page_title: London Buses route 24
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: London Buses route 24 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Preserved Grey-Green bus 115 (reg. F115 PHM), a 1988 Volvo Citybus double-decker with dual-door Alexander RV bodywork, pictured at the 2003 North Weald bus rally having just been repainted by the London Transport Museum into its original Grey-Green guise. The bus was the first of a batch of 30 such vehicles bought by the Cowie Group owned Grey-Green company for use on the flagship London Buses route 24. They were to be the first buses to run in central London not wearing the traditional red colour which had been used on London buses since 1933 with the formation of London Transport, as Grey-Green had won the contract to operate route 24 as part of the deregulation of London Bus services. The fleet were duly numbered 115-144, registered F115-144 PHM, and entered service in this grey, green and orange livery. The route was operated out of their London coach base in Stamford Hill, beginning on 5 November 1988. By 1994 Grey-Green had gained more route tenders necessitating an expanded fleet, including another running into central London, London Buses route 188. The Cowie Group's London fleet also expanded massively in 1994 when they purchased the Leaside and South London divisions of London Buses Ltd as the the privatisation process begun in the 1980s finally concluded. The subsequent wholesale rebranding of Cowie as Arriva (announced in 1997) saw many changes in their London fleets in terms of both liveries and operator names in the next year or two. Pre-empting this however, 155 was one of 7 of the batch which were repainted into allover red, for use on a long term Bakerloo Line replacement bus service between Oxford Circus and Elephant and Castle. With Grey-Green having been renamed Arriva London North East in January 1998, by June 1998 bus 155 had been repainted into Arriva's corporate London red livery for operation on route 188. A year later it was transferred to the Wood Green (code WN) garage of Arriva London North (the new name for Leaside), and was brought into the traditional London system of assigning class numbers, becoming VA155 in the VA-class. By 2003, with the move to low-floor buses for London contracts, the VA class was being disposed of. Most went on to see further service in Liverpool with Fleetlink, however 115 was loaned to the London Transport Museum, who repainted it at their Acton depot.
context_page_description: London Buses route 24 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Pimlico and Hampstead Heath, it is operated by Abellio London.
context_section_description: Route 24 dates back to 1910, when it ran between Hampstead Heath and Victoria station. In August 1912 it was extended to Pimlico and has continued in that form until the present day, making this the oldest unchanged bus route in London. Thirty-three Daimler double-decker buses with 34 seats were allocated to route 24, now running between Pimlico and Hampstead, with the fleet name "British" painted in green livery. These buses were running from Camden Town (AQ) garage until they were replaced by AEC NS-Type buses in 1927. Thirty-three NS-type buses were used on route 24 until 1934.
  Originally, the route was operated by the London General Omnibus Company, and later the British Automobile Traction Co until September 1933, when the London Passenger Transport Board, later London Transport Executive, was formed and ran under the name "London Transport".
  During its life with London Transport, route 24 was operated mainly from Chalk Farm (CF) garage in Harmood Street. It was also run at times from Victoria (Gillingham Street) (GM) garage.
  On 7 November 1965, the first 30 Leyland Atlantean buses entered service on route 24. It was the first route to use front-entrance double-decker buses in London. Routes 67 and 271 also trialled front-entrance buses. On 12 June 1966, the Atlanteans moved to Tottenham garage and were replaced by AEC Routemasters. The route was crew operated until 25 October 1986, apart from two short periods in 1965/1966 and 1975.
  The route was the first central London route to be awarded under the tendering process to a private company, Grey-Green, on 5 November 1988, using Alexander bodied Volvo Citybuses painted in its own grey, green and orange livery from its Stamford Hill garage. Grey-Green were owned by Cowie Group, and became part of Arriva London following the company's acquisition of two other London operators.
  Upon being re-tendered, in November 2002 the route passed to Metroline's Holloway garage, and in 2006 was the first London bus route to be operated by Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. Upon re-tendering, on 10 November 2007 it passed to London General's Stockwell garage. Alexander Dennis Enviro400H hybrids were introduced to the route in early 2009.
  On 11 February 2008, a bus on diversion had its roof removed after the driver drove into the side rather than under the middle of an arch bridge. Transport for London said the diversion was safe if drivers followed instructions, and had been operating successfully for over 24 hours. This came three months after another 24 lost its roof in the same place while out of service.
  A night element to the route was introduced on 27 November 1999, in the form of route N24, to replace part of the withdrawn route N2 between Hampstead Heath and Pimlico. The N prefix was dropped during April 2004, thus making it a 24-hour route.
  In February 2010 it was reported that a Muslim bus driver, new to the country, pulled his 24 bus over near Gospel Oak, locked the passengers in and prayed to Mecca. The Sun newspaper had to pay out £30,000 after allegedly misrepresenting the incidents stating that the driver was a fanatic who had forced passengers off the bus.
  Metroline was awarded the contract for route 24 which started on 10 November 2012. Abellio London was awarded the contract for route 24 when it was re-tendered effective 9 November 2019.
  New Routemasters were introduced on 22 June 2013. The rear platform remained open from Monday to Friday between 05:15 and 19:50 when it was staffed by a customer assistant. In 2016, Customer Service Assistants were removed from Route 24.
caption: Preserved Grey-Green Alexander bodied Volvo Citybus as used on route 24 from 1988
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