Red London Transport Plates

Red “E” plates were rare, and seem to mostly be used for special purposes although there were some exceptions. They are not easily found nowadays.

Route 100 operated for a short time in the late 1970s on various routeings in central London, taking in many places of interest. The route was changed every few years, but was not particuarly successful and was withdrawn after a few years. I do not have accurate details of exactly where each routeing ran. There were very few routes that had “E” plates with a red background. On the second plate the word “VINTAGE” has been signwritten onto the space where it previously read “TOURIST”. Many of these plates were officially altered by grinding off the original word and signwriting the new text on top.

These “FARE STAGE” plates were a new way of showing fare stages on bus stops. Fare stages were the points from which a new fare was calculated. They previously had been shown by means of a small circular black disc near the top of the post. In a few cases, such as on bus shelters or in bus stations, there was not a suitable pole and an “E” plate was used instead, sometimes placed in runners on top of the shelter. It was a short-lived method, and was subsequently changed to a tall vertical red strip, the depth of the bus stop flag, attached between the post and the flag.

A headstop sign, either of the “E” plate or G3 Q variety, was used when one-man buses were being introduced, and stopped at a bus stop with conventional rear entrance buses. They were needed in cases where just forward of the stop there might have been a driveway which was not to be obstructed by a bus at the bus stop, so the sign was used to tell drivers of rear entrance buses to stop with their front, or “head” at the stop. If there was only a rear entrance bus serving the stop, the bus stop post would have been moved further back, about 30 feet, so the bus could stop in the correct position. Similarly, there were tailstop “E” plates and G3 Q signs, and in this case, it was to tell the driver of a one-man bus to pull forward and stop with his rear at the bus stop. The latter were quite unusual.

“HEAD STOP” “E” plates normally had black—or occasionally green—lettering on a white background. The red “HEAD STOP” plate was spotted on the internet, but was probably experimental.

Unfortunately I have not been able to establish exactly where or when Oxford route 70 ran. It could have been a London to Oxford service, but I doubt it, and I would guess it is more likely to have been a more local service from perhaps High Wycombe to Oxford. It is very unusual to find “E” plates with numbers on a red background, although there are a few that exist. Interestingly, many of those that do are for Oxford services.