Fifty of the 76 RLHs were painted green and used in the Country Area of London Transport. The first RLH ran in June 1950 on route 336 to Amersham (the longest running lowbridge route in London Transport, dating from 1930). The Country Area garages were Amersham, Addlestone, Guildford, Godstone, Reigate and East Grinstead (highbridge routes only).
The remaining twenty-six were painted red for use in the Central Area of London Transport, which covered the garages of Merton, Harrow Weald, Dalston and Hornchurch.
For various operational reasons, there were frequent changes of allocations of the RLHs between the different garages within either the Country or Central areas. This often took place when a vehicle returned from overhaul.
Very occasionally buses were transferred from the Country to the Central London Transport divisions, which resulted in changes from green to red liveries during their careers. This happened to eight: RLHs 1, 7, 9, 22, 23, 29, 49 and 52. No RLHs changed from red to green.
In 1970 17 RLHs were transferred to a new owner, London Country Bus Services, the only surviving 'green' examples from the former London Country region of LT, working by this time only on the Surrey RLH route network. The last day of green RLH service was the 31st July.
The last RLH to run in London Transport service was in April 1971 in Dalston. Please select from the following options for more information on routes and garages: