Routemasters and Heritage Buses

Published 28 September 2026 · Updated 9 November 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

No scheduled London bus route uses an original open-platform Routemaster in September 2026. If you want to stand on the back platform of one, you need a heritage running day, and the dates for the next year are already published.

A Routemaster is the red double-decker with the open rear platform, built for London between 1954 and 1968. It had a conductor who sold tickets on board, and no doors at the back, so passengers could step on and off while the bus was moving. The last ones left ordinary service in 2005, and the two short "heritage" survivors that ran past Trafalgar Square and along Oxford Street have gone too: in Transport for London's own route data there are 675 bus routes in London and not one of them is a heritage service. Route 15H, which older guidebooks still recommend, is no longer a recognised route identifier at all.

The bus that carries the name today is a different vehicle. It is properly called the New Routemaster, it entered service in 2012, and it has three doors and two staircases. It is a perfectly good bus to ride, but it is not what people are looking for when they ask about Routemasters. For that, the answer is a running day, a museum, or a museum shuttle. Our guide to how London buses work and what they cost covers the everyday network; this page is only about the old ones.

Why the heritage routes disappeared

The open platform is the reason the Routemaster is remembered and also the reason it was withdrawn. A bus with no door at the back needs a second member of staff to watch it, and it cannot take a wheelchair or a modern pushchair. Once step-free access became the expectation, a 1960s double-decker with a high step up to the platform stopped being a bus that could serve the whole public.

What replaced it was a compromise. Two shortened "heritage" workings survived on parts of routes 9 and 15 for a few years, with a conductor and a Routemaster, running a handful of journeys a day between Trafalgar Square, Aldwych and Tower Hill. Both have ended. If a guidebook tells you to wait at Trafalgar Square for the heritage 15, it is out of date.

Heritage running days: the good news nobody advertises

The London Bus Preservation Trust, which runs the London Bus Museum, puts its buses back onto real London bus routes several times a year. On those days the old buses run in service alongside the normal red ones, stopping at the ordinary stops, and they carry anyone who puts out a hand. There is no ticket, no booking and no charge.

This is the best way to ride a Routemaster, and better than any paid alternative, because you are not on a tour. You are on a bus, going where the bus goes, with a conductor working the platform as the job was done sixty years ago.

Route 106, Saturday 3 October 2026

The most recent one was on Saturday 3 October 2026, when, between 10:00 and 17:00, heritage buses from the 1950s to the 1970s ran on route 106 between Finsbury Park and Ash Grove in Hackney, alongside the normal service. The museum promised open-platform buses with conductors, mostly Routemasters and their predecessor the RT type, some from the museum's collection and some from other owners.

Route 106 in normal life runs from Cavell Street in Whitechapel to Finsbury Park Interchange, through Clapton Pond and Hackney. The heritage buses covered the Finsbury Park to Ash Grove section, which meant you could pick one up at the bus station at Finsbury Park and ride down through Hackney, or do it in reverse. The same day there was an open day at Stagecoach London's Ash Grove garage, marking 45 years of the garage, with admission going to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Practically: go in the middle of the day rather than at 10:00, stand at a stop where you can see the bus coming, and be prepared to let one go past full. Enthusiasts turn out for these days in numbers, and an old double-decker holds far fewer people than the modern bus behind it.

The 2027 running days already in the calendar

The museum publishes its dates a long way ahead, which is unusual and useful if you are planning a trip. As listed in September 2026:

The 2027 entries are marked provisional, and the museum is run by volunteers, so treat them as intentions rather than timetables. The route 6 day in March 2027 is the one most visitors could use without leaving the centre: route 6 starts at Victoria and runs up through the West End.

TransportFest and the museum's own bus rides

The London Bus Museum sits inside Brooklands, the old motor racing circuit at Weybridge in Surrey. It is not in London, despite the name, and it is not on an Oyster fare; the nearest station is Weybridge, about 30 minutes from Waterloo on South Western Railway.

One admission ticket covers both the London Bus Museum and Brooklands Museum, and it is not cheap. For visits between 2 September and 1 November 2026 the museum's own price list gives £25.70 for an adult booked online and £27.10 on the day, children aged 4 to 17 £10.70 and £11.25, under-4s and carers free. Winter prices from 2 November drop to £24.35 online for an adult. Higher figures in brackets on the museum's site include a voluntary 10% Gift Aid donation. Autumn opening is 11:00 to 17:00 on Mondays and 10:00 to 17:00 otherwise, with last entry to the bus museum at 16:00.

A heritage double-decker runs a circular tour from the museum entrance at weekends and every day in the Surrey school holidays, subject to a crew being available: four departures from 11:30 to 15:00, about 20 minutes, £3 for an adult and £1 for a child, booked at the museum shop. On TransportFest day on 18 October 2026 there are also bus tours at £5 a head and rides on a restored 1890s horse bus at £10. Because the buses depend on volunteers, the museum asks visitors to telephone and check before travelling for a ride.

The New Routemaster, and what it is actually like

You will ride one of these without trying. The New Routemaster has a curved staircase at the back, a long window running up the side of it, and a second staircase at the front, which no other London bus has. They work many of the busiest central routes.

Ride it upstairs at the front for the view, which is genuinely good, or on the back seat over the rear staircase, which is the nearest thing left to the old platform. What you will not get is a conductor or an open platform. It is a modern bus with a historic silhouette, and the fare is the ordinary bus fare, £1.85 since 1 November 2026, with the daily cap doing the rest of the work. On a hot afternoon the top deck of any double-decker in London is warm work, whatever the bus; if you want cool air, which Tube lines have air conditioning says where to find it.

Two other places an old bus turns up

A free vintage Routemaster shuttle runs between Abbey Wood station and Crossness Pumping Station on the days that Victorian sewage works opens, and the ride is included in the entry ticket. For a family, it turns an awkward walk into one of the better parts of the day.

The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden keeps most of its collection at its depot in Acton, which opens on advertised days and for guided tours. The buses there are static, but the depot is where you see the whole line of descent, from horse buses to the RT to the Routemaster.

Several commercial operators run afternoon tea trips and evening tours on privately owned Routemasters. They are a legitimate way to sit on one, and the vehicles are usually beautifully kept, but you are paying a tour price for a cake and a circuit of the sights rather than a bus fare, and the bus does not go anywhere you could not reach on the 15. Our comparison of the sightseeing bus operators sets out what the open-top tours include instead.

Steps, buggies, wheelchairs and dogs

This is the part that catches families out. Every heritage bus predates low-floor design. There are steps up to the platform and steps inside, and the space under the staircase where a pushchair once went is smaller than a modern buggy. The museum says plainly that most modern buggies cannot be carried and that wheelchairs cannot be accommodated, while conductors will help anyone who is unsteady or travelling with small children. Well-behaved dogs on a lead are carried at the conductor's discretion and may not take a seat.

The normal red bus behind the heritage one takes a pushchair without difficulty, and getting around London with a pushchair explains how the ramp and the bay work. Every bus in the ordinary fleet is wheelchair-accessible; step-free transport in London has the detail.

If it is really the view you want

Many people who ask about Routemasters really want a cheap top-deck ride past the landmarks, and for that the age of the bus does not matter. Several ordinary routes do that job for a single fare, and the routes worth riding for the view names them and says where to sit. The outer-London express routes are a different pleasure, covered in our guide to the Superloop, and after midnight the network changes shape entirely, which is the subject of London's night buses. Outside the capital, the Cotswolds runs an open-top heritage bus at weekends and on bank holidays from April to October, described in our guide to the Cotswolds without a car.

Frequently asked questions

Can you still ride a Routemaster bus in London?

Yes, but not on a scheduled route. In September 2026 there is no heritage bus service in Transport for London's route data. The way to ride one is a heritage running day organised by the London Bus Museum, when old buses run free in service on a real route. The next is route 6 on Saturday 20 March 2027.

Does the heritage route 15 still run?

No. Route 15H is not a recognised route in TfL's data, and the earlier heritage working on route 9 has also gone. Route 15 itself still runs as an ordinary bus between Blackwall and Charing Cross, and it remains one of the better sightseeing routes in London, but with a modern vehicle.

How much does a heritage bus running day cost?

Nothing. The buses are free and you do not book. You stand at an ordinary bus stop on the route and signal, the same as for any London bus. The museum at Brooklands charges admission, and its own short bus tour costs £3 for an adult and £1 for a child, but the running days in London are free.

What is the difference between a Routemaster and a New Routemaster?

The Routemaster was built between 1954 and 1968, had an open rear platform and a conductor, and left ordinary service in 2005. The New Routemaster entered service in 2012, has three doors and two staircases, and is driver-operated with no conductor. Both are red double-deckers, and that is roughly where the similarity stops.

Can you take a pushchair on a heritage bus?

Usually not. The museum states that most modern buggies are too large to fit under the stairs and that wheelchairs cannot be carried. The conductors help where they can, but if you are travelling with a buggy, plan to use the ordinary bus and treat the heritage bus as something to photograph.

Sources

• Transport for London - Unified API, London bus route list (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Using buses in London (checked September 2026)
• Transport for London - Bus and tram fares (checked September 2026)
• London Bus Museum - Route 106 Heritage Day (checked September 2026)
• London Bus Museum - Museum events calendar (checked November 2026)
• London Bus Museum - Opening times and prices (checked September 2026)
• London Bus Museum - Bus rides (checked September 2026)
• London Bus Museum - TransportFest 2026 (checked September 2026)