London Regional Transport
Business unit Area Logo Legal entity
CentreWest West Arrow CentreWest London Buses Limited
East London East Barge East London Bus & Coach Company Limited
Leaside River Lea Swan Leaside Bus Company Limited
London Central South central Ship London Central Bus Company Limited
London Forest Waltham Forest Oak tree London Forest Travel Limited
London Coaches Central London n/a London Coaches Limited
London General Southwest Omnibus London General Transport Services Limited
London Northern North Parliament London Northern Bus Company Limited
London United Southwest Crest London United Busways Limited
Metroline Northwest Stripes Metroline Travel Limited
Selkent Southeast Hops South East London & Kent Bus Company Limited
South London South Tower Bridge South London Transport Limited
Westlink Kingston n/a Stanwell Buses Limited
History
The LRT was created by the London Regional Transport Act 1984 and was under direct state control , reporting to the Secretary of State for Transport . [ 1 ] It took over responsibility from the Greater London Council on 29 June 1984 , two years before the GLC was formally abolished . [ 2 ] Because the Act only received the Royal assent three days earlier , its assets were temporarily frozen by the banks as they had not received mandates to transfer . [ 3 ] The headquarters of the new organisation remained at the former London Transport Executive building at 55 Broadway . [ 4 ] On 1 April 1985 , the company was re-organised into several companies with London Regional Transport as the holding company . London Buses Limited [ 5 ] was formed to manage the bus network and London Underground Limited [ 6 ] the London Underground network , as wholly owned subsidiaries of LRT . [ 7 ] In 1985 the operation of some bus services was put out to tender for the first time and , for a number of years , buses bearing a variety of different colour-schemes operated alongside those still operating in the traditional red livery by operators such as Armchair Passenger Transport , Boro'line Maidstone , Capital Citybus , Grey-Green , Harris Bus , Kentish Bus , London Buslines and Metrobus . In response to the competition , LRT established low-cost business units Bexleybus and Westlink . The variety of liveries was found to be confusing to tourists and non-Londoners expecting to find red-painted buses and , after lobbying from the tourist board , in 1997 it became a requirement when contracts were retendered that bus liveries be predominantly red . In 1987 , the computer services division was sold to Cap Gemini for £1.3 million . [ 8 ] On 1 April 1989 London Buses was divided into business units , in preparation for privatisation .
London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for the public transport network in Greater London, England between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport.