the
service vehicle fleet, garages and out-stations, a route map, garage
allocations and working arrangements.
Profusely illustrated with 548
monochrome half-tone illustrations and a full-colour section of 45 photos,
this provides a very comprehensive history of this interesting decade,
including the numerous secondhand vehicles acquired during those years.
Demand will be high, so
order now from: Paul Lacey, 17
Sparrow Close
Woosehill, Wokingham, Berkshire,
RG41 3HT
If you are local and wish to
collect please call me on 0118 979 4097
A Guy Arab on the Oxford service and seen at Gloucester Green.
One of the constituent companies was Denham's.
Apart from the archaic Leylands, the company ran some AEC Regals after the
war.
These were rebodied with ECOC/ECW bodies purchased from North Western Road
Car, Stockport via dealers.
They had been new in 1936 on Bristol Jo5G chassis which were rebodied with
Brush bodies in 1946 to a similar design.
Your Editor must have travelled on one of these buses, when in NWRCC
service, as a small boy.
They would have doubtless run on service to Highclere, now well known as the
house is featured in Downton Abbey.
17 Sparrow Close
Woosehill
Wokingham
Berkshire RG41 3HT.