London Express commuter services 781 and 784
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Commuter services 781 and 784 are express coach services linking Maidstone to Central London. The services are currently operated by New Enterprise Coaches.
[edit] History
Commuter services from Maidstone began in the 1980s under the Invictaway banner - a trade name for Maidstone & District, then part of the National Bus Company. These services were originally numbered from 978 to 990 and linked towns as far as Tenterden to the Colonnades in Victoria. Over the years, the service had been scaled down due to lack of use, resulting in the Tenterden connection to be dropped.
In 1992, the Invictaway name was dropped from the coaches as they took on the more renowned Green Line name. Services from Maidstone were principally numbered from 980 to 985. Again, passenger numbers had gradually fallen, hence the services started to lose journeys and eventually lost the weekend service altogether.
In September 2004 the services were renumbered 780 to 785, after a call from Transport for London to bring the services in line with other express coaches from London which all have 7xx prefixes.
In August 2005, Green Line dropped the services as usage was down to its lowest for years. New Enterprise took over the commuter journeys on Services 781 and 784, running 5 coaches up from Maidstone and 6 back from London. The move seems to have improved the service as more passengers started to use the service, which prompted an additional journey up to London to be included in January 2006.
[edit] Current Operation
The London Express operates Mondays to Fridays. Mornings from Maidstone, and evenings from London.
There are currently 6 journeys each way. 4 journeys on service 781, running 20 mins between each other, and 2 journeys on service 784, running 40 mins between each other towards London. On journeys back to Maidstone, the first and last coaches cover both routes as service 781, 1 journey operates on 784, and 3 journeys operate on the normal 781 route, with 2 coaches serving the village of Loose.
