The London Swifts

Having discovered that its 36ft MB, MBA and MBS classes were too long to operate satisfactorily in the capital’s narrow streets, London Transport specified the 33ft 5in version of the same AEC Swift chassis from 1970, ordering a total of 838 SM and SMS-class buses in the succeeding two years. Unfortunately, these proved no more successful in the capital’s tough operating conditions than their Merlin forebears; endemic reliability issues were compounded by spares shortages during their operating careers, and the same fate of premature withdrawal ensued when London Transport could not muster the capacity to overhaul both the Swifts and the Routemasters at the same time. All were gone by 1981. As with The London Merlin in the same series, this volume offers a reappraisal of one of London Transport’s unhappier types and analyses the circumstances that necessitated their introduction.