London sightseeing tour bus operators and routes

[Andyh82]

Does anyone think that The Original Tour will have lost market share since a) they rebranded to the ridiculous Toot Bus name and b) that they lost the use of the City Sightseeing brand?

To me this operator was always seen as ‘the main one’ but due to these reasons I don’t think it is anymore

Does anyone know which tour operator out of the main four now is the biggest one, in terms of buses on the road at any given time? None of them track anywhere so it’s hard to say

 

[Dfatcontroller]

Does anyone think that The Original Tour will have lost market share since a) they rebranded to the ridiculous Toot Bus name and b) that they lost the use of the City Sightseeing brand?

To me this operator was always seen as ‘the main one’ but due to these reasons I don’t think it is anymore

Does anyone know which tour operator out of the main four now is the biggest one, in terms of buses on the road at any given time? None of them track anywhere so it’s hard to say

By volume of buses on the road TOOT must still be the largest operator.
From my observations from a couple of hours at Marble Arch a few weeks ago; I would rank them as:

1) TOOT
2) Big Bus Company
3) Golden Tours
4) City Sightseeing
5) Brigit's Bakery Afternoon Tea Tours
6) Bustronome (for only one vehicle I saw it loads of times and still failed to actually get a photo!)

 

[E-Rail]

I stand to be corrected but I'm sure TOOT (Original Tour) only operates around 12-15 buses now, mainly just the tri-axle B9TLs. The two axle B9TLS are all now at Bath/Cardiff and the B7L Ayats have all been sold.

 

[D6130]

Does anyone know whether the imported Maltese Bedford SB is still doing London Tours? Sorry....can't remember the name of the company.

 

[busesrusuk]

I stand to be corrected but I'm sure TOOT (Original Tour) only operates around 12-15 buses now, mainly just the tri-axle B9TLs. The two axle B9TLS are all now at Bath/Cardiff and the B7L Ayats have all been sold.

There was certainly some Ayats still running around in the last week. In terms of who is the busiest, from my observations, the City Sightseeing/Stagecoach buses always seem quite busy whilst the TOOTBus seem somewhat less busy. Couple of pics from last weekend:

TOOTbus VXE724 Aug22

St Pauls Cathedral, Aug 2022

www.flickr.com

SCoach London 15028 Aug22

St Pauls Cathedral, Aug 2022

www.flickr.com

Anecdotal of course but i spend a fair bit of time up town and from my observations' the City sightseeing op seems to be winning the battle for punters...

 

[Andyh82]

Shows how important the ‘City Sightseeing’ brand is then, considering this operation from Stagecoach/Julia (whoever she is!) is basically a new entrant to the market and much more basic compared to TOOT/Big Bus who have (or had) all the various different routes, hotel feeders, Museum Links etc

Also anecdotal but it seems all operators have now moved towards using regular buses again rather than the unusual and longer models that both Original Tour and Big Bus purchased a while back

 

[DaveLondon]

There was certainly some Ayats still running around in the last week. In terms of who is the busiest, from my observations, the City Sightseeing/Stagecoach buses always seem quite busy whilst the TOOTBus seem somewhat less busy. Couple of pics from last weekend:

TOOTbus VXE724 Aug22

St Pauls Cathedral, Aug 2022

www.flickr.com

SCoach London 15028 Aug22

St Pauls Cathedral, Aug 2022

www.flickr.com

Anecdotal of course but i spend a fair bit of time up town and from my observations' the City sightseeing op seems to be winning the battle for punters...

The Ayats Volvo B7L were sold because they cannot be Euro 6 upgraded. One lives on in Bristol for Bath Bus Co. I would certainly agree that the Stagecoach operation seems predominant in many places. The TO.OT operation seems very limited now and I agree that the rebranding really has not been positive either in London or Bath.

 

[markymark2000]

Shows how important the ‘City Sightseeing’ brand is then, considering this operation from Stagecoach/Julia (whoever she is!) is basically a new entrant to the market and much more basic compared to TOOT/Big Bus who have (or had) all the various different routes, hotel feeders, Museum Links etc

In fairness, City Sightseeing was around, it just switched operators. TOOT used to run City Sightseeing on I think it was their T2 service. Then it switched to Stagecoach/Julia so TOOT just carried on the rest of their services. It's therefore only the operator who is a new entrant but the brand isn't new.


What lets down most of these sightseeing buses is the lack of timetable. They all run sometimes 30, sometimes 20 minute intervals, sometimes more. No one knows when their bus is due and especially the feeder buses, there was no information anywhere about when they were running so people didn't use them as much.

 

[busesrusuk]

I stand to be corrected but I'm sure TOOT (Original Tour) only operates around 12-15 buses now, mainly just the tri-axle B9TLs. The two axle B9TLS are all now at Bath/Cardiff and the B7L Ayats have all been sold.

Seen out and about in town today was VXY793, one of the Ayats B7's and sporting its "planet friendly" logos so presumably meets the ULEZ requirements...

 

[E-Rail]

Seen out and about in town today was VXY793, one of the Ayats B7's and sporting its "planet friendly" logos so presumably meets the ULEZ requirements...

That's an Ayats Bravo Integral which would be Euro 6 when new, not a B7L.

 

[busesrusuk]

That solves that one then...

 

[DaveLondon]

Seen out and about in town today was VXY793, one of the Ayats B7's and sporting its "planet friendly" logos so presumably meets the ULEZ requirements...

I think you saw YXY 793 - reg LT66 LST - not a Volvo. No B7L are in London as the sapce within the engine compartment made it impossible to upgrade to Euro 6.

 

[busestrains]

I thought i would start this new thread to discuss the London tour bus sightseeing operations of various bus operators.

Can anyone confirm the current status of who is running the London Sightseeing routes around Central London and which routes each company runs. There has been so many changes and i have lost track of it all. All the services were suspended for the corona virus and then since they restarted it seems like a lot has changed. A lot of the information i find online seems to be outdated so it is not clear what runs and who runs what these days.

Before the corona virus i remember seeing the following:

• Original Tour - This was the largest of them all and was run by i think Arriva and then RATP and had six routes around the city. They also had some interesting peak times only routes. I think one was a hotel connector route.

• City Tour London - This company was around for a short period in the mid and late 2000s and seemed to have a couple of routes. It may have been merged in to Original Tours at some point. Although some photos of their buses had the "Julia Travel" adverts which is now seen on the "City Sightseeing" branded buses. So i am not sure about this one.

• Big Bus Company - This one has been around for many years and had around four routes around the city.

• Golden Tours - This one was a bit newer than some of the others and had around four routes around the city.

• Mega Sightseeing - This was run by Stagecoach and basically a brand of Megabus providing cheap tours starting at £1.00 if you book online.

Which of these still exist and run the sightseeing buses today? I think Mega Sightseeing is gone?

Since the tour buses have restarted everything seems to have changed and i am a bit confused as to who runs what now.

The main buses i see nowadays seem to be those in the standard worldwide "City Sightseeing" red livery with "Julia Travel" logos on the side but Stagecoach fleet numbers. I am unsure if this is a collaboration between these two companies or they just bought a bunch of old Stagecoach buses and kept the fleet numbers. Does anyone know who is running this? If it is Stagecoach than has this replaced their Mega Sightseeing service or if it is Julia Travel is this a replacement for the City Tours London service?

Then there is Toot Bus that i see as well. They have quite a few buses. I think this may be a rebrand of the Original Tour service? If so does RATP still run this?

I also see from reading the Transpora thread that they are planning to start up a service soon too. So that should be interesting to see.

Who else are currently running London Tour bus routes nowadays? Is there a list of all of the current ones and the list of which routes each one runs?

If anyone has any more information or history about these sightseeing tour bus services that would be much appreciated. Many thanks for the information.

 

[E-Rail]

Post Covid, Original Tour is now Tootbus and still owned by RATP but reduced routes. Stagecoach and Julia took on the City Sightseeing franchise once held by Original Tour. This replaced Mega sightseeing. Big Bus and Golden Tours continue as does See London By Night.

 

[duncombec]

A good place to start would be the London Service Permit bulletin, which lists all non-TfL services with permission to run in the TfL area. It should show up fairly easily if you Google it (or I'll edit the post this evening from a computer with the current link)

As for routes, there are obviously the operator's websites, or they are formally listed on the actual LSP as a route record. Within reason - i.e. for a small number of routes - the LSP team/person will (or at least would) send them to you, if they aren't already available as part of an ongoing consultation.

 

[busesrusuk]

The Stagecoach/Julia operation are now operating a "feeder" service for their main tour route which is now known as the red route. The feeder is marketed as the green route with the unlikeliest of "tour" buses - see here:

SCoach London 36368 Oct22

Waterloo Bridge, Oct 2022

www.flickr.com

SCoach London 36368 Oct22v2

Waterloo, Oct 2022

www.flickr.com

 

[busestrains]

Many thanks for the replies. There are so many services so i have found it hard to keep up with the changes. So from looking on their websites and the LSP documents it seems that the current routes are as follows:

BIG BUS COMPANY:
• Blue Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Red Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Green Route - Shorter connector route.

CITY SIGHTSEEING (Julia Travel and Stagecoach):
• Blue Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Red Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Green Route - Shorter connector route.

GOLDEN TOURS:
• Blue Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Red Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Green Route - Shorter connector route.
• Orange Route - Shorter connector route.
• Yellow Route - Shorter connector route.

TOOT BUS (RATP ex Original Tour):
• Yellow Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Blue Route - Shorter route around Kensington.
• Kids Tour Route - Shorter route around Westminster.
• Night Tour Route - Night time tour around the Thames.

I have to ask is there enough demand for four bus companies running tour bus routes (which mostly operate every ten minutes during the day) which are pretty much the same competing with each other? Have passenger levels and tourist levels in London gone back to what they were before the corona virus?

With the prices they charge (about £30.00 to £40.00 for a day ticket) i am surprised so many people use them! You can just use the normal TFL double decker buses (which are also probably much nicer to travel on in the winter as passengers will probably not want an open top bus in the cold weather) to see all the sights for less than £5.00 for a day!

Thinking about it are there any other cities around the world with this many sightseeing operators? I think most just have one?

 

[E-Rail]

Tootbus also have the London Bar Bus, which I thinks runs twice a day.

 

[markymark2000]

You can also add Londoner Buses to that list, they are starting 15th October with their tour.

See thread for more details.

Transpora Group

Well, the "swish" is a stylised wave and makes sense for a Coastline. Here's Stagecoach's though it is a Best Impressions creation. I know this is Transpora but Mr Hand has got extensive form in appropriating intellectual property - the FoxStar branding in Newport was very reminiscent of the...

www.railforums.co.uk

Golden Tours also has their own London by Night tour. (https://www.goldentours.com/london-by-night/london-by-night-open-top-bus-tour)
See London by Night (https://seelondonbynight.com/). They only run buses at night, don't seem to be affiliated with the main operators.


If you are adding tours with a twist,
Brigit's Bus Tours have 4 tours. Their Afternoon Tea one, Slingsby Gin, Peppa Pig and Paddington Bear tours. (https://b-bakery.com/london/bus-tours)
Golden Tours offer an Afternoon Tea tour (https://www.goldentours.com/afternoon-tea-in-london/afternoon-tea-bus-with-panoramic-tour-of-london)
Bustronome run 2 tours per day, 1 for Lunch, 1 for Dinner. (https://www.bustronome.com/en/london/)
Premium Tours have their routemaster tours which seem to go twice per day and they have the Jack the Ripper tour, also on a routemaster.
Brit Movie Tours seem to do roughly weekly (sometimes twice weekly) coach tours of the Harry Potter film locations within London. (https://britmovietours.com/bookings/harry-potter-london-tour/)
The Classic Tour offers 1-3 tours per day on their open top routemaster (https://www.theclassictour.com/)
The Ghost Bus Tours offers upto 6 bus tours per day on their routemasters (https://www.theghostbustours.com/london/)
Evans Evans offers a daily 'superior' coach 'panoramic tour' (https://evanevanstours.com/tours/london-tours/royal-london-tour-with-changing-of-the-guard/)

 

[busesrusuk]

A number of cities have multiple tour operators. A few that I know of is Berlin that has quite a number of operators using a variety of new/old double deckers, I recall that when I was there New York had at least two, Edinburgh has two (First and Lothian who have a multitude of tours and before First, Mac Tours ran in competition with Lothian until they bought out the operation) and Hong Kong Kong which has two (Big Bus and New World First Bus).

A few pics of tour buses in these cities:

BEX 528 Mar19

Berlin Reichstag. Mar 2019

www.flickr.com

Red Buses MAN Mar19

Hauptbahnhof, Berlin, Mar 2019

www.flickr.com

Top Tour Neoplan Mar19

Reichstag, Berlin. Mar 2019

www.flickr.com

Lothian 524 Apr15

The Mound, Edinburgh, Apr 2015

www.flickr.com

Mac Tours 290 Apr 15

Explore kw58clt's 6512 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

Big Bus HK NR7153 HK12

Aberdeen sports ground, HK2012

www.flickr.com

NWFB VA52 HK11

Central, HK 2011

www.flickr.com

 

[chopperman21]

Many thanks for the replies. There are so many services so i have found it hard to keep up with the changes. So from looking on their websites and the LSP documents it seems that the current routes are as follows:

BIG BUS COMPANY:
• Blue Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Red Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Green Route - Shorter connector route.

CITY SIGHTSEEING (Julia Travel and Stagecoach):
• Blue Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Red Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Green Route - Shorter connector route.

GOLDEN TOURS:
• Blue Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Red Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Green Route - Shorter connector route.
• Orange Route - Shorter connector route.
• Yellow Route - Shorter connector route.

TOOT BUS (RATP ex Original Tour):
• Yellow Route - Main sightseeing route.
• Blue Route - Shorter route around Kensington.
• Kids Tour Route - Shorter route around Westminster.
• Night Tour Route - Night time tour around the Thames.

I have to ask is there enough demand for four bus companies running tour bus routes (which mostly operate every ten minutes during the day) which are pretty much the same competing with each other? Have passenger levels and tourist levels in London gone back to what they were before the corona virus?

With the prices they charge (about £30.00 to £40.00 for a day ticket) i am surprised so many people use them! You can just use the normal TFL double decker buses (which are also probably much nicer to travel on in the winter as passengers will probably not want an open top bus in the cold weather) to see all the sights for less than £5.00 for a day!

Thinking about it are there any other cities around the world with this many sightseeing operators? I think most just have one?

City Sightseeing blue doesn't currently run due to lack of drivers and vehicles.

 

[Stan Drews]

A number of cities have multiple tour operators. A few that I know of is Berlin that has quite a number of operators using a variety of new/old double deckers, I recall that when I was there New York had at least two, Edinburgh has two (First and Lothian who have a multitude of tours and before First, Mac Tours ran in competition with Lothian until they bought out the operation) and Hong Kong Kong which has two (Big Bus and New World First Bus).

A few pics of tour buses in these cities:

BEX 528 Mar19

Berlin Reichstag. Mar 2019

www.flickr.com

Red Buses MAN Mar19

Hauptbahnhof, Berlin, Mar 2019

www.flickr.com

Top Tour Neoplan Mar19

Reichstag, Berlin. Mar 2019

www.flickr.com

Lothian 524 Apr15

The Mound, Edinburgh, Apr 2015

www.flickr.com

Mac Tours 290 Apr 15

Explore kw58clt's 6512 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

Big Bus HK NR7153 HK12

Aberdeen sports ground, HK2012

www.flickr.com

NWFB VA52 HK11

Central, HK 2011

www.flickr.com

In Edinburgh it is no longer First that compete with the various Lothian tours, since they sold out to McGill’s last month.

 

[GusB]

Could everyone check the opening post and thread title, please? The operative word here is London. Thanks

 

[Taunton]

Whenever I see the Night Tour going round, it never has more than just one couple sat in it. Seems extraordinary to continue.

Whichever the operator is who garages their buses in east London, when returning empty at end of day the driver plays music for themselves through the bus speaker system. Going through the Limehouse Link tunnel it booms and echoes a cacophony from the upper deck, to the surprise of drivers following.

 

[Busaholic]

Whenever I see the Night Tour going round, it never has more than just one couple sat in it. Seems extraordinary to continue.

I wonder how much that couple are paid to help advertise the service.

 

[markymark2000]

A potential new operator due to start in London. Planned introduction Feb 2023, Topview Sightseeing. Their current plan is on Transport for Londons, London Service Permit page (https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/london-service-permit-consultations).

Shows a circular of 2.5 hours. Running every 10 minutes using 15 buses.


Sounds like a big expense. Looking at the company, they do already do services in New York so are somewhat used to a crowded open top market. Will there be enough passengers for another operator? Time will tell.

 

[tjwpsv]

A potential new operator due to start in London. Planned introduction Feb 2023, Topview Sightseeing. Their current plan is on Transport for Londons, London Service Permit page (https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/london-service-permit-consultations).

Shows a circular of 2.5 hours. Running every 10 minutes using 15 buses.


Sounds like a big expense. Looking at the company, they do already do services in New York so are somewhat used to a crowded open top market. Will there be enough passengers for another operator? Time will tell.

Does anyone have a revised start date for this tour, please? It clearly didn't start on Feb. 1st.

 

[markymark2000]

Does anyone have a revised start date for this tour, please? It clearly didn't start on Feb. 1st.

They still have no social media pages that I can see. I do believe that they are preparing the buses though.

 

[tjwpsv]

The licence application for Topview London Ltd. appeared in N&P on 23/1/23, but as of today (according to the VOSA website) , it's status remains 'under consideration'.

https://www.vehicle-operator-licensing.service.gov.uk/view-details/licence/598338

Licence details (PK2060711)​

• Business typeLimited Company
• Trading names
• DirectorsAsen Kostadinov
• Licence type
• Licence statusUnder Consideration
• Continuation date
• Traffic areaLondon and the South East of England

Contact details​

• Address52 GROSVENOR GARDENS, LONDON, SW1W 0AU, GB

Operating centres​

The table is empty

Transport Managers​

There are no Transport Managers listed on this licence

Related operator licences​

There are no related licences

I imagine they would have hoped to be operating by now (the London Service Permit application quoted 1st February & we know, from the Ensign sales lists that vehicles have been purchased).

I wonder what the delay is?

 

[BJames]

My dad used to drive for the Original Tour. It's a real shame - they lost a significant market share during and following the pandemic, and he left relatively early when they offered voluntary redundancies as unsure about how the market would bounce back in the early days.

Their popularity declined significantly, and I'm not convinced that as TOOT (what an awful name) they are one of the major players on the road - including from internal rumblings from his former colleagues, some were unsure how long it would survive. They lost the sheer number of routes that covered a wide area - along with the buses that they used to operate on this huge range of popular routes (Yellow/Red/Blue(i.e. the museum route) being the most popular) - as well as the useful feeder routes Green/Black and I believe Purple. They ran really regularly and were highly popular amongst tourists because of this, and the overall breadth of their service.

I'm somewhat surprised that a new operator is planning to enter the London tour market. It doesn't appear that this gap in the market exists so will be interesting to see how that goes.

(Edited for clarity)