Prepared on Notepad by Ian Smith,
This page created 20th August 2012.
The Wright Pathfinder 320 was a 10.8m low-floor body, to fit on either Lance or Scania chassis.
London Buses experimented with both.
London Buses specified an all-red livery with prominent low-floor buses signwriting and down-arrows.
Individual bus-operating subsidiaries were allowed their own fleetnames above the front doorway and cab.
LLW1-10: London United
The first ten LLWs started to arrive at Fulwell and Hounslow in December 1993,
allowing some time for familiarisation before they took over Hounslow's route 120 (Hounslow Bus Stn - Northolt Stn)
at the end of January 1994.
London United was privatised in November 1994, taking on the ten LLWs.
They technically passed to Westlink (Stanwell Buses) in March 2000, when the 120 was given over to low-floor double-deckers
and the LLWs moved to Hounslow Heath for the H91 (Hounslow West Station - Hammersmith).
But it was a moot point, as Stanwell Buses was subsumed by London United in September 2000.
Repaints saw the LLWs gain London United's smart livery of red with a dark grey skirt and light grey roof.
The H91 moved to Stamford Brook garage in June 2001, taking the LLWs with it,
and returned with them to Hounslow Heath in May 2002. They did not have a good reputation for reliability,
and were displaced in July 2004 by Dart SLFs. They were not retired,
but were fitted with vinyl posters for the pre-Christmas Kingston - Chessington Park & Ride route K50 for the 2004 season.
At the end of the Christmas shopping spree they were sold, all ten going to A2Z Buses in Birmingham.
LLW2 at Hammersmith on a H91 working, October 2001.
LLW11-24, LLW31: Centrewest
LLW11-24, fourteen buses, were allocated to Centrewest for the Uxbridge Buses route 222
(Uxbridge Stn - Hounslow Bus Stn). Centrewest was privatised in September 1994.
The LLWs stayed put on the 222. Livery changed slowly: some just had the "low floor bus" on the front dash replaced with First + logo.
LLW13 lost its down-arrows and large low floor bus signs, gaining a repaint in red with a yellow waist band and Uxbridge Buses fleetnames
on front and upper sides, and small discrete easy access bus signs.
In September 1998 another similar bus was added, transferred in within First Group from Yorkshire Rider.
Numbered LLW31 (despite there being another with Metroline), it operated from Uxbridge on route 335
(Slough Bus Stn - Newland Park/Chalfont & Latimer Stn).
The 222 was lost to London United in 2000, and the LLWs (except LLW31) spent time on route 27 and route 92.
These were then double-decked, and First transferred the batch to First Southern National and First Bristol
in spring 2001. LLW31 stayed on the 335 until Christmas 2002, when it departed to First Midland Red.
LLW25-38: Metroline
Metroline took the other fourteen new buses for the 186 (Brent Cross - Northwick Park Hospital),
operated initially from Harrow Weald. These had the standard London Buses livery for the type.
But Metroline too was privatised, in October 1994, and subsequent repaints brought blue lower panels, red uppers,
and a white line in between, with no mention of low floor or easy access.
The 186 was transferred to Edgware in September 2000, and the LLWs went with the route.
Like others of their kind they developed a reputation for unreliability. Nevertheless they stayed with the 186 until
early 2006.
Then six were sold to Sullivan Buses, and six went to the short-lived UK North in Manchester.
When that collapsed three found new homes on Malta, while three went to Tate's Travel of Darton and then Val's Classic Coaches for a while.
LLW26 leaves Harrow station on a 186 for Edgware, April 2004
LLW25-27, 35-37: Sullivan Buses
Sullivan Buses of South Mimms bought six of the LLWs from Metroline in 2006,
and painted five of them blue with a pink stripe and branding for its service 950 to Thorpe Park.
The other was bought for spares.
They gave several years of service on the 950 before being replaced by Caetano-bodied Dart SLFs in 2008,
when they were sold for scrap.
 Ian's Bus Stop
 Lance SLF Index .
 LLW.
 bus histories.
photo refs.
ELW .
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