London Central, London General Volvo Olympians

This page created 18th November 2006 by Ian Smith

AV1-9

LC Royale drawing London Central was privatised in October 1994, with garages at Camberwell, New Cross, Peckham and Bexleyheath, and a double-decker fleet mainly of Routemasters and Titans. They immediately sought some new double-deckers for route P11 (Rotherhithe - Waterloo Stn), newly converted from midibus operation. They bought nine Volvo Olympians with Alexander Royale bodywork from dealer stock and placed them in Peckham Garage to operate the route.
AV5 in Rotherhithe, June 2001 In September 1999 the P11 was renumbered 381, so that a night route, N381 could be added.

The AVs were withdrawn in April 2003, having spent their time with London Central serving the one route. Most (AV1-8) went to store at First's Leicester depot for a year, then were sold to Ensign Bus at Purfleet, who promptly sold them on to other operators. Ensignbus had already bought AV9, and sent that off to Guide Friday in Stratford. The others went to Talisman Coaches (Colchester), Chambers (Bures), Hams Travel (Flimwell), First Manchester, and Centra.
Centra Royale drawing The pair with Centra were repainted in a basically red livery, with a deep blue skirt swept up at the rear topped with a reflective silver band. They joined Centra's Stansted operations, which briefly saw at least one of them used on the 502 Loughton - Romford service. But the parlous state of the fleet at Mitcham Belle, taken over in August 2004, saw them used on their 200 route. Centra passed them on to Flights Hallmark in September 2005.

Bus Stop Olympians NV AV histories photo refs VN,VA