Quality Line



Quality Line is the trading name of the bus division of Epsom Coaches, and operates over 60 buses throughout the South London and Surrey area, with many under contract to Transport for London or Surrey County Council. On 20 April 2012 it was announced that the Epsom Coaches Group will be taken over by the RATP Group. The company will operate as an independent division and the Epsom Coaches branding and Quality Line brand will continue.

History
In the mid-1980s Epsom Coaches took advantage of the deregulation of the bus industry, and initially began operating hopper type services around the Epsom area.

Since 1997, Epsom Buses have expanded into the London Bus market initially winning the tenders for routes S1 and 413. Other London tenders were successfully tendered for including route 293.

In 2003, Epsom Coaches decided to rebrand its bus division as Quality Line and repainted its vehicles from their traditional cream and brown into all over red to comply with Transport for London contractual requirenments.

From July 2006 with the introduction of routes E15 and E16, Quality Line began to return to operating outside of London with buses in their traditional cream and brown livery, however since the displacement of Alexander bodied Darts from route S1, buses outside of London have been appearing in red once again. In late 2012 out of London buses were starting to appear in all over cream with burgundy flashes.

Until May 2007 the whole fleet consisted of only single decker buses. Since June 2007 Quality Line have operated Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double-deck vehicles on routes 406 and 418. A number of single decker Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart were delivered at the same time.

Garage
Quality Line operates one garage.

Epsom (EB)
Epsom garage holds over 90 buses, and operates London bus routes 404, 406, 411, 418, 463, 465, 467, 470, 641, K5, S1, S3, S4 and X26. It also operates Surrey County Council routes 408 and E10, also commercial Epsom area routes E5, E9, and E16.

On 14 April 2012, Quality Line copmmenced operating route X26.

On 30 June 2012, Quality Line gained the contract for route 465.

On 12 October 2012, Quality Line took over the commercial operation of Surrey County Council route 479, from Countryliner, who had gone into administration earlier in the week. On 15 October a service registration by Sunray Travel was accepted by the regulator, while Quality Line's was not, so Quality Line ceased operating the route on 16 October 2012.

Bus types in use

 * Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart 8.9m (SD) for route S3
 * Alexander Dennis Enviro400 10.1m (DD) for routes 406, 418, 463 and 467
 * Dennis Dart SLF 8.8m / East Lancs Myllennium (SD) for route S3
 * Dennis Dart SLF 8.9m / East Lancs Esteem (SD) for route S4
 * Dennis Dart SLF 9.3m / East Lancs Esteem (SD) for route S1
 * Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro 12.0m (MCL) for route X26
 * Optare MetroCity 9.9m to be introduced on route S1 from 30th November 2013
 * Optare Solo 8.5m (OP) for routes 463, K5, S4 and SCC routes
 * Optare Solo SR 8.9m (OP) for route 404
 * Optare Solo SR 9.6m (OPL) for route 470
 * Optare Versa 11.1m (OV) for routes 411, 465 and 641