Children in Need

In October 2005 the BBC approached Arriva London to see if we would donate an item for their “Big Bid”.

At about this time we were converting the route 38 from Routemasters to Bendy Buses, and always keen to help a good cause, decided to offer one of these Routemasters, fresh from the route 38 and still in service condition as an item in the ‘Big Bid’.

The Routemaster  proved to be extremely popular, featuring in a live show at BBC television centre with Eamon Holmes and the group Girls Allowed.  Within hours of the bus appearing in the online auction the bids had risen to thousands of pounds.

The winning bid finally came in at £13,000 from a hotel chain in the North East of England.

Charity Bus Pull

Every year RMC1464 is loaned by The Arriva Heritage Fleet to the John Evelyn pub in Deptford, South East London, for their charity bus pull.

The competition is a time trial held over a half mile course and is always a hard fought contest.

Teams of up to eight people from the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service and the John Evelyn do battle and all of the money raised goes to charity.