Celebrating a British icon 83
seven years for all single-deck
routes to follow suit.
This may have been little more
than tinkering around the edges,
but plans for a radical overhaul of
London’s bus services had been
considered from the mid-1950s,
when the Chambers committee
was set up to find ways of
reducing costs and ascertaining
what practical measures could be
taken in order to secure greater
efficiency or economies. This
reported in 1955 but only made
limited recommendations for
change.
It appeared to rule out driver-
only operation in much of
London, citing the impact on
traffic of slower boarding times,
but did suggest that special
services be introduced in the
peak hours to cater for the
heaviest traffic flows, such as
those to and from the mainline
railway termini.
These, it said, would beoperated by ‘standee’ vehicles in
which most passengers would
stand rather than sit, as these
would hold more passengers
than conventional seated buses.
Other approaches that were
rejected included radial suburban
routes feeding into a separate
central network at dedicated
interchanges and the adoption of
flat fares.
Poor labour relations in the
early 1960s, culminating in an
overtime ban imposed in late
October 1963, had an adverse
impact on service reliability and
drove more passengers away
from London’s buses.Phelps-Brown and
the AEC Merlin
In November 1963, the
Conservative government set up
a committee of inquiry, chaired
by Prof Henry Phelps-Brown of
the London School of Economics.
His remit was to review the pay
and conditions of bus drivers and
conductors in light of manpower
requirements and working and
operating conditions in London
traffic.
In making its report, the
committee was instructed
to pay due regard to the
possibilities of increasing the
efficiency of London Transport’s
road services. It produced an
interim report on 12 December
recommending new rates of pay,
which was rapidly implemented,leading to the ending of the
overtime ban.
The final report was published
in June 1964 and recommended
that bus workers’ pay be linked
to the earnings of skilled and
semi-skilled workers in London.
In return, staff were expected to
agree to the extension of driver-
only operation and experimental
operation of both large standee
single-deckers and front-entrance
double-deckers.
Although the unions accepted
much of the report, areas of
disagreement with London
Transport led to further
industrial action.
Shortly afterwards, London
Transport ordered 50 Park
Royal-bodied Leyland Atlanteans
(class XA) for use in the Central
Area and eight similar Daimler
Fleetlines (class XF) for the
Country Area. These were
slightly modified versions of
vehicles already built for many
bus fleets outside London.
Although the Atlanteans were
to be used with conductors, the
Fleetlines had gates fitted to the
staircase that allowed the top
deck to be closed in the off-peak
period for driver-only operation.
Later in 1964, six 36ft AEC
Merlin rear-engined standee
single-deckers were ordered for
a new limited stop route linking
Victoria and Marble Arch. This
was introduced in April 1966
as Red Arrow route 500 and50 Years Ago
BELOW: Two
preserved
examples of buses
that London
Transport bought
for the reshaping
plan. AEC
Merlin MBA582
represents the
Red Arrow fleet
operated in central
London, while
DMS1 behind
was the first of
2,646 Fleetlines.
This carries the
Londoner name
used briefly by
London Transport.