Mainstay of London Buses Ltd's fleet into the 1990s, London's MCW
Metrobus fleet of M class remained almost completely intact by the time
of privatisation in the autumn of 1994. In the hands of seven new
companies thereafter, there followed multiple new liveries and new
identities, but it wasn't until the end of the decade, when this account
takes up their story, that withdrawals commenced in the face of new
low-floor double-deck buses. Even then, the venerable M class remained a
solid option for second-hand purchases, allowing examples to remain into
service past their twentieth birthdays.
Between 1998 and 2004 the M fleets of Arriva London North and South,
First Capital and Centrewest, London General, London United, Metroline
and Metroline London Northern and a host of smaller London contractors
dwindled until the last examples, lingering on school routes for Leaside
Travel, signed off at the beginning of 2006.