Search results for ""Author Matthew Wharmby""

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

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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.

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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.

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Developed by Alexander Dennis in 2005 as an all-encompassing replacement for the Dennis Trident and its two bodies, the Plaxton President and Alexander ALX400, the integral Enviro400, immediately sold in large numbers, not least to London operators, which in the next eight years bought over 1,500 of them. Late in the production run, the hybrid E40H was introduced and also made good headway in London, funded largely by environmental grants. Nearly 300 of these are in service in London. Valid to May 2015, this book finishes by introducing the MMC, the all-new development of the Enviro400 unveiled in 2014 and exemplified in London so far by two batches for Abellio and Metroline.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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When London Buses Ltd's subsidiary companies were privatised in 1994, northwest London-based Metroline passed to its management. The company promptly took over Atlas Bus in 1995 and then n doubling its size in 1998 with the acquisition of neighbouring MTL London. A new livery of red with a deep blue skirt set Metroline apart from its rivals, and in 2000 a powerful but unusually hands-off patron was secured with the company's sale to Delgro (later ComfortDelgro) of Singapore.Since then, Metroline has held its own as a dependable TfL contractor, continuing to expand with the acquisition of Thorpes and Armchair in 2004 and pulling off an even bigger coup in 2013 when First London's western portfolio was acquired as Metroline West. In terms of vehicles, the London Transport inheritance had all gone by 2004 and low-floor purchases moved to hybrids, including Borismasters, and now to electric buses.With over 250 colour pictures, this book is the first of a new series that explores the major

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Following on from London Bus Routes One By One: 1-100, this volume takes a look at the next hundred routes in Transport for London's spectrum, from 101 to 200. Spread out across the city and with a wealth of bus types from different operators, these busy services are caught amid 2021's gradual changeover from diesel and hybrid buses to pure electric and hydrogen operation. All the routes have been subject to considerable change over the years they have been in existence, from extensions and re-routings to withdrawals and re-use of the same number, and later to operator changes in accordance with competitive tendering. Illustrated with over 180 up-to-date colour photographs, this volume continues to build a snapshot of the fascinating modern London bus scene.

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