Download or read book London Buses in the 1970s written by Jim Blake and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-05-30 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives, this book examines the turbulent period in the history of London's buses immediately after London Transport lost its Country Buses and Green Line Coaches to the recently-formed National Bus Company, under their new subsidiary company, London Country Bus Services Ltd.The new entity inherited a largely elderly fleet of buses from London Transport, notably almost 500 RT-class AEC Regent double-deckers, of which replacement was already under way in the shape of new AEC MB and SM class Swift single-deckers.London Transport itself was in the throes of replacing a much larger fleet of these. At the time of the split, it was already apparent that the 36ft-long MB class single-deckers were not suitable for London conditions, particularly in negotiating suburban streets cluttered with cars, and were also mechanically unreliable. The shorter SM class superseded them but they were equally unreliable. January 1971 saw the appearance of London Transport's first purpose-built one-man operated double-decker, the DMS class. All manner of problems plagued these, too.Both operators were also plagued with a shortage of spare parts for their vehicles, made worse by the three-day week imposed by the Heath regime in 1973-4. London Transport and London Country were still closely related, with the latter's buses continuing to be overhauled at LT's Aldenham Works. Such were the problems with the MB, SM, and DMS types that LT not only had to resurrect elderly RTs to keep services going, but even repurchased some from London Country! In turn, the latter operator hired a number of MB-types from LT, now abandoned as useless, from 1974 onwards in an effort to cover their own vehicle shortages. Things looked bleak for both operators in the mid-1970s.This book contains a variety of interesting and often unusual photographs illustrating all of this, most of which have never been published before.

Download or read book London Bus Routes One by One written by Matthew Wharmby and published by Transport Systems Series. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London's bus routes are always changing. In this snapshot of 2021, this book captures routes 1-100 at their current physical extent and with their current operating company. Illustrated with over 180 photos, this unique volume gives an insight into what can be seen on each route every day.

Download or read book The Golden Age of Buses written by Charles Klapper and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1984 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The London Bendy Bus written by Matthew Wharmby and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-03-30 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 2002 and 2006 six of Londons bus companies put into service 390 articulated bendy buses on twelve routes for transport in London.rnrnDuring what turned out to be a foreshortened nine years in service, the Mercedes-Benz Citaro G buses familiar on the continent and worldwide earned an unenviable reputation in London; according to who you read and who you believed, they caught fire at the drop of a hat, they maimed cyclists, they drained revenue from the system due to their susceptibility to fare evasion, they transported already long-suffering passengers in standing crush loads like cattle and they contributed to the extinction of the Routemaster from frontline service. In short, it was often referred to as the bus we hated.rnrnThis account is an attempt by a long-time detractor of the bendy buses to set the vehicles in their proper context not quite to rehabilitate them, but to be as fair as is possible towards a mode of transport which felt about as un-British as could be.

Download or read book The London DMS Bus written by Matthew (Matt) Wharmby and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vilified as the great failure of all London Transport bus classes, the DMS family of Daimler Fleetline was more like an unlucky victim of straitened times. Desperate to match staff shortages with falling demand for its services during the late 1960s, London Transport was just one organization to see nationwide possibilities and savings in legislation that was about to permit double-deck one-man-operation and partially fund purpose-built vehicles. However, prohibited by circumstances from developing its own rear-engined Routemaster (FRM) concept, LT instituted comparative trials between contemporary Leyland Atlanteans and Daimler Fleetlines.The latter came out on top, and massive orders followed. The first DMSs entering service on 2 January 1971. In service, however, problems quickly manifested. Sophisticated safety features served only to burn out gearboxes and gulp fuel. The passengers, meanwhile, did not appreciate being funnelled through the DMS's recalcitrant automatic fare-collection machinery only to have to stand for lack of seating. Boarding speeds thus slowed to a crawl, to the extent that the savings made by laying off conductors had to be negated by adding more DMSs to converted routes! Second thoughts caused the ongoing order to be amended to include crew-operated Fleetlines (DMs), noise concerns prompted the development of the B20 ‘quiet bus’ variety, and brave attempts were made to fit the buses into the time-honored system of overhauling at Aldenham Works, but finally the problems proved too much. After enormous expenditure, the first DMSs began to be withdrawn before the final RTs came out of service, and between 1979 and 1983 all but the B20s were sold – as is widely known, the DMSs proved perfectly adequate with provincial operators once their London features had been removed. OPO was to become fashionable again in the 1980s as the politicians turned on London Transport itself, breaking it into pieces in order to sell it off. Not only did the B20 DMSs survive to something approaching a normal lifespan, but the new cheap operators awakening with the onset of tendering made use of the type to undercut LT, and it was not until 1993 that the last DMS operated.

Download or read book East London Buses 1970s 1980s written by Malcolm Batten and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A terrific range of previously unpublished images of East London buses, including Routemasters, during the 1970s-1980s.

Download or read book London Transport s Last Buses written by Matthew Wharmby and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Olympian was Leyland's answer to the competition that was threatening to take custom away from its second-generation OMO double-deck products. Simpler than the London Transportcentric Titan but, unlike that integral model, able to respond to the market by being offered as a chassis for bodying by the bodybuilder of the customer's choice, the Olympian was an immediate success and soon replaced both the Atlantean and Bristol VRT as the standard double-decker of the NBC. It wasn't until 1984 that London Transport itself dabbled with the model, taking three for evaluation alongside trios of contemporary double-deckers.The resulting L class spawned an order for 260 more in 1986, featuring accessibility advancements developed by LT in concert with the Ogle design consultancy, but the rapid changes engulfing the organisation meant that no more were ordered. During the 1990s company ownerships shifted repeatedly as the ethos of competition gave way to the cold reality of big business, an unstable situation which even saw London's bus operations broken up.The L class was split between three new companies, but the backlog of older vehicles to replace once corporate interests released funding ensured the buses up to a further decade in service. Finally, as low-floor buses swept into the capital at the turn of the century, Olympian operation at last declined, and the final examples operated early in 2006.This profusely illustrated book describes the diversity of liveries, ownerships and deployments that characterised the London Leyland Olympians' two decades of service.

Download or read book London s Buses 1979 1994 written by Andrew Bartlett and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1979, fresh from its general election victory, the Conservative government began formulating plans to deregulate bus services and privatise the companies operating them in England, Scotland and Wales. London was not to be excluded, so from the outset, London Buses was broken up into several areas and from 1985, a tendering system was introduced which permitted other operators to bid for the routes. Opposition from the Labour group at the Greater London Council had to be dealt with – eventually achieved by abolishing it in 1986. However, as each subsequent year passed, promises that deregulation was coming were not met. In late 1992, the privatisation timetable was set, and was ultimately completed at the end of 1994. The issue of deregulation never resurfaced. Copiously illustrated with over 270 photographs, virtually all of which are being published for the first time, this is the story of London Buses over those sixteen tumultuous years. To give greater context to the narrative, annual vehicle acquisition listings show how purchasing policy changed over the period; important route changes, tendering gains and losses and a fleet list for the entire period are also included.

Download or read book London s New Routemaster written by Tony Lewin and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few things are as synonomous with London as its famous red buses, thousands of which carry millions of passengers a year on hundreds of separate routes. Yet since the withdrawl from service of the much loved Routemaster in the mid-2000s, noe of its replacements has succeeded in generating the same kind of affection among the travelling public. Now, however, the stylish, Thomas Hetherwick-designed New Routemaster looks set to recapture the imagination of Londoners and visitors alike. This book tells the story of the New Routemaster.

Download or read book East London Buses The Twenty First Century written by Malcolm Batten and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a wealth of previously unpublished images, Malcolm Batten observes what has changed in the East London bus scene since the turn of the century.

Download or read book London written by Michael Leapman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-01-11 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detachable col. fold-out map attached to flap of p. [3] of cover.

Download or read book London Transport Buses in East London and Essex written by David Christie and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Christie offers a range of superb images of London Transport buses in the eastern part of London.

Download or read book The Rough Guide to Vintage London written by Emily Bick and published by Rough Guides UK. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rough Guide to Vintage London is your ultimate guide to London's burgeoning vintage scene, that is making the British capital a more exciting place to visit than ever before. Whether you're into fifties fashion or seventies furnishings, old-fashioned beauty parlours, Art Deco cafés or retro restaurants, The Rough Guide to Vintage London will show you where to find the best bargains and the hippest hang-outs. This authoritative illustrated guide casts a discerning eye over the entire city, highlighting the best of vintage London in each area. It covers over 200 budget and luxury attractions, from the East End hotspots of hyper-cool Hoxton and Shoreditch to the eccentric emporia of the West End, as well as the pick of London's markets and the classiest vintage outlets north and south of the centre, all marked on full-colour maps. Whatever your look or interest - blitz chic, beehive hairdo, forties screen idol, rockabilly, twenties flapper or Edwardian chap - The Rough Guide to Vintage London will tell you where you can enjoy them to the full. From Consultant-Editor Wayne Hemingway and written by Francis Ambler, Emily Bick, Samantha Cook, Nicholas Jones and Lara Kavanagh.Now available in ePub format.

Download or read book London s Buses The Colourful Era 1985 2005 written by Malcolm Batten and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lavishly illustrated look at the era of privatisation of London's buses before an all-red livery was imposed.

Download or read book London s Sightseeing Buses written by Malcolm Batten and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2018-12-15 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the various operators that have catered for tourists in the heart of our capital since 1970 and the vehicles that they have used.

Download or read book Bus Services Across the UK written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-10-26 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buses are a key local service, but usage has been in decline since the 1950s. The Transport Act 1985 introduced deregulation, but that has failed to reverse that decline. The report examines the particular problems local authorities face in developing and implementing effective bus strategies. It is clear to the Committee that, for many areas, including all major metropolitan areas outside London, the current regime is not working. The Committee recommends more flexibility, and is particularly attracted by Quality Contracts. These would replace open competition with a licensed regime. Operators bid for exclusive rights to run bus services on a route or group of routes, on the basis of a local authority service specification. Independent Traffic Commissioners are another development that the Committee welcomes, and would like to see them have a higher profile and more resources and powers, especially to enforce Quality Contracts and penalise operators who do not meet their obligations. Others areas covered in the report are: securing socially necessary services outside the PTAs; congestion and bus priority; concessionary fares; and the image of the bus.

Download or read book The Homeland Guide to London written by W. G. Morris and published by Garrett County Press. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historic buildings, museums, street plans and photographs make up one of the most detailed guides of London ever published. Perfect for the contemporary time-traveler, the guide covers religion, history, antiquities, literary associations and presents entertaining "footpath rambles of the neighborhoods." Released in 1947 by The Homeland Association (founded in 1896), the guide is an amazing love letter to the city of London and Great Britain.