Metroline was formed in 1989 as a subsidiary of the publicly owned London Buses Limited. This was a prelude to the deregulation of bus services in London and the eventual privatisation of the company. Plans for deregulation were shelved in 1993.
Metroline through the years…
- October 1994 – Metroline privatised in the form of a management and employee buyout.
- July 1997 – Metroline floats on the stock exchange. Metroline Travel becomes the bus operating subsidiary of Metroline Plc.
- August 1998 – The purchase of MTL London from MTL completed, almost doubling the size of the bus operation. Metroline Plc purchases Scottish Citylink from National Express.
- February 2000 – DelGro Corporation, a Singaporean based investment company focused on transport businesses, offers to purchase Metroline.
- March 2000 – The sale of the company to Delgro confirmed.
- January 2001 – Aerdart, a Dublin based bus company was formed making Metroline the first UK operator to enter the Irish bus market.
- April 2003 – DelGro Corp merges with Comfort Group, forming ComfortDelGro.
- August 2004 – Metroline announces the purchase of privately owned London bus operator, F. E. Thorpe and Sons Ltd.
- November 2004 – Metroline announces the purchase of E. H. Mundy Holdings Ltd, which operates buses and coaches in London under Armchair Passenger Transport Company Ltd.
- 2006 – The coaching side of Armchair was amalgamated with the ComfortDelGro subsidiary Westbus.
- January 2007 – The F.E. Thorpes and the bus side of the Armchair business were absorbed in the main Metroline operation and these respective trading names are no longer used.
- June 2013 acquired 5 new garages as part of Metroline.
- March 2016 – 2016, Metroline was awarded the title ‘London Bus Operator of the Year’ at the prestigious London Transport Awards.
- 2018 – Metroline invested £10m into 69 hybrid buses and 68 fully-electric buses.
- July 2019 – Metroline launches London’s first complete fully electric double deck bus routes. The route 43 along with route 134 become London’s first fully electric, zero-emission double deck services, contributing to the announcement that London has the biggest fleet of electric vehicles in Europe.
- June 2021– Metroline launches England’s first zero emissions double deck Hydrogen vehicle – Metroline operates 20 new environmentally-friendly buses, the first of their kind to be launched in England, that produce no pollution from their exhausts.