92-722: The Aldenham Works , or Aldenham Bus Overhaul Works , was the main London Transport bus overhaul works. It was located on the edge of the Hertfordshire village of Elstree and not in Aldenham . In its heyday, 50 buses a week were overhauled there, and it was the most comprehensive bus overhaul operation in the world. It opened in 1956 and closed in November 1986. The buildings were demolished in 1996. The London Transport site at Elstree had originally been bought for
184-510: A bus operator was under review, with private sector operation under competitive tender eroding its domination. Bus overhaul was moved to Chiswick Works on a much smaller scale, then taken over by a short-lived private company called BEL (Bus Engineering Limited). The site was acquired by property developer Slough Estates and stood mostly empty except for occasional storage of cars on the vast site until being demolished in July 1996 to make way for
276-768: A commercial basis. However, the Transport Act 1985 did not apply in London – instead, the London Regional Transport Act 1984 required that an arms-length subsidiary company of London Transport called London Buses to be set up. London Buses would specify details of routes, fares and services levels, and the running of bus services would be contracted to private companies on a tendered basis. From 1985, bus routes were gradually tendered out to private companies, with London Buses split into business units from 1989. These business units were sold off in
368-482: A daily limited-stop service, travelling a long distance but serving few stops in its route. These became part of the wider London Superloop express bus network in 2023. Some local bus routes in the outer areas of London cross the London boundary. London Buses services that cross the boundary have standard red buses, and charge London fares for the whole length. Buses from outside London that cross into London are in their operators' own colour schemes, and may not accept
460-473: A fake registration number: WLB991) for filming different segments. In the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die , Bond commandeers an RT III during an escape. Stunts involving the bus included a 360-degree spin, and slicing the top deck off on a low bridge to stop the pursuers. An AEC Regent can be seen in the music video for the Madness single " Cardiac Arrest " released in 1982. An AEC Regent III, as
552-644: A fall in London's population by over a million people exacerbated the fall in ridership. A former network of express buses operated by London Transport in Central London was the Red Arrows . The routes, all numbered in the 500s, ran from main line stations to various locations in the West End and City. They were introduced in 1966 and expanded in 1968, but in the 1990s they were gradually phased out, with
644-450: A mobile home and the next 5 minutes shows them at work to the track Seven Days to a Holiday . These scenes were all shot in the works during the summer shutdown, and employees were used as genuine extras. One shot even shows Cliff on an RT suspended from the crane above the works. The last film of the derelict works took place in 1992 for the BBC series Perpetual Motion which featured
736-566: A mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn omnibus service from Paddington to the City of London . In the decades since their introduction, the red London bus has become a symbol of the city. In 2019, buses accounted for 11 per cent of trips taken in the city. As of 2023 , London has 675 bus routes served by over 8,700 buses, almost all of which are operated by private companies under contract to (and regulated by) London Buses , part of
828-499: A modified version of the pre-war London Transport design but were similar in appearance to their predecessors. The main visual differences were: In total, London Transport received 4,674 post-war RT-class buses between 1947 and 1954, with a small number of similar buses also going to operators outside London (see below). However, the London "RT" family of vehicles could be considered to have numbered 6,956 in total, consisting of 4,825 RTs; 1,631 RTLs and 500 RTWs. The latter two types had
920-478: A network managed by London Buses , an arm of Transport for London . Services are operated by private sector companies under contract to London Buses. With the introduction of the London congestion charge in central London and because at peak times the Underground is operating at maximum capacity, many bus service improvements have been undertaken, and central bus services are currently enjoying something of
1012-415: A new coat of paint and varnish and would be fitted with a new identity including chassis, fleet and registration numbers, newly-covered seats and would then pass to the licensing shop for re-certification and then out to the receiving garage to return to service. This modular system meant that buses could be overhauled in a shorter time than it would take if each bus was attended to on an individual basis. It
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#17327807014161104-411: A number of buses at once. Several mechanics could focus on specific parts of the vehicle rather than a single mechanic working on a single bus at a time. Aldenham covered: Aldenham turned the overhaul of buses into an industrial operation. A bus entering the works would first be inspected and any repairs required would be identified. The vehicle would have its body removed from the chassis , and then
1196-439: A reduction of the workload of Aldenham, with London Country establishing its own overhaul facility at Tinsley Green near Crawley . With NBC in control, its vehicle purchases were in any event off-the-peg buses that replaced the former London Transport types. Aldenham was also used to prepare new buses for service, and they would be delivered to the works for preparation. Major accident repairs would also take place at Aldenham if
1288-497: A resurgence. Although the rear-entrance double-deck AEC Routemaster is the archetypal London bus, they were withdrawn in the early 2000s owing to their age, their inability to comply with disability legislation or accept wheelchairs or pushchairs , and their requirement for a two-person crew. All other local bus services are now operated by modern low-floor buses, which may be single-deck or double-deck. Most buses operating in London have two sets of doors, and passengers board
1380-454: A steady increase in the period between full overhauls; the annual overhauls of pre-WW2 became three-yearly after the War and eventually increased to every 5 and then 7 years. That factor, together with increased financial pressures in the bus industry, led to a significant decline in the need for an overhaul works of the standard of Aldenham. London Transport's Bus Works Restructuring Programme 1983-4
1472-571: A variant of the Leyland Titan chassis and, also, the RTWs had Leyland 8 feet wide steel-framed bodies (as opposed to 7 feet 6 inches). The whole family were never all in operation at the same time. In addition, some surplus bodies were, for a short time, put onto modified STL chassis and classed as SRTs. The very last RT in service (RT624), now preserved by Ensignbus , operated on route 62 from Barking Garage on 7 April 1979. Like
1564-594: The City . In 1850, Thomas Tilling started horse bus services, and in 1855 the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) was founded to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services then operating in London. The LGOC began using motor omnibuses in 1902, and manufactured them itself from 1909. In 1904, Thomas Tilling started its first motor bus service. The last LGOC horse-drawn bus ran on 25 October 1911, although independent operators used them until 1914. In 1909, Thomas Tilling and
1656-545: The Fall of France in June 1940, delivery slowed progressively. The last of the batch, RT 151, did not reach London Transport until January 1942, six months after its predecessor, although all were built to full pre-war specification. These vehicles were lighter in weight than RT1 and their postwar counterparts, as the others had metal-framed bodies rather than composite wood/metal ones. The only other RT-type chassis constructed before
1748-521: The London Buses fleet total of 8,776 buses includes 3,826 hybrid buses , 1,397 battery electric buses , and 20 hydrogen fuel cell buses . The zero emission fleet is the largest in Europe, ahead of Moscow . All buses have been accessible and low floor since 2006, one of the first major cities in the world to achieve this. The various bus operators operate a wide variety of vehicles, about
1840-733: The London Transport Executive (1948 to 1962). The responsible authority for London Transport was then successively the London Transport Board (1963 to 1969), the Greater London Council (1970 to 1984) and London Regional Transport (1984 to 2000). However, in 1969, a new law transferred the green country services, outside the area of the Greater London Council, to the recently formed National Bus Company . Trading under
1932-617: The Northern line extension to Bushey Heath , as part of the 1930s New Works Programme . Construction of the railway extension was underway and the tube depot was partially complete at the outbreak of World War II . The railway works were stopped and the site was modified for use as an aircraft factory, producing Handley Page Halifax bombers as part of the London Aircraft Production consortium, together with Handley Page, Duple , Park Royal and London Transport. After
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#17327807014162024-477: The RT family of buses was made during the period up to December 1955, at which point the 'works float' system of overhauling was re-introduced after being suspended during World War II. This meant that vehicle identities were again changed around so as to make full use of licences. In most cases, each bus arriving in the works was replaced by one made up of different parts but carrying the same identity, which meant that it
2116-745: The Red Arrow fleet on routes 507 and 521 in May 2009. The last were withdrawn on 9 December 2011. In May 2010, Mayor of London Boris Johnson unveiled the design of the New Routemaster , the proposed replacement for the Routemaster as an iconic standard bus for exclusive use in London. The buses, designed by Heatherwick Studio and built by Wrightbus feature two staircases, three doors and an open platform allowing passengers to hop on and off, and commenced operating in 2012. In December 2011
2208-404: The "normal" work. Lifting jacks to raise vehicles were installed to enable access beneath. This type of overhaul resulted in the bus being off the road for weeks or even months, and was a very inefficient use of vehicle fleets. In 1970, London Transport's Country Area buses were transferred to the state-owned National Bus Company (NBC) as London Country Bus Services . This eventually resulted in
2300-409: The 'works float'. In the case of the Routemaster, there was no separate chassis in any case, just a pair of sub-frames bolted to the body and to which the running units were attached. Once a chassis and a body were reunited, the completed vehicle would be test run around the factory site, which would include a brake test. Providing all was well mechanically, the bus would pass through the paint shop for
2392-692: The 1900s (decade) until the 1960s, London went its own way, designing its own vehicles specially for London use rather than using the bus manufacturers' standard products used elsewhere. The Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was created as a subsidiary of the LGOC in 1912 to build buses and other equipment for its parent company, and continued in the ownership of LGOC and its successors until 1962. Many of London's local service buses over this period were built by AEC, although other manufacturers also built buses to London designs, or modified their own designs for use in London. The last bus specifically designed for London
2484-460: The 1960s. The prototype (London Transport RT 1) was built in 1938 with an AEC 8.8-litre (540 cu in) engine (a stopgap measure until the new 9.6-litre (590 cu in) was available) and air-operated pre-selective gearbox . Finding a satisfactory British substitute for the German air compressor, bought from Bosch , was to cause problems for AEC once war broke out. A prototype chassis
2576-637: The 1980s the government of Margaret Thatcher decided to privatise the bus operating industry in Great Britain. At the time, local bus transport was dominated by London Transport in London, and in other major cities by large municipally owned operators , as well as by the government-owned National Bus Company and Scottish Bus Group elsewhere. The Transport Act 1985 brought about bus deregulation throughout Great Britain which opened up local bus operation to private operators and required municipal companies to operate independently of local government on
2668-684: The British car magazine Autocar praised the New Routemaster in a road test, rating it ahead of contemporary and historic buses. However, in December 2016 the new Mayor of London Sadiq Khan decided that no more orders would be placed for the bus after only 1,000 of Johnson's envisaged fleet of 2,000 had been procured. In 2020 Transport for London announced that the New Routemasters would be converted so passengers only enter by
2760-614: The Centennial Park Business Park. Aldenham was an ambitious project, designed to cope with maintenance of a massive bus fleet and geared to the concept of frequent, comprehensive overhauls - something that dated back to the early days of London's motor buses when the Metropolitan Police (the regulator of the time) required that each wooden-framed bus body be rebuilt every year. Even in its early days. Aldenham never worked to its full capacity (part of
2852-666: The Cowieson-body style, Glasgow Corporation's usual body builder at the time, although the cab area/radiator was very similar to the London vehicles. It was delivered in February 1940 and sold out of service, to a dealer, in 1956. Production of the RT recommenced in late 1946, being delayed by London Transport's desire to have the bodies jig-built, following its experience building Halifax bombers at Aldenham Tube Depot (later to become its main bus works). The new vehicles were built to
Aldenham Works - Misplaced Pages Continue
2944-718: The LGOC entered into an agreement to pool their resources. The agreement restricted the expansion of Thomas Tilling in London, and allowed the LGOC to lead an amalgamation of most of London's bus services. However, also in 1909, Thomas Clarkson started the National Steam Car Company to run steam buses in London in competition with the LGOC. In 1919, the National company reached agreement with the LGOC to withdraw from bus operation in London, and steam bus services ceased later that year. Initially, buses in London were regulated with very limited oversight, licensed by
3036-528: The LGOC or London Transport the authority to transfer vehicle identities at its discretion within its vast fleets, but it was a well-established practice for some 60 years and, given that the operator had its own licensing department at Aldenham, it is assumed that either the Ministry of Transport or the London County Council, later the Greater London Council, as the licensing authority, granted
3128-501: The LGOC were allocated numbers 1-199; the independent bus companies 200-299; country routes north of the Thames, working into the Metropolitan Police area, 300-399; country routes south of the Thames, working into the Metropolitan Police area, 400-499; Thames Valley routes working into the Met area, 500-510. All short, early morning, weekend or other special duties were to be given a suffix from
3220-583: The London Buses network. For many years until 1961, the night routes were numbered from around 280 to 299. But the imminent withdrawal of trolleybuses meant that numbers between 1 and 299 were in short supply. The 280+ route numbers were freed by giving night bus routes a prefix N for the first time. For example, while route 9 travels from Aldwych to Hammersmith , route N9 continues a further 16 miles (26 km) from Hammersmith to Heathrow Terminal 5 . There are also 24-hour routes, which run throughout
3312-631: The London General Omnibus Co upon the opening of its Chiswick Works in the 1920s. In order to achieve greater efficiency of the use of the Road Fund licences for the huge bus fleet, the identity of each individual bus entering the works for overhaul was passed across to another (overhauled) bus leaving the works on the same day and the licence disc was also transferred across accordingly. The incoming bus therefore lost its identity and would not assume another, different one until it left
3404-551: The London General country buses (later to be London Transport's green buses), Green Line Coaches and the services of several Tilling Group and independent companies . London buses continued to operate under the London Transport name from 1933 to 2000, although the political management of transport services changed several times. The LPTB oversaw transport from 1933 to 1947, when it was nationalised and became
3496-430: The London fares even within the boundary. Privately run bus services may also be operated independently of the regulated London bus network, but still require a permit from TfL. This permit applies to any service which has a stop in London and another within 15 miles of Greater London, such as commuter coaches, school buses and supermarket shuttle buses. Night buses began running as early as 1913, and they form part of
3588-587: The New Bus for London Competition, in which conceptual and detailed design proposals would be sought for a new hybrid Routemaster, with development of a design that could be put into production hoped for completion by 2012 (the expected date of the next mayoral election). In August 2008, the Commissioner of Transport for London Peter Hendy announced that the withdrawal of the bendy buses would take place, starting in 2009. To reduce additional costs to TfL,
3680-602: The Police in a similar manner as taxicabs are licensed today, anyone could provide a bus service according to their best commercial judgement. After the First World War, many demobilised soldiers had learned to operate and maintain heavy vehicles like buses and established bus companies. In 1922, the Chocolate Express ran its first services, and many other independent operators entered the market until by 1924,
3772-498: The United Kingdom outside London) and, on double-deckers, the use of a straight staircase. Additionally, London Buses has previously specified that vehicles operating in London use traditional printed roller destination blinds, whereas in most other parts of the country, electronic dot matrix or LED displays are the norm on new buses. From the early days of motor bus operation by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) in
Aldenham Works - Misplaced Pages Continue
3864-487: The alphabet. To make way for these suffixes, previous suffix routes, denoting a branch, had to be renumbered in the one hundreds, so therefore, 36A became 136. Soon there were not enough route numbers and the police had to allocate 511-599 to the independents and 600-699 to the LGOC. This ultimately led to chaos, and in the London Passenger Transport Act 1933 the power to allocate route numbers
3956-496: The appropriate derogation. Although the chassis (or sub-frames in the case of Routemaster) were renumbered at each overhaul so as to maintain a match with the official log-book for a particular registration number, London Transport kept its own internal records for each chassis by means of a separate, less easily visible, chassis unit number ('CU' number) which remained with the chassis for life. Bus bodies similarly had numbers which were retained for life. The works float system ceased in
4048-532: The articulated buses would be withdrawn as their 5-year operating contracts came up for renewal, with the replacement buses being decided by operators. Options for replacement would not preclude such measures as tri-axle buses . However, research by London TravelWatch in 2008 indicated that replacing articulated buses with double decker models would be more expensive, as additional vehicles would be required to maintain overall route capacity (capacity of 85 per bus versus 120). The first buses to be withdrawn would be
4140-534: The body would have any damaged panels replaced or repaired, seats repaired and re-covered and any updates or modifications to the interior made. The chassis would be inspected, tested and have any service components changed or adjusted. This system of standard interchangeable components meant that when the chassis was ready to be rebuilt into a bus, the first available engine, transmission and body that had been 'outshopped' would be fitted. Although many bus bodies were reunited with their original chassis upon completion of
4232-421: The bus fleet became fully accessible at the end of 2005, 10 years ahead of the national requirement. In the 2008 London mayoral election campaign , prospective mayor Boris Johnson made several commitments to change the London Buses vehicle policy, namely to introduce a new Routemaster, and remove the bendy buses . Johnson was elected to office on 4 May 2008, and on 4 July 2008 Transport for London announced
4324-672: The bus operators in London included; In 1912, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), which at that time owned most of the London Underground , bought the LGOC. In 1933, the LGOC, along with the rest of the UERL, became part of the new London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB). The name London General was replaced by London Transport , which became synonymous with the red London bus. Bus numbers were first used in 1906. When
4416-892: The bus using the front door and alight using the rear door, whilst some buses on less busy routes have only one door. Since 2006, all buses are low-floor and accessible, accepting passengers in wheelchairs and other mobility impaired passengers. Following the privatisation of London bus services in the 1990s, the operating contracts for local buses in London are subject to a system of competitive tender. A wide range of companies now operate bus routes across London. Many services have been contracted out to leading transport groups such as Arriva , ComfortDelGro , Go-Ahead Group , RATP Group , Stagecoach , Transport UK Group and Abellio , Transit Systems . Connex , FirstGroup , National Express and Transdev previously operated services in London. A small number of bus routes (namely routes SL1 , SL2 , SL5 , SL6 , SL7 , SL8 , SL9 and SL10 , run
4508-509: The day and night. These do not have distinguishing numbers. Some of these only run at night during weekends, whereas others run throughout the week. Following the withdrawal of rear-entrance double-deck AEC Routemaster from all regular service routes in 2005, a small fleet was retained to operate on heritage routes. As the AEC Routemaster buses were not accessible to passengers in wheelchairs and other mobility impaired passengers,
4600-421: The end of the war was destined for and went to Glasgow Corporation . Details of it are: AEC Regent IIIRT/Weymann H30/26R body (Fleet No. 723, Registration No. DGB371) It was originally intended to be an exhibit at the 1939 Commercial Motor Show, but this was cancelled, due to the outbreak of war. It differed from the pre-war London examples in having a body built by Weymann , the front blind area being very much in
4692-463: The first hybrid buses entered service in 2006. It was originally intended that every bus introduced into service after 2012 would be a hybrid, but this requirement was later dropped. Battery electric buses first entered service in 2014, and double decker hydrogen fuel buses were introduced in 2021. London now has the second largest zero-emission bus fleet in Europe with over 1,400 battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses in service. In 2021, it
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#17327807014164784-415: The first low-floor double decker vehicles entering service in 1998. From 2002, the mainstay of the fleet, double-decker buses , were augmented with a fleet of articulated buses , rising to a peak fleet size of 393 Mercedes-Benz Citaros . These were introduced to help replace the (high-floor) AEC Routemaster, as well as to cope with an increased capacity. Following withdrawal of older, high floor vehicles,
4876-465: The formation of the new Greater London Authority , the management of buses in London moved from the central government controlled London Regional Transport to the Mayor of London 's transport body, Transport for London (TfL). Upon appointment in 2000, the new Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone did not have the power to improve Tube service. Instead, investment was directed to increasing the number of, and
4968-406: The frequency of London's bus routes, as well as introducing more bus lanes – assisted by income from the congestion charge . Flat fares were introduced in 2004, to speed boarding. From September 2005, under 16's were able to ride buses for free. Bus ridership subsequently rose rapidly, with a 19 per cent growth in passengers between 1999/00 and 2002/03, with ridership was at levels last seen in
5060-431: The front door, with the middle and rear doors becoming exit-only. This was done to reduce fare evasion, which had been double that of other London buses. Since the early 1990s, efforts have been underway to reduce the emissions of the bus fleet. Early work involved replacing older buses like the AEC Routemaster and fitting particulate filters to exhausts. In the 2000s, hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell buses were trialed – and
5152-507: The growth rate in passengers slowing since the late 2000s. From 2013 onwards, bus ridership fell slowly, with TfL blaming traffic congestion and roadworks, and some commentators blaming the introduction of Cycle Superhighways under Mayor Boris Johnson . The fall in ridership was mitigated by the introduction of the hopper fare in 2018, which allowed passengers to make multiple bus journeys within 1 hour. In 2019, buses accounted for 11% for daily trips in London. As of March 2024 ,
5244-447: The heritage route was operated as a short-working of a regular service route bearing the same route number, thus ensuring that passengers unable to board the heritage buses are offered equivalent alternative transport arrangements. Initially running on route 9 and route 15 , Route 9H was withdrawn on 26 July 2014. In 2019, the remaining heritage route 15 was cut back to a seasonal service, running on weekends and bank holidays through
5336-470: The impossibility of separating body from chassis. These vehicles would be overhauled without separating the body from the chassis - indeed, many of them did not last long enough in London Transport service to receive overhauls at all. Overhauls of vehicles of these types were therefore carried with the vehicle in "built up" form, and LT had to set aside a separate area of the Works for this type of work, away from
5428-558: The independent firms started in 1922, they used General route numbers, along with alphabetical suffixes to denote branch routes, so, for instance, the 36A ran parallel to the 36 for most of its route. In 1924, under the London Traffic Act , the Metropolitan Police was authorised to allocate route numbers, which all buses had to carry. Under the direction of the Chief Constable responsible for traffic, A. E. Bassom ,
5520-408: The introduction of several of the newly emerging minibus and midibus models in the 1980s and 1990s, in a bid to up the frequency on routes, although the use of these buses dropped off to the level of niche operation on routes not suitable for full size buses. London was one of the earliest major users of low-floor buses , with the first low-floor single decker vehicles entering service in 1993 and
5612-478: The last two routes withdrawn in 2023. In 1974, Jill Viner became the first female bus driver for London Transport. In 1979, the operation of London's buses under the GLC was divided among eight areas or districts: The districts were later reorganised and reduced to six (with the abolition of Tower and Watling), and, following the Transport Act of 1985, were done away with in 1989 with privatisation imminent. In
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#17327807014165704-406: The late 1960s. Between 2000 and 2006, ridership growth was at 40 per cent in London, while ridership in the rest of the country fell by 6 per cent. The bus fleet grew to cope with demand, from around 5,500 buses to over 8,000. Traffic speeds across London improved, and levels of air pollution in central London decreased. By 2010, bus journeys in London had increased by 69 per cent since 2000, despite
5796-423: The local garage could not handle the work in question. Typical of this would be the replacement of a top deck lost in collisions with a low bridge. Staff at Aldenham were transported in by bus, with buses running from over 40 London bus garages every day. The fleet included redundant RTs and later used ex- British Airways front entrance RMA vehicles. The improving quality of bus body construction standards lead to
5888-399: The market was saturated with small independent bus companies which depressed patronage from established railways and larger bus companies – the worst affected being the London County Council's tramways which ran at a deficit. Management's efforts to control costs lead to a strike across the whole network, which was shortly followed by the major bus companies and railways in London. Some of
5980-484: The mid-1980s when the practice of body separation at overhaul was finally abandoned. The smaller classes (RLH, GS types, for example) were not subject to this mass overhaul process and retained their original identities throughout. After the end of Routemaster production, later 'off-the-peg' buses such as the Daimler Fleetlines were less suited to this style of overhaul, due either to the impracticability or
6072-406: The name London Country , the green buses and Green Line Coaches became the responsibility of a new NBC subsidiary, London Country Bus Services , on 1 January 1970. Despite a comprehensive replacement of the bus fleet in the early 1950s, bus ridership fell dramatically – from 4.5 billion in 1950, to 3.1 billion by 1962 – while private car ownership rapidly increased. A seven day strike in 1958 and
6164-429: The need for constant, short-term surrender of tax discs and then re-application, but there must equally have been some administrative cost in keeping complicated records of the real identity of each bus, both the chassis and the body, not to mention the need to renumber the chassis of every bus leaving overhaul so that the vehicle's numbers matched the official log book. No legislation has ever been traced that gave either
6256-424: The new facility began in 1952. The existing buildings were extended and converted into a bus overhaul works over a 53.3-acre (216,000 m) site, with its own staff canteen, social club and office blocks as well as the famous main building, test circuit and tilt test shed where London buses were subjected to being tilted on an inverter to assess stability. The site also had a power station on site to provide power for
6348-403: The only immediately obvious common feature being their use of a largely red livery (mandatory since 1997). For each bus route, London Buses sets a specification for buses to be used, with the choice of particular vehicle that meets the specification left up to the operator. Particular examples of London Buses specification include the use of separate exit doors (increasingly unusual on buses in
6440-402: The overhaul, this was not always the case as the huge degree of standardisation meant that there was considerable flexibly available to match any suitable body to any suitable chassis. Whether the original, pre-overhaul combination was retained or not, what was almost always the case was that the overhauled bus would leave the works with a completely different identity - see the paragraphs below on
6532-428: The pre-war Glasgow vehicle, not all post-war production went to London Transport. Between 1946 and 1951, 101 chassis were delivered to ten other operators. Of these, only forty had RT-style bodies, thirty nine, by Park Royal , for St Helens' Corporation and one, by Metro-Cammell , for Coventry Corporation Transport . The external link below has more information. In June 1953, RT3710, along with Leyland Titan RTL1459,
6624-678: The private sector in the mid 1990s. Controversially, private operators were allowed to run buses in colours other than the traditional red. Following a campaign by tourism groups, tender specifications since 1997 specify that buses in London be 80% red. Despite proposals from the Government in the 1990s to deregulate bus routes in London, the bus tendering regime is still in place today, with individual bus routes put out to competitive tendering by private companies. In 2024, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan pledged to bring bus routes back into public ownership as contracts expire. In 2000, as part of
6716-474: The publicly-owned Transport for London . Over 1,400 buses in the fleet are battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses, the second largest zero emission bus fleet in Europe (behind Moscow ). In 2006, London became one of the first major cities in the world to have an accessible, low floor bus fleet. Buses have been used on the streets of London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating his horse-drawn omnibus service from Paddington to
6808-404: The running units such as brake system, axles, springs and other safety critical parts apart from the engine and gearbox would be removed from the chassis and would be inspected and, if needed, overhauled (at Chiswick Works). Each one of these sub-structures would be sent off for inspection and overhaul on its own line at Chiswick. The bodies would be placed on an inverting frame and rotated to access
6900-499: The story of the AEC Routemaster and widely on the changes at London Transport. The episode featured excerpts from "Overhaul", and later repeated the shots this time of the derelict works with the original voiceover dubbed onto the footage. Access to the site after closure was difficult, and few images exist of the site after closure. [REDACTED] London transport portal Buses in London Buses have been used as
6992-532: The summer. In 2021, TfL announced that the heritage route would not return following the COVID-19 pandemic . AEC Regent III RT The AEC Regent III RT was one of the variants of the AEC Regent III . It was a double-decker bus produced jointly between AEC and London Transport . It was the standard red London bus in the 1950s and continued to outnumber the better-known Routemaster throughout
7084-451: The underside so that road debris could be removed by steam cleaning . The body would then be moved by travelling crane to one of the many parallel bays in the main shop area. The body was placed on stands with staging all around for maximum access to all parts of the body. The overhaul would include such necessary work to return the bus to virtually "as new" condition and would be tailored to each vehicle depending on condition. For example,
7176-414: The upheaval in London Transport prior to privatisation of the bus services , subsequent improvements in bus construction standards - London buses are now designed for a 15-year service life with one mid-life heavy overhaul - and the use of specialist contractors to carry out non-garage maintenance have meant the London buses have long since re-assumed a smart appearance and mechanical efficiency. Aldenham
7268-470: The war, the construction of the railway extension was not restarted and the plan was finally dropped in September 1949. With the wartime bus fleet worn out and the existing Chiswick Works struggling to cope, it was decided to redevelop the site for bus overhaul, specifically body and chassis structures, with Chiswick continuing to specialise in the running units (engines, gearboxes, etc.). Construction of
7360-437: The works site was eventually leased to British Leyland as a repair and spares storage centre). The Aldenham Overhauls resulted in a bus that was almost back to as-new condition, something that eventually became an expensive and unnecessary luxury. Whilst the cessation of Aldenham overhauls and the transfer of maintenance work to individual bus garages initially resulted in a rather shabby bus fleet, not helped by lack of money and
7452-492: The works some time later, then taking the identity in turn of another incoming bus. As each overhaul cycle started, the first incoming batch gave up their identities completely and these registrations were delicensed, sometimes for many years, until the final batch of buses from that overhaul cycle left the works, taking those initial identities which were now relicensed. This system must have provided London Transport and it predecessor with considerable financial savings as it avoided
7544-562: The works. Although Aldenham had dealt with new vehicles and accident repairs from about 1945, it did not start full scale overhauling of bus bodies until 1949/50 and until 1955 chassis were still dealt with at Chiswick. This was because, with the RTs, the bodies were jig-built which enabled the bus bodies to be a perfect fit on all the other RT chassis. At first, buses were dealt with on an individual basis, with each chassis and body being re-united after overhaul. A small number of changes of body among
7636-444: Was announced that all buses in the fleet meet or exceed Euro VI emission standards, following the phasing out of older buses, the retrofitting of diesel vehicles and the introduction of new hybrid & electric buses. The Mayor of London is currently aiming for a zero emission bus fleet by 2037. From 2021, all new buses entering the fleet are either electric or hydrogen zero emission buses. Most local buses within London form
7728-467: Was back on the road the same day in the majority of cases. The system came into full operation in January 1956. The works were officially opened on 30 October 1956, at which date it had a staff of 1,800, which was expected to increase to 2,500. The post-war standardisation and huge size of the London Transport fleet allowed maintenance along modern production line principles, with work being carried out on
7820-579: Was constructed at London Transport's Chiswick Works . Its four-bay body resembled that of the Roe Leeds City Pullman body exhibited at the 1937 Commercial Motor Show, though the overall impression of modern design and the features included marked a big step forward. This body replaced the old one on RT 1 and the bus re-entered service in 1939. London Transport ordered 338 (later reduced to 150) chassis, which were in production when World War II broke out in September 1939. However, with
7912-492: Was followed in October 1985 by the decision to discontinue the practice of completely overhauling each bus every five years. Aldenham became increasingly uneconomic due to a shrinking bus fleet and the arrival of numerous types of non-standard vehicles not suited to full overhauls. The works became a "white elephant" resulting in the inevitable closure in November 1986. Indeed, by this time, the very existence of London Transport as
8004-405: Was placed into service, disguised as an old vehicle. It carried a secondhand open-staircase body previously carried on Leyland Titan (fleet number TD 111), dating from 1931. Thus bodied, RT 1 entered service in July 1938 as ST 1140, even though it was nothing like a standard ST vehicle . It continued in service until December 1938. While the chassis was on trial, a new body
8096-686: Was shipped to Switzerland and displayed at a trade fair in Zurich and a similar event in Malmö . During its visit it operated services in Zurich, Geneva , Lucerne and St Gallen . In the 1963 British musical comedy film, Summer Holiday , Cliff Richard drives a converted RT bus to Athens. In April 1962 Associated British Picture Corporation of Elstree actually bought three used RTs (RT2305 (KGU334), RT2366 (KGU395), and RT4326 (NLE990)) from London Transport. They were all converted to look like RT1881 (with
8188-490: Was taken away from the police and handed once again to professional busmen. Suffixes were gradually abolished over the decades, the last such route in London being the 77A, which became the 87 in June 2006. The LPTB, under Lord Ashfield , assumed responsibility for all bus services in the London Passenger Transport Area , an area with a radius of about 30 miles from Central London. This included
8280-567: Was the AEC Routemaster , built between 1956 and 1968. Since then, buses built for London's local services have all been variants of models built for general use elsewhere, although bus manufacturers would routinely offer a 'London specification' to meet specific London requirements. Some manufacturers even went so far as to build new models with London in mind such as the Daimler Fleetline and Leyland Titan . London did see
8372-500: Was the subject of several films including a 1957 British Transport film, entitled "Overhaul", about the work taking place at Aldenham. In 1962, the opening ten-minute scene of Cliff Richard 's musical film Summer Holiday was filmed at the Aldenham Works, where Cliff's character and friends are all supposed to be mechanics at Aldenham works. Whilst on lunch on a rainy day, they come up with the idea of converting an RT bus into
8464-412: Was this attention and thoroughness that was largely responsible for buses such as the RT , RF and AEC Routemaster lasting so long. One of the unusual aspects of the London Transport overhaul process was the "works float" system used for the large classes of buses such as RT, RTL, RTW, RF and Routemaster types. This dated back to the start of bus mass overhauls (then on an annual basis for each bus) by
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