< View previous picture - View next picture > Photographer / Copyright Damon Cross Images should not be reused without permission. View vehicle details Location Link/s Potters Bar Garage Date added to site 18/02/2022 Printer-friendly version of this page

Details: Various London Transport buses have been used for alternative roles over the years, sometimes with modifications and sometimes without. I have not been too concerned about including these on LTSV, as the information about them is often included in books and websites detailing the bus fleets. As such, there are some that are not listed but perhaps could be. An example is this Ford Transit minibus seen at Potters Bar Garage on 9th June 1990. Although looking little different to when it was in passenger service, the blind indicates that it was in use as mobile classroom. London Transport's FS class was started in the early 1970s when a number of 16-seat Ford Transits were acquired for use on several new services around the suburbs. The routes were generally successful, leading to the introduction of larger vehicles, and the last two to remain with FSs were the H1 serving the Hampstead Garden Suburbs and the PB1 in Potters Bar. FS27 was from a batch of 3 additional Transit minibuses bought in 1986 to replace earlier versions. They almost bridged the gap between the first and second 'wave' of minibus use, as it was in 1986 that various UK bus companies embraced the use of smaller vehicles. Most of the early vehicles were Ford Transits or Freight Rover Sherpas, followed by slightly larger types such as the Optare Citypacer and MCW Metrorider. London Buses caught the Minibus bug about a year later, and used many of the latter types, before moving onto even bigger models such as the Optare StarRider.

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