Where do old buses go?

[William]

In contrast to central London buses and most trains in the South East, buses in London suburbs seem to be replaced with brand new models every year or two. 1 - Why (if they can last much longer)? 2 - Where do the old buses go? On routes away from London? Abroad? Scrap?

[BenDToy]

Most of them appear in front of me when I'm late for work! Seriously I think they must get distributed around the country to other operators. I saw an ancient double decker the other day. That was in the Manchester area, but I have seen old ones around in other places too. I guess the people who do the sums have worked out that it is more cost effective to buy and sell them at specific ages/mileages than continue to maintain them. A company with a different cost structure may be able to continue to maintain them for a while, then another takes over and so on. It becomes a balancing act between the initial cost of the bus and the on-going maintenance costs.

[froggequene]

I agree with BenDToy some of them appear to be sold on, I have often seen English Doubledeckers in the Irish countryside ferrying kids to school.

[Hippy]

Older buses do not always have the latest access features e.g. low step height wide internal aisles and no internal steps and so are deemed unsuitable for some routes where taxpayer's money is used to support part of the operation.

Modern urban operators favour disabled access so the older buses get recycled in rural areas.

Another reason is fuel efficiency and emmisions control. The newest buses are cleaner burn from the factory and offer fuel savings over older vehicles. Older buses may have to be converted or tweaked to maintin stricter emissions control, and certainly cost more in maintenance. Considering a bus can travel the equivalent of a trip to the moon in a year, tiny savings in pennies per kilometre mount up to huge savings over a fleet of buses over a year.

At the end of their useful life many buses end up at bus breakers like the most famous UK bus breakers at Wombwell in Yorkshire.

[Janetx]

To private operators and then me. I have a 1950s Bedford and a 1973 Leyland Leopard.