| London Transport Buses (later just London Buses) had first appeared as a service vehicle branding in about 1989, when the bus operating divisions were restructured into new units as a prelude to privatisation in the 1990s. The residual, London-wide role of 'bus station control' was supported by an initial fleet of Ford Escort vans, followed by the first larger vans in 1993. These were short-wheelbase Volkswagen Transporters in white livery (such as 4311V and 4385V). A couple of longer Transporters were added in 1995 but deliveries in 1996 and 1997 switched to the Ford Transit. The Transporter was to return in late 1998, by which time the livery had changed to red with orange squares. 4887VW was the first of a batch of five short-wheelbase vans, and was based at Cromwell Road bus station in Kingston. Rather surprisingly, I only have one photo of this van, Dave having caught it in central Kingston on 18th August 2000. Other differences from the earlier vans were that the light-bar was moved from the back to just behind the cab, the roof-mounted spot-lights were dispensed with, and the fleetnumber suffix was changed from V to VW. |
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Photo ID: |
6294 |
| Photo date: |
18/08/2000 |
Size: |
Regular |
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| Date added: |
11/05/2020 |
