London Traveller was a bus operator in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was partially owned by

Yorkshire Traction Yorkshire Traction was a bus operator in Yorkshire that operated from 1902 until 2005. History In March 1902 the Barnsley & District Electric Traction Company Limited was formed. It operated trams around the Barnsley area until around 1930 ...

, and was sold to

Thorpes Thorpes was an English bus operator. It operated services under contract to Transport for London. History Thorpes was a coach operator that diversified into operating bus services under contract to Transport for London in the 1990s. Their St ...

in October 2001.

History

London Traveller was formed in 1998 and initially operated local routes in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

from a base in

Potters Bar Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882. In 2022 the population was ...

. Its Managing Director was Steve Deveraux, who had experience in the London market through his former involvement with the short-lived

London Forest London Forest was a subsidiary of London Buses that operated services between April 1989 and November 1991. History London Forest was formed as one of the eleven operating units of London Buses in readiness for privatisation. It commenced op ...

operation. A small number of contracted school bus workings on London routes 143 and

302 __NOTOC__ Year 302 (CCCII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius or, less frequently, year 1055 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination ...

were gained in June 1998, and operated with second-hand double-deckers. The company's biggest expansion came in May 1999, when the contract for routes 187 and 487 were won from

Metroline Metroline is a bus company operating services in Greater London and south Hertfordshire. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation and operates services under contract to Transport for London. As at March 2021, the fleet consisted of 1,5 ...

.The London Bus Page - 15/03/04 - All Change On The 187 and 487
Fifteen new Volvo B6BLEs were purchased to operate the routes. Following this success,

bought a 25% stake in the company. The Hertfordshire routes were registered to a separate company, so were expected not to be involved in the deal, but were ultimately integrated into the London Traveller business. In mid-2000 Deveraux left the company, and his successor Dave Booker immediately cancelled the two remaining off-peak commercial services in Hertfordshire. Route 187 was extended to operate to

Finchley Road Finchley Road is a designated arterial road in north-west London, England. The Finchley Road starts in St John's Wood near central London as part of the A41; its southern half is a major dual carriageway with high traffic levels often freque ...

in early 2000, and five more B6BLEs were acquired. Management problems at London Traveller in 2000 saw the company reformed, with Metropolitan Omnibus becoming a trading name for the first time. Traction's share in the company increased to 35% as a result. In October 2001, the company was sold to

Subsequent history

Thorpes acquired all of Traveller's routes and vehicles, although the Volvo B6BLEs were later sold back to Traction and used in the

and

Yorkshire Terrier The Yorkshire Terrier (often shortened as Yorkie) is one of the smallest dog breeds of the terrier type and indeed of any dog breed. The breed developed during the 19th century in Yorkshire, England.Stagecoach Yorkshire Stagecoach Yorkshire is an operating division of Stagecoach Group. It was formed in 2005 to take over the former Traction Group fleets in Yorkshire by Stagecoach Group, which took over Traction from Frank Carter on 14 December 2005; Yorkshi ...

Fleet

London Traveller used Volvo B6BLEs on routes 187 and 487, initially buying 15 and later acquiring a further five following a route extension. Another similar bus was delivered as a spare in 2001, taking the total to 21, the number acquired by Thorpes. These were joined on the routes by a unique

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

NL222 single-decker for a short period. Traveller's other routes used double-deckers such as

MCW Metrobus The MCW Metrobus is a two and three-axle double-decker bus manufactured by Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW) between 1977 and 1989, with over 4,000 built. The original MkI was superseded by the MkII which had a symmetrical windscreen with an arched ...

es,

Leyland Olympian The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production. Construction The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as t ...

s and a

Dennis Arrow The Dennis Lance was a single-decker bus chassis manufactured by Dennis between 1991 and 2000, replacing the Dennis Falcon. Its low floor variant, the Dennis Lance SLF (Super Low Floor) was built between 1993 and 1996. Between 1995 and 1998, D ...

. A

Leyland National The Leyland National is an integrally-constructed British step-floor single-decker bus manufactured in large quantities between 1972 and 1985. It was developed as a joint project between two UK nationalised industries – the National Bus Co ...

was also owned, as was a

Leyland Leopard The Leyland Leopard was a mid-engined single-decker bus and single-decker coach chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1959 and 1982. History The Leyland Leopard was introduced in 1959. It was developed from the Leyland Tiger Cub, one of ...

and a

Leyland Lynx The Leyland Lynx was a stepped-entrance single-decker bus manufactured by Leyland in Workington, England between 1986 and 1992. After the takeover by Volvo, it was succeeded by the Volvo B10B. Background The Leyland Lynx (B60) was designed ...

.London Traveller D156HML on Flickr
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References

{{Defunct British Bus Companies Former London bus operators 1998 establishments in England 2001 disestablishments in England Former bus operators in Hertfordshire