A fresh Insight
For its Green Line and other express services, London Country turned to the Leyland Tiger from 1982, a much-improved vehicle compared with the outmoded Leyland Leopard. Bodybuilders for each annual batch of leased vehicles moved from Eastern Coachworks (the unhappy B51 design), Duple and Plaxton. For the 1984/85 input, a more radical choice was made, in the form of the Dutch coachbuilder, Berkhof, who supplied 25 vehicles with the high-floor Everest 370 style. They offered enhanced luggage capacity, valuable for the airport services that Green Line was embracing, and the vehicles were also suitable for the tourist coach contracts that LCBS had won. The coaches thus bore a variety of liveries.
Seen here on Eccleston Bridge, Victoria is BTL25 (B125KPF), the highest-numbered of the 1984/85 batch, carrying Insight International colours and with a DG garage code in the nearside windscreen to denote its allocation to Dunton Green, near Sevenoaks. When LCBS was split up into smaller business units prior to privatisation, BTL25 remained in Kent, becoming part of the Kentish Bus fleet in 1987. After being transferred to the associated Northumbria fleet in 1991, BTL25 spent its later years in the Republic of Ireland, registered 83-CW-494 and achieving a service life of over 20 years.
LCBS was clearly satisfied with its first foray into Continental-built coachwork, as it commissioned Berkhof with a repeat order for 1985/86. The later vehicles comprised BTL26-53. Sadly, other British coach operators were reaching similar conclusions during the 1980s: Berkhof, Van Hool, Jonckheere and Caetano all built up significant market share because of the perceived quality failings of the established British coachbuilders. Duple exited the market soon afterwards.
July 1985
Rollei 35 camera
Kodak Ektachrome 100 film.
A fresh Insight
For its Green Line and other express services, London Country turned to the Leyland Tiger from 1982, a much-improved vehicle compared with the outmoded Leyland Leopard. Bodybuilders for each annual batch of leased vehicles moved from Eastern Coachworks (the unhappy B51 design), Duple and Plaxton. For the 1984/85 input, a more radical choice was made, in the form of the Dutch coachbuilder, Berkhof, who supplied 25 vehicles with the high-floor Everest 370 style. They offered enhanced luggage capacity, valuable for the airport services that Green Line was embracing, and the vehicles were also suitable for the tourist coach contracts that LCBS had won. The coaches thus bore a variety of liveries.
Seen here on Eccleston Bridge, Victoria is BTL25 (B125KPF), the highest-numbered of the 1984/85 batch, carrying Insight International colours and with a DG garage code in the nearside windscreen to denote its allocation to Dunton Green, near Sevenoaks. When LCBS was split up into smaller business units prior to privatisation, BTL25 remained in Kent, becoming part of the Kentish Bus fleet in 1987. After being transferred to the associated Northumbria fleet in 1991, BTL25 spent its later years in the Republic of Ireland, registered 83-CW-494 and achieving a service life of over 20 years.
LCBS was clearly satisfied with its first foray into Continental-built coachwork, as it commissioned Berkhof with a repeat order for 1985/86. The later vehicles comprised BTL26-53. Sadly, other British coach operators were reaching similar conclusions during the 1980s: Berkhof, Van Hool, Jonckheere and Caetano all built up significant market share because of the perceived quality failings of the established British coachbuilders. Duple exited the market soon afterwards.
July 1985
Rollei 35 camera
Kodak Ektachrome 100 film.