Colourful Routemasters
With the Routemaster's longevity, there have been Routemaster buses painted to celebrate both the Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilees, in 1977 and 2002 respectively. 25 buses were painted Silver to celebrate the Silver Jubilee, and out of 50 buses painted gold in London in 2002, 15 (12 RML, 3 RM) were Routemasters.
During privatisation in London, from 1986, several private operators won contracts to operate London bus services, some of which including Routemaster-operated routes. Before an 80% red rule for liveries was introduced in 1997 by LT, the contract tendering authority, some of these new entrants ran Routemasters in non-red liveries, most notably Kentish Bus on Route 19 and Borehamwood Travel Services (BTS) (now part of London United Busways) on Route 13.
The iconic nature of the Routemaster also appealed to the many new operators outside of London that appeared post-1986 in the UK following bus deregulation. Several operators took second-hand Routemasters as a cheap way of expanding their fleets to stave off competition from new operators emerging after deregulation. Start-up operators also chose the Routemaster as a distinctive-looking bus. Routemasters were seen around the country painted in a variety of colours, and were used in regular service in Southampton, Blackpool, Glasgow, Perth, Dundee, Hull, Carlisle, Bedford, Corby, Manchester (Stagecoach), Southend and Burnley. During this era, several Routemasters found their way through more than one company and were also often loaned between operators.
One of the earliest, if not the earliest, examples of deregulated use of Routemasters was early in the history of the Stagecoach Group. Now one of the largest operators in the UK, Stagecoach combined vintage Routemasters with its new and striking corporate livery of all-over white with red, orange and blue stripes, to start one of their first operations, Magic Bus, in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 1980s. This contrasted with traditional identities still in use at the time.
Towards the end of this period, in 1994 in Reading, new operator Reading Mainline built up a 45-strong Routemaster fleet to compete with the established operator Reading Buses, in the process becoming the largest operator of Routemasters outside London. They used conductors to compete on speed in the town centre and, in the outskirts, took advantage of the rear platform to operate hail and ride sections of route. After building up a network covering nearly the whole town, Reading Buses posted their first financial loss. The company was purchased in 1998, with Reading Buses continuing Routemaster operation, albeit reduced in number, until 2000.
With the costs involved in running elderly two-person buses and with a general reduction in the number of operators, buses and services in the years following deregulation, as competitors merged or sold out, examples of use outside London declined through the 1990s. Many of these buses found their way back to London to assist with the refurbishment programme, as spares donors or to increase fleet size.
Withdrawal from mainstream London service saw another resurgence in the use of Routemasters outside London but on a smaller scale than post deregulation. Post 2000, usage was characterised by small novelty or seasonal routes.
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