Colour transparency; a bus driver stands by a MTL London bus, by Hugh Robertson, 1998

A bus driver, working for M.T.L London Buses stands beside an OM-type Optare Metrorider bus at Golders Green bus station. The photograph was taken by Hugh Robertson on 27 March 1998. M.T.L. London was eventually bought by Metroline. Bus privatisation in the mid-1980s meant that while London Regional Transport specified services and fares, it tendered for the operation of the routes to private bus enterprises. These minibuses were used to access smaller, more local routes than double-decker buses.