Ensignbus was formed in 1972, since which time it has been involved in many aspects of the bus industry. In the early days a number of small contracts were operated for people such as the Port of London Authority and Lesney the toy manufactures. These small operations however became secondary to the role which Ensign has today made its own, that of buying and selling high quality used buses and coaches.

Although well known for selling vehicles around the world it was not until London Transport's (LT) controversial decision to start phasing out the 'DMS' class double deck, that Ensign became perhaps the best known bus dealer in the country. With LT insistent that the full quota of some near 2,000 vehicles be sold to one bidder, the number of interested parties was of course somewhat limited. Whilst some operators were keen to take a few vehicles no one was prepared for, or required 2,000, such buses. At the deadline for tenders to be in, it became quite clear that Ensign was the only serious contender for this mammoth task. The vehicles soon started arriving and Ensign was forced to move to larger premises at Purfleet in Essex. Here the vehicles were brought immediately following their withdrawal from LT service. On arrival they were thoroughly checked over for any faults before being 'De-Londoned' which meant that certain features that had been insisted upon for London service, and had often been unpopular, were removed.

Ensign's 15 acre yard at Purfleet was a sea of red as the DMS's started to arrive. Nearly 2,000 would pass through here with most finding new homes either in the UK or overseas.

On top of this customers could now specify any of Ensign's own specifications which ensured the customer received a vehicle tailor-made for their needs. Such improvements included the highly popular one door conversion, open and half and half top buses for sightseeing work, coach seated and hospitality buses, high capacity vehicles (for overseas work in places such as Hong Kong), tropicalised vehicles (for work in extreme climates) and even left hand drive was available. With so many vehicles coming in it was essential that Ensign sold the DMS's at a fast rate.

While many people involved in the bus industry predicted that London's unloved DMS's would never sell, Ensign set about proving them wrong. Within days vehicles were leaving Purfleet bound for new owners both in the UK and overseas. West Midlands PTE based in Birmingham were one of the first big operators to take the plunge and were soon in possession of some 80 DMS's in the one door configuration. Other large orders soon followed, many of the National Bus Company subsidiaries placed orders as well as the China Motor Bus Company, who ran buses in Hong Kong and who eventually operated some 400. As the DMS's continued to pass through Ensign's hands it became obvious that selling the full compliment of DMS's was indeed possible. While some were scrapped, usually either those too old or in too poor condition for refurbishment, most found new homes. It was towards the end of the DMS 'run' that Ensign started to look at other areas to expand into. Having operated a number of converted open top DMS's on London sightseeing work (rather ironically for London Transport who had been so unable to get along with the DMS type) it was realised that a move into the sightseeing arena would be a good move. The chance did not come along immediatley. When LT stopped hiring in operators to run its sightseeing operation this left Ensign somewhat out in the cold.

However, when the chance to purchase the small operator London Pride Sightseeing (LPS) came along, it was not missed. In 1984 when LPS was taken over it operated less than 10 vehicles, and operated from only one stop, it was now in for a time of massive expansion.

In the early days of Ensign ownership London Pride's buses almost all carried adverts for various multi-national companies.

It was also in the mid 1980's that Ensign moved into London Regional Transport (LRT) tendered work. Many politicians and local people feared that the private operators would be unable to provide the service already operating on these existing routes. Whilst in a few cases this indeed was true, in the case of Ensign it was the opposite. Passengers could now rely more than ever on the smartly painted blue and silver buses, whilst drivers enjoyed better rates of pay and conditions than they had driving the same routes only months before.

Ensign's striking blue and silver livery on its service bus network made the vehicles very distinctive.

Having built the service bus network up it was decided in 1990 to sell the LRT tendered work and one of the depots off. It was eventually sold to Citybus of China who renamed the operation Capital Citybus and repainted the vehicles into yellow. With Ensign's departure from the local bus scene the way was clear to further expand its sightseeing interest.

Throughout the 1980's and indeed into the 90's LPS under Ensign's ownership swallowed up a number of other London operators, Ebdon's, London Tour Co, London Hop on Hop off Ltd and Cityrama were the main acquisitions. Not only did this reduce competition in the already fiercely competitive and over-bussed market but it gave Ensign the use of other stops which had thus far been under-utilised. As LPS nosed its way towards being the market leader it introduced many new innovations that not only offered the customer more but firmly cemented its place as not only the biggest but also the most profitable of any of the London sightseeing operators.

Although today most of the tours in London offer a very similar deal it was Ensign through LPS that first offered people, a complete hop on hop off service, an unlimited travel 24 hour electronically timed ticket, different routes to explore more of the city, a free shuttle bus to and from hotels and stations, fast track entrance to many of London's top attractions, discounts on entrance fees, as well as being the only operator to run 24 hours a day allowing people to use their ticket to its maximum. Throughout this time Ensign continued to sell high quality used buses around the world. Although the scale of this operation was somewhat smaller than during the 'DMS period' up to 150 buses a year were sold from the new premises at Rainham in Essex. Many of these vehicles were sold to operators of sightseeing tours in other cities around the world, who had seen LPS's buses and were keen to find out more about the open top market from the then world leader.

This interest led to Ensign sending experienced staff from its London operation across the world to either help set up new operations or supply the knowledge to increase the revenue of existing tours. Some 40 countries have been visited by staff from Ensign over the past three years with regard to open top sightseeing tours.

Amongst the many new innovations Ensignbus bought into the London Sightseeing market through its London Pride operation few were more successful on the vehicle side than the introduction of Metroliner type vehicles. These former motorway coaches at 40 ft (12m) allowed nearly 70 people upstairs at any one time. Not only allowing maximium revenue per vehicle but also meaning less buses had to run on the already congested streets of London. With the London operation boasting over 100 stops, 110 buses and some 300 staff, and making a profit of more than £2 million per annum it was decided to sell the whole operation in a huge deal which finally took place on 31st January 1998. At the time of sale LPS was the largest single city operator of sightseeing buses in the world, as well as boasting the largest fleet of open top buses anywhere on the planet. Following this Ensign was forced to find new premises, this time back to its 'spiritual' home at Purfleet, (less than a mile away from the depot which had seen nearly 2,000 DMS's pass through little more than 10 years ago). With no major operation now to run Ensign moved back into dealing in a big way. In its first year it sold over 300 buses and had a turnover of some £3 million. However, with the market being very up and down on the dealing side, and for contractual reasons unable to operate another sightseeing operation in London, it was decided to re-enter on a small scale the local bus service scene. The story had almost gone full circle with the acquisition of the route 324 and then 348 from First Capital (see link below to visit their website), which in turn had taken over Capital Citybus in 1998, the purchasers of Ensign's LRT tendered work in 1990. Both these routes were extended and advertised and once again the smart blue and silver vehicles of Ensignbus took to the streets. With the increase in frequency, times, destinations and reliability people started to return to the bus as an easy way to get to work or go shopping. Visit Bus Themes and Information to read more about First Capital.

When Ensign re-entered the service bus business it was decided once again to use the smart blue and silver livery. This time however vehicles all carried route branding on the side to help advertise the service. On its first day under Ensign ownership a little over 500 people were carried, some 10 months later on its last day just over 3,500 passengers were carried! At the same time the sightseeing operation has not been idle. Having already helped set up successful operations in both Denmark and Spain, the 'City Sightseeing' (as Ensign's new world-wide open top bus operation has been branded) team have moved onto Australia where a number of cities will have there own tour before the end of 2000. Whilst Ensign owns some of the City Sightseeing operations others remain entirely owned independent of Ensign, choosing purely to operate in almost franchise type arrangement where Ensign provide vehicles, staff, the brandname, world-wide advertising and perhaps most importantly of all, years of expertise in running tours in the most competitive cities in the world. It is hoped by December 2000 there will be at least 15 cities operating under the City Sightseeing banner and by the end of 2002 up to 50. If you are interested in running a tour of your city then we really are the people to talk to.

One of the first cities to enter the City Sightseeing family was Seville in Spain. -Here can be seen one of the vehicles in the distinctive City Sightseeing livery, which varies slightly to include a local feel for each city. Ensign's staff were instrumental in setting this operation up using the lessons learnt from London. Other routes were added to the 324 and 348 which included the 325 and 509, which now meant the Ensign network penetrated as far as Stratford in the west to Gravesend, Bluewater and Lakeside in the east. However, once again Ensign's true calling of both dealing and sightseeing work took precedence over the service work network and in December 1999 in a surprise move the service work was taken over by Town and Country Buses. Once again the way was clear to expand both sides of the business in a forward direction. Ensign can now boast the largest stock of used double-deck buses in the world, with anywhere from 100-500 buses in stock.

Ensignbus is now purely devoted to its dealing and sightseeing operations. Always in stock are large numbers of both double and single deck vehicles. Why not check out our 'Vehicles for sale' page, for the latest buses in stock. For 25 years now Ensign has been the market leader in supplying specific vehicles for specific jobs. If you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact us. If it can be done with a bus....we've probably already done it! For 25 years now Ensign has specialised in providing vehicles for both home and abroad in the style required.