It ran every two hours between Southend and Reading via Basildon, Socketts Heath, Rainham, Dagenham, East Ham, Canning Town, Aldgate, Piccadilly, Kensington, Hammersmith, Heathrow Airport, Slough, Maidenhead and Twyford, and was jointly operated by Southend Transport and Reading Transport.

This was in time for a series of rail strikes at the end of January and February, which brought many additional passengers; both operators ran duplicate journeys.

[2] There were more rail strikes in June and July, which resulted in 17 double deck duplicates being used by Southend, some of which were provided by Ensignbus.

[1] On 28 November 1982, season tickets - called Expresscards - were introduced, previously only singles, day and period returns were available.

[1] The first short term hired coach, a Colchester Leopard, was used by Southend on 3 May due to increasing passenger numbers.

It was joined by further hired coaches from Leicester from June, Bournemouth and Burnley from October, Fylde in November and Lancaster and Derby from December.

On 9 May, a peak hours only service was introduced, route X21; Shoebury to Green Park via Thorpe Bay, Prittlewell and the A127.

June saw two ex Midland Red Willowbrook DP bodied Leopards, enter service on loan from Ensign.

In the summer of May to September, certain journeys were extended on Sundays to serve attractions such as Thorpe Park and Windsor Castle.

[1] On 1 April another peak hour variant started, service X41; it was Prittlewell to Green Park via Rochford, Ashingdon and Rayleigh.

Route numbers X10 and X30 were introduced for peak hour journeys which ran fast from Corringham to Purfleet via the newly opened A13 Socketts Heath by-pass on 22 July 1985.

From 1 June a relaxation in the licensing laws allowed local traffic to be carried between Southend and Basildon for the first time.

On 1 April 1987 an attempt was made to find work for idle commuter coaches, and Southend Transport acquired the Culturebus London sightseeing service 614 from Ensignbus, running every 30 minutes.

The over-expansion of the coach services was blamed, because they carried too many commuter passengers at fares which didn't cover the costs involved.

[1] A limited Heathrow service was reintroduced on 2 October, twice daily Monday to Fridays, following a slightly different route.

[1] There was a further increase in the number of off peak journeys extended beyond Hyde Park from 25 August, now four in addition to the three Heathrow trips.

[1] On 5 July 1992, Thamesway started up a competing “CitySaver” service, which was mostly timetabled to run just in front of the X1 and with much cheaper season tickets.

The X4 variant disappeared again and the Piccadilly routing was served only between the peaks Mondays to Fridays, not at all weekends, and also the last late evening journey was withdrawn.

Thamesway and Arriva agreed to co-operate, and began to operate a joint service, still Green Line branded.

[1] In December 1999 more variety was added to the fleet with the acquisition of four second hand Van Hool bodied Scanias, which were the first air conditioned coaches for the route.

Two DAF SB300s arrived from Arriva Shires & Essex in August 2000 after their use on Green Line route 757 ceased.

[1] Passenger numbers began to drop, traffic congestion worsened and the parallel London, Tilbury and Southend line run by c2c offered discounted season tickets.

[3] The company blamed several factors for its decision, including significant rises in fuel costs and new European Union drivers' hours regulations, meaning the service would have to be shortened.

The introduction of the London low emission zone also meant that a significant amount of money would have had to be spent on either modifying their existing fleet of coaches to make them comply or on purchasing new vehicles.

Rainham based Swallow Coach Company introduced three express services from east Essex into London as a partial replacement for the X1 and X10 on 4 August 2008.