Travel London was a bus company operating services in Greater London. It was a subsidiary of the National Express Group before being sold in May 2009 to NedRailways. In October 2009, it was rebranded as Abellio London.
History
In November 1997, Birmingham bus operator and National Express Group subsidiary Travel West Midlands (TWM) was awarded seven-year London Regional Transport contracts to operate routes C1 and 211 from June 1998. TWM formed a new subsidiary company, Travel London, to operate these routes, with new Optare Solo and Optare Excel buses purchased to run the routes using similar branding to TWM but painted into a predominantly red livery featuring blue and white highlights.
In August 2000, National Express sold the business to Limebourne, who in July 2001 sold out to Connex. In February 2004, National Express repurchased the business. Further expansion in 2005 saw the purchases of the London bus operations of Tellings-Golden Miller, acquiring depots in Twickenham, Hayes and Byfleet as well as various Surrey County Council contracts.
Travel London operated contracts on behalf of Transport for London, Surrey County Council, and Kingston University. Operations were split between three registered companies; Travel London Limited, Travel London (West) Limited, and Travel London (Middlesex) Limited. Surrey services were rebranded as Travel Surrey in September 2007.
In November 2007, National Express announced plans to re-brand all of their operations under a new unified National Express identity. Travel London was to be rebranded as National Express London however this was shelved and all bus operations retained their existing identities.
In May 2009, National Express sold Travel London to NedRailways. The sale included 66 routes: 36 Transport for London tendered services and 30 Surrey County Council and Kingston University routes. All vehicles, depots and staff were included.
On 30 October 2009, the businesses were rebranded as Abellio London and Abellio Surrey.
Travel London won the contract for route 407, starting from 31 October 2009. This was used as the launch of the new Abellio name.