London Coaches

London Coaches Ltd. is a former London Buses subsidiary, bus and coach operator in London.

History
London Coaches originated from the London Transport Tours and Charters division. In 1986 London Transport formed the Original London Transport Sightseeing Tour brand, to operate a fleet of modified Open Topped and Closed Topped Routemaster buses, on sightseeing tours of London. The business unit was based originally at Battersea bus garage, and moved to Wandsworth bus garage in readiness for creation of the London Buses Operating Units from the Divisional Districts in preparation for privatisation.

In the latter part of 1988 London Buses Limited was separated into different business units and London Coaches was formed, in preparation for privatisation of London bus services. London Coaches was the first of the operating units to be sold, being sold to a management buy out headed by Pat Waterman. Upon privatisation the Pullmans Group Limited was formed and traded as London Coaches Ltd.

London Coaches post privatisation was forced to drop the "Transport" in its Original London Sightseeing Tour core business element. London Coaches Limited was split into two operating unit when it opened London Coaches (Kent) Limited, in Northfleet Kent. London Coaches (Kent) had all the Commuter Coaching Elements transferred from Wandsworth Bus Garage, when in 1993 London Coaches tendered to operate bus routes under contract to the London Transport Tendered Bus Division.

London Coaches in December 1993 won the contract to run the route 52, after a lot of logistical, vehicle and staffing problems London Coaches bought Atlas Bus and Coach Company who transferred the route to the related Atlas Bus operation as it had a garage in Atlas Road near Willesden Junction, close to the route's terminus. In November 1994, Atlas Bus and Coach Company was sold to Metroline along with route 52/N52. Route 726 was moved from London Coaches at Wandsworth Bus Garage, to London Coaches (Kent) at Dartford.

The company continued to operate The Original London Sightseeing Tour, trading as The Original Tour until December 1997, when The Original London Sightseeing Tour Ltd was formed and subsequently sold with Wandsworth Bus Garage plus the training section to Arriva.

London Coaches (Kent) Ltd continued to operate as a separate business from Northfleet.

London Coaches Training
London Coaches had its own training section that operated from Wandsworth Bus Garage offering PCV and HGV training. The PCV section was headed by one of the senior London Coaches employees, Terry Torch.