The Routemaster bus is a London Transport icon, but which was the only other company to run scheduled bus services with new Routemasters?

The London Transport (LT) Routemaster was introduced in the 1950’s and was specifically designed for use in the capital. Production continued until 1968, and the total number built reached 2876, of which over 1100 are still in existence.

Although most of these were delivered new to LT, the Northern General Transport Company ordered a batch of eighteen for their Newcastle operations, having had the prototype front entrance version on trial. Due to their success, a further thirty two were ordered and the prototype purchased from LT.

British European Airways also had a small batch of a similar version of the Routemaster from new, towing luggage trailers, to transport passengers from their central London terminal to Heathrow Airport, but this was not a scheduled bus service.