DMS Class History:

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The DMS class was London’s first stab at running one man operated buses and for LT it was quite a learning curve. With RT’s and RMs not getting any newer London had to look for newer buses, with budget pressures mounting, higher capacity single crewed vehicles were their only way forwards. The vehicle known as the Londoner was on a Fleetline chassis and was the preferred choice following experimentation since 1965 of the Fleetline versus the Atlantean in the XF and XA classes.

However LT had a penance for over engineering and complicating things and the DMS was no exception. The Fleetline was a well known and proven chassis but with staff shortages, many niggling problems that needed resolving leading to bus shortages and thus less vehicles working harder which in turn caused more problems a viscous circle was born and the DMS’ days were numbered from the beginning. Indeed by the time the very last of the 2646 were delivered, the second generation of rear engine, one man operated buses, the Metrobus and the Titan were already starting to arrive.

Ensignbus in its dealership capacity however took the plunge and was contracted to take the lions share of the withdrawn DMS’ starting in 1979. Once they had been ‘de-London’ed’ the vehicles became very reliable and found ready buyers, from as far away as Hong Kong, to many of the UKs largest provincial fleets such as West Midlands PTE, Midland Red, Western National.

Indeed the vehicles would return to the capital in some numbers, as sightseeing buses. Indeed Ensign hired a number back to London Transport to be used on these duties, and with other operators such as Cityrama, Ebdons, London Hop-on Hop-Off, Culture Bus, London Pride and Big Bus all using them in considerable numbers. They soldiered on until past the year 2000 albeit in ever smaller numbers and many redundant London sightseeing buses ended up doing the same duties in other cities such as New York or Chicago.

Their eventual longevity showed that it was London that had let down the Fleetline, rather than the Fleetline that had let down London.​