50 Years of the WMPTE Ailsa

When WMPTE’s first Volvo Ailsa double-decker entered service just over 50 years ago, no-one expected the type to be anything but a bit-player to the organisation’s large fleet of Daimler and Leyland Fleetlines or its later MCW Metrobuses. But it proved otherwise, the fleet outliving WMPTE’s other bit-player of the era, a fleet of 200 Bristol VRTs, and passing intact to West Midlands Travel at deregulation. Then, just as they were expected to live out a normal service life in the West Midlands, London Buses scooped the whole batch of 50 vehicles to aid its re-organisation and cost reduction plans. Re-invigorated, the Ailsas saw up to three years of service in the Capital before being sold off. Over 80% of them would then find further use across the breadth and depth of Great Britain, the majority of them in passenger carrying roles. Some delivered up to ten further years of service before all eventually made their way to the scrapyard with the exception of the two examples now owned by the 4738 Group.