LT to sell its Atlanteans
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• London Transport is selling its fleet of 47 Leyland Atlanteans although they are only eight years old. The buyer is as yet unnamed but is thought to be in the Far East. The buses — which have passed through the Aldenham overhaul process and have been repainted in the past 12 months — have covered less than 350,000 miles each. LT policy in the past has meant buses being kept for 10 and 20 years, as in the case of the RM and RT.
The Atlanteans are at present operating on routes around Croydon. They will be replaced, starting next week, by Daimler Fleetlines and single-deck one-man vehicles. In some cases these will utilize the Johnson fare-box equipment from the Atlanteans where flat-fare routes are involved.
A casualty of the Atlantean sale, writes Martin Hayes, is the rear-engined Routemaster vehicle, the FRM, which has been running with them. Its future "is still to be decided," says LT, but it could be difficult to find a suitable operating slot for a single type of vehicle. This unique bus could still be the forerunner of a new breed of double-deckers still under development.