The Routemaster bus entered service in London in February 1956. The last regular Routemaster service ran on route 159 on 9 December 2005, almost 50 years later. Some Routemasters ran on heritage routes in central London until 2019.
The buses were built to be rebuilt. About every five years, each one went to London Transport’s Aldenham Works, where it was completely stripped down and rebuilt.