A post-war addition to the network, the 725 was the first orbital Green Line route, providing a service around the south of London.  Introduced in July 1953 with RFs between Windsor and Gravesend, the route was immediately successful and was soon doubled in frequency as far as Dartford.  In fact, so successful that in 1955 approval was given for the operation as summer reliefs of lowbridge RLH double-deckers between Windsor and West Croydon, passing under the restricted Worcester Park bridge (alongside red RLHs on the 127 and RFs on the 213).

 

The route was worked from Northfleet (NF), Dartford (DT, from 1954), Staines (ST) and Windsor (WR) garages, the RLHs running out of ST on loan from Addlestone (WY).  Little changed through the rest of the LT years, although the route saw operation by the unreliable RCs in 1968 as back-up for the RFs.  London Country upgraded the service with the purchase in 1972 of 21 Willowbrook-bodied SMA class, although these lasted only 6 years before being scrapped.

 

 

During the 1970s, the route was joined by the 726, also SMA-operated and running a similar route from the east as far as Ashford, then heading north to serve Heathrow.  While the 725 suffered a number of reroutings and shortenings in the 80s before vanishing altogether, the 726 prospered and its ghost lives on in the (hopelessly inadequate) X26 Heathrow to Croydon service.