Invictaway was an express commuter coach service from Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in the 1980s and 1990s, and was also a holding company for the emerging Arriva

Arriva

Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...

 group. As a legal entity of the Maidstone & District bus company, after the cessation of the Invictaway coach services, the Invictaway company legal lettering persisted as a holding company for the Arriva subsidiaries in Kent, and some London operations. This company was based in the Armstrong Road M&D depot in Maidstone. This ceased in 1997 when the operations were reconstituted as Arriva London

Arriva London

Arriva London is a division of Arriva which operates bus services in London, UK. It is made up of many previous bus operators including previously independent Grey Green...

 and Arriva Southern Counties

Arriva Southern Counties

Arriva Southern Counties is a bus operator in London, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent and Essex in England. It is a regional division of Arriva.- History :...

.

History

The Invictaway brand was introduced in the early 1980s for the M&D Maidstone and Medway to London routes numbered in the 9XX range, and the Gatwick service 900, along with a black livery. The Invictaway liveries all included the White horse of Kent

White horse of Kent

The White horse of Kent, or the White Horse Rampant, is a symbol of Kent, a county in South East England.The figure of the prancing white horse can also be referred to as Invicta, which is the motto of Kent.-Origin:...

, as a visual link to the county of Kent, the operating area of the services.

The black livery was applied to Leyland Leopards and Leyland Atlantean double deckers. A 919 coach route between London and Tenterden using dual purpose Leyland Leopards had existed since 1979, although this was not branded Invictaway.

The Invictaway branding was applied to the exterior and interior of vehicles.

The Invictaway livery's base colour was changed to a green based livery, based on the National Bus Company's coach livery, and the Invictaway names were reduced in size. Later, with the privatisation of the NBC, the Invictaway livery was retained, with the NBC chevrons removed.

In 1992 the green livery was simplified, with the introduction of some double deck coaches, long wheelbase Leyland Olympian

Leyland Olympian

The Leyland Olympian was a double-decker bus built by British Leyland/Leyland Bus in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production before the demise of Leyland Bus.-Construction:...

s with ECW

Eastern Coach Works

Eastern Coach Works Ltd was a bus and railbus body building company based in Lowestoft, England.-History:The company can trace its roots back to 1912, when United Automobile Services was founded in the town to run bus services. United began a coach building business at the Lowestoft site in 1920...

 bodywork, with distinctive sloped top front windows. The forward stripes were removed, and the M&D logo sloped along the leading edge. While the coaches wore Invictaway livery, as part of the M&D fleet, they could occasionally be seen on other local services when the need arose, and were also used on tours further afield. Some of the last coaches to wear the M&D Invictaway livery were a batch of J registered Plaxton 321 bodied Leyland Tigers.

In the summer of 1995, the Invictaway services were rebranded into the Green Line

Green Line Coaches

Green Line is a commuter coach brand in the Home Counties of England. It is owned by the Arriva group.Green Line has its origin in the network of coach services established by the London General Omnibus Company in the 1920s and 1930s...

 network. The Kent version of the Green Line livery initially retained a reference to the Invictaway operation with the inclusion of the white horse. This was applied to two Plaxton Paramount 3500 bodied coaches As an Arriva group sister company, this was also applied to some Kentish Bus coaches for Gravesend Green Line services, and an M&D Duple Laser bodied Leyland Tiger.

See also

• Coach transport in the United Kingdom
• London commuter routes 781 and 784
• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom