Sightseeing business strengthened in London
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LONDON BUSES and one of its independent sector rivals are both strengthening their London sightseeing businesses.
London Buses is re-equipping its sightseeing fleet with 30 AEC Routemasters decked out in old-style London Transport They will all be equipped with public address systems and will carry fully-trained guides.
They will operate on London Buses' tour, now renamed Original London Transport Sightseeing Tour.
Twenty of the Route
masters are being converted into open-toppers and all are expected to be in service by Easter.
London Buses is also planning express services from Victoria to Eastbourne, Brighton and Birmingham.
The Birmingham service is likely to be operated jointly with Central Coachways, the coaching subsidiary of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Company.
London Buses is to take delivery of three Duplebodied Daf MB coaches which will be used initially On LB's share of the service.
And a rival, Ensign Bus, has been granted authority to run its Essex/East LondonCity commuter services on local service licences.
The services use Ensign's London Pride and Culture Bus vehicles which would otherwise run empty or with longer distance passengers on their runs from the company's Purflect base near the l)artford Tunnel.
Now, they qualify for fuel duty rebate and are able to carry passengers making local journeys along sections of the routes.