The last decade of Routemaster bus operation in London saw over seven hundred surviving RMs and RMLs divided between several new companies following the privatisation 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.

Already depleted by withdrawals in the London Buses Ltd era, the Leyland Titan fleet of T class was divided upon privatisation between three new companies; London Central, Stagecoach East London and Stagecoach Selkent. Together with a host of smaller companies operating second-hand acquisitions, the Titans' declining years between 1998 and 2003 are explored in this pictorial account that encompasses both standard day-to-day routes, emergency deployments and rail replacement services. Only small numbers remained to usher out the type altogether at the end of 2005, when step-entrance double-deckers as a whole were banished from the capital.

In 1970, around 3,000 RTs were still in service in the UK's capital. However, by 1984, transport in London was changing beyond recognition and would continue to do so as a result of tendering and devolution. London Transport 1970-84 covers the gently declining years of London's bus operations, during which the venerable RT and Routemaster types were compelled to give way to ambitious modern buses like the Merlins, Swifts and DMSs. These enjoyed less success, however, and their time in London was short, affording the Routemasters a reprieve that would last for two and a half further decades. In this book, 120 stunning color images from the camera of noted bus and railway photographer R. C. Riley are accompanied by detailed and informative captions, giving the full picture of this time of huge change. AUTHOR: Matthew Wharmby is an author, photographer and editor who specialises in London bus history. 120 illustrations

Mainstay of London Buses Ltd's fleet into the 1990s, London's MCW Metrobus fleet of M class remained almost completely intact by the time of privatisation in the autumn of 1994. In the hands of seven new companies thereafter, there followed multiple new liveries and new identities, but it wasn't until the end of the decade, when this account takes up their story, that withdrawals commenced in the face of new low-floor double-deck buses. Even then, the venerable M class remained a solid option for second-hand purchases, allowing examples to remain into service past their twentieth birthdays. Between 1998 and 2004 the M fleets of Arriva London North and South, First Capital and Centrewest, London General, London United, Metroline and Metroline London Northern and a host of smaller London contractors dwindled until the last examples, lingering on school routes for Leaside Travel, signed off at the beginning of 2006.

Following on from London Bus Routes One by One: 1-100, London Bus Routes One by One: 101-200 and London Bus Routes One by One: 201-300, this fourth volume in the series investigates those routes with the highest numbers used today. In times of old, the numbers 300-499 were restricted to the green buses of the old London Transport Country Area, with 200-399 covering the territory north of the river and 400-499 covering the territory to its south. Since the hiving-off of those operations, these numbers have been freed, and increasingly, they have been used to sectionalize longer routes, which have come up against London's relentless traffic and thus needed to be shortened again and again. Some, as might be expected, denote out-of-the-way minibus routes, but others, such as 390, work in busy central London. Though the higher-numbered routes have been around for less time overall, they too have been subject to the whims of tendering, with many regularly changing operators. As in previous volumes, a potted history of each route is accompanied by routeing details and one or two pictures of the kind of bus that operates on that route. Illustrated with over 190 color photographs, this volume represents an up-to-date snapshot of the fascinating modern London bus scene as it stands in autumn 2021.

Dissatisfied with the reliability of its AEC Merlin and Swift single-deck buses, London Transport in 1973 purchased six Leyland Nationals for evaluation. Liking what it saw of this ultimate standard product, where even the paint swatch was of Leyland s choice, LT took up an option to buy fifty more from a cancelled export order and then bought further batches of 110, 30 and 140 to bring the LS class to 437 members by the middle of 1980\. A year later the last MBAs and SMSs were replaced on Red Arrow services by sixty-nine new Leyland National 2s. Straightforward but reliable, the LS satisfied London Transport s single-deck needs for a decade and a half, often standing in for double-deckers when needed, and then going on to help hold the fort during the tough years of early tendering, during which some innovative LS operations introduced several new liveries and identities. The type served the ten years expected out of it with few worries, only starting to disappear when minibuses came on strength at the end of the 1980s. Although the LS was formally retired by 1992, refurbishment programmes gave survivors an extended lease of life, bringing us the National Greenway, the ultimate development of the Leyland National. Most of the Red Arrow National 2s thus became GLSs, and lasted until 2002. Matthew Wharmby is an author, photographer and editor specialising in London bus history. His published books include London Transport s Last Buses: Leyland Olympians L 1-263, Routemaster Requiem and Routemaster Retrospective (with Geoff Rixon), London Transport 1970-1984 (with R. C. Riley), The London Titan and The London Metrobus. He has also written many articles for Buses, Bus & Coach Preservation, Classic Bus and London Bus Magazine.

Following on from London Bus Routes One By One: 1-100, London Bus Routes One By One: 101-200, London Bus Routes One By One: 201-300 and London Bus Routes One By One: 301-969, this fifth and final volume in the series takes a look at the route numbers with letter prefixes. They derive from the Reshaping Plan of 1966, whereby established trunk routes were broken up, and their outer sections turned into feeder services linking interchange hubs or Underground stations. As these new routes were intended to be operated by flat-fare buses, it was decided to distinguish them by using letter prefixes based on geographical area. Flat-fare operation proved unreliable and was soon dropped, though the lettered routes remained, and the system was applied to the normal network when it came time to further sectionalise bus routes because of London's insurmountable traffic. As in previous volumes, a potted history of the routes and their routeing details are accompanied by up-to-date colour photographs showing the buses that operate on each route. Illustrated with over 190 colour photographs, this volume represents an up-to-date snapshot of the fascinating modern London bus scene as it stands in the latter half of 2021.

Following on from London Bus Routes One By One: 1-100 and London Bus Routes One By One: 101-200, this third volume in the series explores what used to be the old London Transport's highest-numbered block of routes. These numbers were once reserved for single-deck services, but the weight of post-war expansion soon filled in the sequence. As in previous volumes, a potted history of each route is accompanied by a list of points served and one or two pictures of the kind of bus that can be found in service today. The pace of tendering and Transport for London's imperative towards emissions-free propulsion has meant increasingly rapid turnover of bus models, which are expected to last the length of two full-term contracts of seven years before replacement. Illustrated with over 190 color photographs, this volume represents an up-to-date snapshot of the fascinating modern London bus scene as it stands in autumn 2021.