Category:East Thames Buses (bus company)

English: East Thames Buses was the trading name used by London Buses Limited, which was a dormant company re-activated in 1999 as a wholly owned subisidary of Transport for London. This was done to allow TfL to directly own and operate public transport buses in London without creating a conflict of interest which would have otherwise existed due to the fact that under the TfL era, such services are tendered out to private operators in a competitive system administered by London Bus Services Ltd, itself also a wholly owned subisidary of TfL. ETB was created after the financial collapse of one of the large private operators led to a gap in provision in some areas. It was subsequently retained and even expanded, by both bidding for new tenders as well as taking over other collapsed operators. The ETB name ceased to be used when the routes and buses were sold to one of the private operators, Go-Ahead London, who incorporated into their London General business. The London Buses Limited remains in existence, to provide other bus related services for Tfl.