Metroline

Metroline is a bus company that mainly operates in Greater London and some parts of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire. It is part of a bigger company called ComfortDelGro. Metroline runs bus services for London Buses because Transport for London asks them to.

The company works through two names: Metroline Travel Limited and Metroline West Limited. These names help organize the different bus routes they manage. Metroline is different from other similar-sounding names like Metroline Manchester, Metro line, Metroliner, or Metrobus.

History

In April 1989, London Buses was split into 11 smaller parts, and one of these became Metroline. In October 1994, Metroline was sold to its own managers for £20 million (which would be worth £42,200,000 today).

After becoming its own company, Metroline grew quickly. In December 1994, it bought another bus company called Atlas Bus & Coach. In July 1998, it bought MTL London. Then, in February 2000, Metroline was sold to a bigger company called ComfortDelGro for £73.8 million (which would be worth £140,253,000 today).

ComfortDelGro kept growing Metroline. In August 2004, they bought Thorpes, which had four bus routes and 66 buses. In November 2004, they also bought Armchair Passenger Transport, which had seven bus routes and 86 buses. Both companies were later renamed Metroline in January 2007.

In June 2013, Metroline bought several bus garages from First London, adding 494 buses to its fleet.

In March 2024, Metroline won the right to run more bus services in Greater Manchester as part of the Bee Network. This started a new company called Metroline Manchester, which began operating on 5 January 2025.

Liveries

When Metroline became a private company, it started using a red bus color with a dark blue stripe along the bottom. For a short time in the mid-2000s, this changed to a light blue color, but then the dark blue stripe came back. In June 2009, Metroline switched to an all-red color to follow rules set by Transport for London. In 2014, they introduced a new blue, white, and red color scheme for buses that were not working for Transport for London.

Garages

Metroline operates 14 garages across two legal entities: Metroline Travel Limited and Metroline West Limited.

Metroline Travel Limited

Athlon Road (AO)

Athlon Road garage operates route /wiki/London_Buses_route_224.

Brentford (AH)

Brentford garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_9, /wiki/London_Buses_route_190, /wiki/London_Buses_route_237, /wiki/London_Buses_route_481, /wiki/London_Buses_route_635, E2, E8, H91 and N9.

Cricklewood (W)

Cricklewood garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_16, /wiki/London_Buses_route_32, /wiki/London_Buses_route_112, /wiki/London_Buses_route_139, /wiki/London_Buses_route_143, /wiki/London_Buses_route_189, /wiki/London_Buses_route_210, /wiki/London_Buses_route_266, /wiki/London_Buses_route_268, /wiki/London_Buses_route_324, /wiki/London_Buses_route_328, /wiki/London_Buses_route_631, /wiki/London_Buses_route_632, H2, H3, N32 and N266.

Edgware (EW)

Edgware garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_113, /wiki/London_Buses_route_142, /wiki/London_Buses_route_204, /wiki/London_Buses_route_240, /wiki/London_Buses_route_251, /wiki/London_Buses_route_606, /wiki/London_Buses_route_642 and N113.

Harrow Weald (HD)

Harrow Weald garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_98, /wiki/London_Buses_route_140, /wiki/London_Buses_route_182, /wiki/London_Buses_route_186, /wiki/London_Buses_route_258, N98 and N140.

Holloway (HT)

Holloway garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_4, /wiki/London_Buses_route_17, /wiki/London_Buses_route_43, /wiki/London_Buses_route_46, /wiki/London_Buses_route_153, /wiki/London_Buses_route_234, /wiki/London_Buses_route_274, /wiki/London_Buses_route_390, /wiki/London_Buses_route_393, /wiki/London_Buses_route_603, C11, W7 and N20.

King's Cross (KC)

King's Cross garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_30 and /wiki/London_Buses_route_274.

Lampton (SG)

Lampton garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_81, /wiki/London_Buses_route_120 and H32.

Perivale (PV)

Perivale garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_7, /wiki/London_Buses_route_83, /wiki/London_Buses_route_90, /wiki/London_Buses_route_245, /wiki/London_Buses_route_297, /wiki/London_Buses_route_483, N7 and N83.

Potters Bar (PB)

Potters Bar garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_107, /wiki/London_Buses_route_134, /wiki/London_Buses_route_231, /wiki/London_Buses_route_263, /wiki/London_Buses_route_317, /wiki/London_Buses_route_327, /wiki/London_Buses_route_382, /wiki/London_Buses_route_384, /wiki/London_Buses_route_491, /wiki/London_Buses_route_617, /wiki/London_Buses_route_626, /wiki/London_Buses_route_629, /wiki/London_Buses_route_634, N263, W8 and W9.

Willesden (AC)

Willesden garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_6, /wiki/London_Buses_route_52, /wiki/London_Buses_route_98, /wiki/London_Buses_route_260, /wiki/London_Buses_route_302 and /wiki/London_Buses_route_460.

Metroline West Limited

Metroline West Limited is the legal operating name for Metroline's bus garages that were acquired with the purchase of five First London garages in 2013. As of April 2024, it now operates three bus garages.

Greenford (G)

Greenford garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_92, /wiki/London_Buses_route_95, /wiki/London_Buses_route_282, /wiki/London_Buses_route_640, E1, E9 and SL8.

Uxbridge (UX)

Uxbridge garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_114, /wiki/London_Buses_route_222, /wiki/London_Buses_route_331, /wiki/London_Buses_route_697, A10, H13, U1, U2, U3, U4 and U10.

Willesden Junction (WJ)

Willesden Junction garage operates routes /wiki/London_Buses_route_28, /wiki/London_Buses_route_187, /wiki/London_Buses_route_206, /wiki/London_Buses_route_223, /wiki/London_Buses_route_228, /wiki/London_Buses_route_316, /wiki/London_Buses_route_487, H17 and N28.

Former garages

Alperton (ON)

Alperton garage operated routes (/wiki/London_Buses_route_83), (/wiki/London_Buses_route_483) and N83 until it closed in September 2021. The garage was built in June 1939 and was one of three built by the London Passenger Transport Board. It was enlarged in the late 1970s. Alperton became part of Metroline in 2013 and closed to make way for redevelopment.

Hayes (HZ)

Hayes garage operated route U5 before closing in April 2017. The route was taken over by Abellio London, which now operates from a new garage opened in 2022.

Perivale West (PA)

Perivale West garage was bought by Metroline in 2004 and operated routes (/wiki/London_Buses_route_31) and (/wiki/London_Buses_route_90) until closing in March 2022. The site now houses Metroline's Central Engineering & Logistics Facility and driver training facilities.

Fleet

As of March 2025, Metroline had 1,496 buses in its fleet. This made the company the third largest bus operator in London by the number of buses it owned.