Suggestion for the New Routemasters After London Service: Repower Them as Electric Vehicles for Bus Rapid Transit Services

Repowered New Routemaster LT11

This is a follow-up to my article from last year regarding the New Routemasters being phased out in favour of new zero-emission buses in the near future.

London Bus Tender Awards: Go-Ahead London to Operate Superloop Route SL11 with New Electric Buses from January 2026

As we enter the new month of August 2025, Transport for London (TfL) has announced that route SL11/N472 has been awarded to Go-Ahead London Central, with new electric double-deck buses.

LBSL intends to enter into a new contract for the following route with the operator listed below:

Experimental Routemaster (XRM): The Overlooked Project of London's Transport History

XRM model bus design
It suggests a livery that is partly red and partly unpainted aluminium.

As a follow-up to my previous articles, "A Brief History of Low-Floor Buses and London Transport’s XRM Project: A Missed Opportunity for Accessibility" and "The Proposed Successors to the AEC Routemaster Before the Three-Door, Two-Staircase Hybrid New Routemaster Bus," this piece will delve into the ambitious yet ultimately unfulfilled project known as the XRM, a London Transport (LT) initiative aimed at designing the next generation of double-deck buses. The Experimental Routemaster (XRM) is indeed a forgotten part of London's Transport history.