The full route ran as follows: HIGH WYCOMBE,
Uxbridge, OXFORD CIRCUS, Clapham Common, Tooting, Mitcham, Rose
Hill, Sutton, Banstead, REIGATE
On 15 April 2007, the free service will operate
between Mitcham and Belmont. See the
timetable.
Main boarding points
Mitcham Cricketers, Rose Hill, Sutton
Green, Sutton, Belmont California.
RF48 is seen here on
Eccleston Bridge, Victoria in the 1950s. This bus, now
modernised, will be running the 711 on 17 April.
Route history
East Surrey, the General's associated company based in
Reigate that later formed the nucleus of the Country
Area, started an express service between Reigate and Charing Cross
via Sutton in 1928. This was relaunched running to
Oxford Circus with new AEC Regal coaches in May 1930
and became officially a Green Line route in October
1930. Two months later, this was joined to the Hitchin
route to form one of the first two cross-London Green Line
routes. When lettering was introduced in February 1931, this
became service R.
The revisions of 1933 saw the Reigate route linked with Watford
rather than Hitchin, becoming route J, but still running via
Kingswood, Belmont, Sutton and Mitcham. This continued until
the withdrawal of Green Line services three days before the
declaration of war. The reintroduction of Green Line on 4
December 1940 included route 10 from Reigate to Oxford Circus,
until Green Line stopped operating for the duration on 29 September
1942.
On re-introduction of the Green Lines after the war, the 711
was one of the fourth batch, commencing from 3 April 1946, operated
by the Green Line 6Q6s. Initially running
from Reigate Garage to Baker Street, the 711 absorbed the
original 724 to High Wycombe in November 1947 to become a
half-hourly through service. The route worked from
High Wycombe and Reigate garages.
Modernised Green Line
RF146 has been downgraded to bus status with London Country by
June 1975, when it was seen in Banstead High
Street.
Photo ©
John Parkin
Modernised RF174 works through London in
March 1974. A Plumstead-based RM on route 53 follows it down
Regent Street.
RFs took over in 1951/2, as they did
on all single-deck Green Line routes. As Reigate was the
engineering headquarters of the Country Area, it was natural that
experimental vehicles worked from there. These included the
light-weight single-deckers in the early 50s, which worked the 711
as well as local routes. The experimental Routemaster coach, CRL4,
spent a period working the 711 in 1957/8, but the route remained
single-deck during the RMC era.
The first diversion from the 1928 route came on the last day
of 1966, when the service was rerouted at Belmont Station to serve
Sutton Lane and Banstead High Street, rejoining the main road
between Banstead Crossroads and Tattenham Way.
One-man operation arrived on 23 November 1968. RC-class
AEC Reliances at least partly replaced the RFs from the late-60s,
but the 711 became wholly LNC National-operated in June 1973,
replaced in turn by short Nationals from 1974/5. The route
was withdrawn on 1 October 1977, with the Sutton to Reigate section
being covered by new bus service 422.
