Category:London Buses (London Regional Transport)

English: London Buses Ltd was a company which was used between 1985 and 1994 as a wholly owned subsidiary of London Regional Transport. Images in this category relate to this period, for other uses of the company or the 'London Buses' brand, see the parent category.

Incorporated on 29 March 1985, London Buses Ltd was created to own and operate LRT's bus fleet and related assets at 'arms length' from the rest of the authority. This was to prepare for and ultimately facilitate their sale to various private companies as part of the privatisation of London bus services, which had been acheived by 1994.

London Buses Ltd were the first to introduce the 'London Buses' brand, with buses having previously been operated under the monolithic identity of 'London Transport' - see Category:London Transport buses, which applied to all modes. The simple white roundel logo introduced in the latter part of the LT era was retained at first, but by 1987 had begun to be replaced on the side of buses with a red and yellow roundel, which also incorporated the 'London Buses' name. At the same time, the livery was changed from all-over red, to include a grey skirt and mid-level white relief line.

For the next phase of privatisation, the garages and route buses of London Buses Ltd were transferred to 11 new companies, split along geographic lines (all of the companies having at least some routes entering the centre of the city). Incorporated on 14 December 1988, they were established as wholly owned subsidiaries of London Buses Ltd. Their legal and trading names were as follows:

• Centrewest London Buses Ltd (Centrewest)
• East London Bus & Coach Company Ltd (East London)
• Leaside Bus Company Ltd (Leaside)
• London Central Bus Company Ltd (London Central)
• London Forest Travel Ltd (London Forest)
• London General Transport Services Ltd (London General)
• London Northern Bus Company Ltd (London Northern)
• London United Busways Ltd (London United)
• Metroline Travel Ltd (Metroline)
• South East London & Kent Bus Company Ltd (Selkent)
• South London Transport Ltd (South London)

The London Buses roundel and livery was retained, but each company also added its own small white trading name and logo to buses. This remained the case while they were still London Buses subsidiaries, with the exception of Centrewest, which soon developed various different identities on the standard livery. With the exception of London Forest which folded in 1991, the other 10 companies were fully privatised between 1994 and 1994 as they were sold off to either their management and/or employees, or other groups.

The London Buses roundel gradually disappeared from buses as each company removed it on privatisation. With the exception of London Northern, they all initially retained their legal and trading names, and some even the basic livery first introduced by London Buses. Only Centrewest kept its trade name and logo the same - all other operators kept their brand name but in a restyled form (often incorporated into their new owners scheme/logo). Only London Central, London General and London United however retained the logos introduced in 1988 after privatisation, albeit also in a restyled form.