David Beddall

The Titan was an integral double-decker bus built by Leyland Motors, becoming the standard double-decker produced by the company in the 1980s. The type was not as popular as its main competitor, the MCW Metrobus. As with this latter model, London Transport was Leyland’s best customer for the Titan. Leyland built one of the prototype Titans to London specification and it was used on trials from Chalk Farm garage in May 1976. The first six entered service with London Transport from Hornchurch garage in December 1978. The first 250 were built at the former AEC facility in Southall. Production then moved north to Leyland’s own factory in Workington. The last members of the fleet were delivered to London Transport in 1984, with 1,125 being built new for London. These were joined by five additional Titans from West Midlands PTE in 1984, as well as a former demonstrator, bringing the total to 1,131. At the time of privatisation, Titans passed to six of the new London operators. A number of Titans passed to London Pride and the Big Bus Company for further use as tour buses. David Beddall documents the Titan’s service in London, both in normal passenger service and as a tour bus, through a diverse selection of high-quality images.

The Metrobus was the first bus to be built and designed in its entirety by Metro Cammel Weymann (MCW). West Midlands PTE and London Transport were the biggest customers of the MCW Metrobus. The first five trial Metrobuses entered service with London Transport during 1978 and 1979. In 1979 and 1980, a large number of Metrobuses entered service in north-west and south-west London. These vehicles replaced many of the DMS-class and other single-deck models. Towards the end of 1980, the type was put on the Airbus services linking central London with Heathrow Airport. London Transport took stock of 1,440 standard Metrobuses. In 1982, the Metrobus Mark II was launched, with changed styling at the front. London Transport initially ordered two of these buses, trialling them against three other models, the Leyland Olympian, Dennis Dominator and Volvo B55 Ailsa. Another twenty-eight Mark II Metrobuses were purchased by London Buses Limited in 1987 for the low-cost Harrow Buses unit. These were operated briefly and withdrawn in 1991. Slotted in between these were nine second-hand Metrobuses purchased from Greater Manchester Buses, with another five from Busways, with these and the former Manchester examples allocated to Potters Bar. By this time, 1,485 MCW Metrobuses were operating in London. Those purchased by London Transport passed to private operators in 1994 and operated with them until the new millennium. Other Metrobuses were also acquired by tour operators in the capital, who converted them to open-top layout.David Beddall provides a snapshot of the Metrobus while in service in London, both on London Regional and Transport for London services, as well as those examples that saw further service in London as sightseeing buses.