Last Years of the London Routemaster

By Matthew Wharmby

The last decade of Routemaster bus operation in London saw over seven hundred surviving RMs and RMLs divided between several new companies following the privatization of London Buses Ltd’s subsidiaries in 1994. Now operating their existing twenty routes under contract to LRT (renamed TfL in 2000), Centrewest, Metroline, MTL London Northern, Leaside Buses, Stagecoach East London, South London, London Central, London General and London United all adopted their own predominantly red liveries, but by the turn of the century these firms had clustered in pairs and generally sold out to the emerging big corporate groups. Two independents, BTS and Kentish Bus, had also won a Routemaster route each and were similarly brought under the control of larger parents.

In this photographic archive, each company’s last Routemaster-operating decade is outlined in detail up to when each route was converted to OPO one by one between 29 August 2003 and 9 December 2005. The two heritage routes are then explored all the way up to their own end in 2019.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Apr 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781399061957

Matthew Wharmby

Matthew Wharmby is an author, photographer and editor who specializes in London bus history.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Privatisation of the London Buses Ltd subsidiaries in 1994 effectively froze their existing Routemaster allocations in place, there to spend the next ten years on stalwart service until the tide turned against the type finally. By the time this account begins in 1998, the companies had settled on their final identities as Routemaster operators, with just one major takeover left to go, that of MTL London by Metroline.

Operating pairs or trios of routes each, the companies nonetheless underwent considerable change in the late 1990s and early 2000s, from the application of new red-based liveries and corporate fleetnames to the resumption of transfers, most within their existing setup but several individual RMs and RMLs passed from one company to another, especially if those buses fell under the ownership of TfL.

Still the finest London bus since the RT family and never to be equalled in terms of comfort, reliability or longevity, the Routemaster lives on in this pictorial book and it is my hope that you enjoy them in print as much as I did to travel on.

Matthew Wharmby

Walton-on-Thames

February 2022

Ten RMLs are seen resting in the forecourt of Arriva London North’s Clapton garage, home of the 38, on Bank Holiday Monday 7 May 2001, when the route was otherwise OPO. Second from front is RML 2716 (SMK 716F), the black-painted bus for Amnesty International.

CHAPTER ONE

STAGECOACH EAST LONDON

On 18 May 1998 Upton Park’s RML 2541 (JJD 541D) plies down Oxford Street on the 15. The route gradually contracted at either end, having already ceded its leg beyond Paddington to Westbourne Park to the 23 in 1992, and before the close of Routemaster operation would fall back from Canning Town to Blackwall.

Upton Park being a long way east of the 15’s latter-day terminus at Canning Town (and even further from Blackwall), the last Routemaster duties of the working day were projected in service to the garage to maintain revenue before the OPO Scanias came on. RML 2723 (SMK 723F) is at Paddington on 2 May 1998, with the earlier heavily-outlined gold Stagecoach East London logo but the later, smaller fleetnumber transfers.

Bow operated the 8, which had also been hacked in two on 18 July 1992 so that its western end to Willesden was devolved to new route 98 and instead took over the former 25 routeing to Victoria. Here in Oxford Street on 16 May 1998 is RML 2402 (JJD 402D).

One of the original Stagecoach Routemasters, operating for many years in Scotland with Magicbus, RM 1289 (XSL 596A, ex-289 CLT) was returned to London in 1998 and put into service at Upton Park, where it would spend the next five years on the 15. Here it is on 27 May 1998 at Oxford Circus.

On 3 June 1998 Bow’s RML 2607 (NML 607E) leads RML 2415 (jjd 415D) down Oxford Street from the Tottenham Court Road end. These workings ought really to be some minutes apart, but in the time-honoured London tradition, the leader has been mired in traffic and caught up.

RM 613 (WLT 613) of Upton Park is in full showbus mode in this 17 September 1998 shot in Oxford Street, with intact brake-cooling grilles and full-height ’tween-decks air intake.

Another special at Stagecoach East London was Upton Park-based RMC 1456 (LFF 875, ex-456 CLT), looking particularly smart with the windows on each deck picked out in gold. It is seen in Oxford Street on 29 October 1998.

RM 980 (USK 625, ex-WLT 980) was another of the three RMs brought back from Scotland in 1998 and added to Upton Park’s runout; on 17 July of that year it is in Oxford Street heading west towards Paddington.

In New Oxford Street on a rainy 3 November 1998, Bow’s RML 2450 (JJD 450D) heads west towards Victoria. The lower half of the radiator grille has been blanked off on this bus, and would be on several other Routemasters as a heat-retaining measure, rather than the time-honoured method of stuffing a piece of cardboard in there.

Bow’s RML 2624 (NML 624E) has somehow got hold of an older radiator grille with the unslung registration number, making the white plate itself that much more incongruous. On 26 June 1999 it is seen in Oxford Street.

Another lapse in control sees two Upton Park 15s closer together than they should be on 5 July 1999 in Oxford Street. Here RML2748 (SMK 748F) leads RM 1289 (XSL 596A, ex-289 CLT).

On 9 August 1999 Upton Park’s RML 2581 (JJD 581D) is coming past Charing Cross on its way west that would take it via Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street, Oxford Street and Marble Arch to Paddington. In the modern era, all those areas have now been abandoned by the 15.

On 18 September 1999 the 15 found itself withdrawn between Blackwall and Canning Town, though the PVR held level at twenty-four Upton Park RMLs. RML 2550 (JJD 550D) displays the new destination in this Oxford Circus shot of 30 September.

On 20 August 1999 RML 2429 (JJD 429D) of Bow stages through Bank on the 8. Its generally smart appearance is spoiled by the failure to pick out the radiator grille edges in silver, a condition endemic to most Routemasters fitted with this style of front in their later years.

The stand designated for the curtailed 15 at Blackwall DLR station