Routemaster bus RM2217

English: Routemaster bus RM2217 (reg. CUV 217C) was the last production RM-class Routemaster, being superseded by the longer RML class. It was delivered to London Transport in May 1965. In 1984 it was used as a showbus. In 1991 it was fitted with an Iveco engine. It saw use in London into the privatisation era, passing in 1994 into the fleet of South London (which later became Arriva London South). In the last year of London Transport ownership, it had been one of the buses repainted into a special a red and cream livery just for route 159, but after privatisation, it returned to red. It remained on the 159 until, in 1999, being refurbished and re-engined (Cummins) at Enfield garage. It saw further use until withdrawal in September 2004, including on the last days of Routemaster operation on route 137 and route 73. A month later it was given purple vinyls to look like the Harry Potter triple decker 'Knight Bus', and went on a promotional tour of the UK (see an image of a similarly treated Bristol VR in New York). Arriva's RM275 (VLT 275 / 859 UXC) also had these vinyls applied from May to September 2004. After failing on the M3 motorway in December 2004, by January 2005 it had been allocated to special purposes. From June 2005 it underwent a restoration program at Norwood garage to get it ready for the last day of Routemaster operation - on 9 December 2005 it became the last scheduled Routemaster to operate in normal non-heritage service in London, operating the last journey on route 159 before its conversion to modern buses. In 2006 it became one of the buses in the Arriva's The Heritage Fleet heritage private hire fleet. [1]