THE GALLERY
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Seen on the X3 service to Southend from central London is this Northern Counties bodied Olympian.
The bus represents the last in the line of doubledeckers which featured on the London commuter services
introduced at the time of deregulation. The service even featured integral Van Hool luxury deckers at one time
in a vivid yellow and blue livery. The service now survives as a joint Green Line operation with First
Essex Buses.
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122 (VLT44) was originally London Transport RM44. The Routemaster is now preserved in Southend's
livery, commemorating the time it spent working in the seaside town. The location is North
Weald 2004.
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Deregulation saw Southend Transport dabling in all sorts of operations. Express services are well known as mentioned above, but they also went into the London sightseeing market with a venture dubbed "Culture Bus". This utilised the drivers off London commuter services. The buses used were painted in the same colours as the expresses and a number of East Lancs Olympians were hired from Cardiff Bus for the operation. Somewhat ironically many of these buses ended their days with Guide Friday/City Sightseeing in open top form and on city tours again, though not in the capital. Seen is Cardiff 554, Southend 364 (B554ATX) on Marylebone High Road. |
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