Largest Convoy of Routemasters Assembled for WorldSkills London 2011

In a spectacular and unique display, the largest known convey of London’s iconic Routemaster buses will be assembled at ExCeL London on Friday 30th September for WorldSkills London 2011.  

The largest assembled collection of Routemasters in history will amuse the hundreds of international delegates attending WorldSkills London 2011, who will board the 27 buses to take a tour of London’s famous sites, such as the London Eye, St Paul’s, Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park.   

Destination windows on the buses will be marked WorldSkills London 2011 and with approximately 50 Routemasters in the UK, it will be difficult to find a Routemaster that is not coming to WorldSkills.

This one-off convoy also marks the 50th anniversary of the production of the RML Routemaster, the high capacity version of the Routemaster designed for the major central London routes.

WorldSkills London 2011 is the greatest skills Competition the world has ever seen.   Almost one thousand Competitors from over 50 countries/regions will compete to be the best of the best across 46 skills including landscape gardening, mobile robotics, floristry, fashion technology, web design, cooking and car painting.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, said: "The Routemaster is a true icon of London. They are recognised all over the world and it is fantastic to see them celebrated on their 50th birthday; but also a reminder that it's time for London to move into the future. That's why I am looking to preserve their wonderful hop on and hop off heritage by creating a new bus for London that will be just as iconic, but also cleaner, greener and fit for the 21st century and beyond."Travel Places and London Heritage Travel have sourced Routemasters from Ensign Buses, Routemaster for Hire Ltd, ThisBus.com, RedRoute Buses, Gwyn’s Big Red Bus, Go Coach Hire Ltd, CMB Vehicle Services, and tour guides from Blue Badge Tour Guides.

WSC2011 Press Release Routemaster Convoy