Tigers spring into Green Line attack
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By Noel 'AiHier
LONDON Country's Green Line coach operation will enter the competitive market with "the vigour usually attributed to private operators," company chairman Derek Fytche pledged last week.
He was speaking at a ceremony to mark the handover by Leyland Bus of the 2,000th Tiger to enter service.
He described how the fortunes of the Green Line coach network had changed in the past seven years from a dying and dwindling network to a success story and he attributed some of this success to the deregulation of coach services in 1980.
The 2,000th Tiger is one of 35 currently being supplied to Green Line with Dutch-built high-specification high-floor Berkhof bodywork.
They will be used in such services as the Green Line Flightline and Jetlink services linking London's airports with Central London and linking Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
The National Bus Company is currently the operator of the largest fleet of Tigers in the world, with over 200 in Green Line service.
Its successful Jetlink service will be complemented by a new executive-style service being planned to operate between Gatwick and Heathrow in conjunction with British Caledonian and British Airways.
The proposed service will start once the M25 section between Heathrow and the M23 to Gatwick is completed. Toilet and hostess equipped coaches are expected to replace the present helicopter link.
Mr Fytche is also chairman of the National Bus Company's national products division which has just launched a new operation, Kent Crusader, to market a wide range of coach services in Kent.
Similar operations are run in London and Birmingham.