Having seen "externally restored to original condition" RML 2394 for sale on EBay I looked at their website and that is the message.
Without getting into details or breaking confidences, does anyone know if this is temporary or a sign of a downturn in RM hire work?

This year has been lousy for us in France we had a boom on the back of Harry Potter and then lost our 2 months EU Info bus work which was understandable, but it was our bread and butter, now it seems pollution controls could prevent a lot of our publicity work in big towns in the future.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458, RM 1585 and several RTs

ThisBus aren't the only ones. I had a chat this morning with another contributor on here who told me there's quite a few RMs for sale at the moment, and another 2 operators offering theirs for sale. As mentioned in another thread below ours is offered for sale more to see if there's any interest. From what he said we reckon the price for RMs is likely to drop in the near future as a result of this. there's been a number on various auction websites at prices up to £60k and some at euro80k abroad. Good luck if you can find a buyer at those prices.

Another operator in my area has recently bought out a company in the midlands with a couple of RMs and an RF to add to his existing fleet. One of the London operators has I believe reached saturation point with his operations, having bought a fleet over the last few years for London dining tours.

It may well be that LEZ regulations will affect fleets in Europe, but in the UK most LEZ areas have exemptions for historic vehicles, Leeds being the latest to have such an exemption.

Anyway back to the OP, I would suggest that a lot of people have bought vintage buses especially Routemasters to "make a few quid" doing weddings and the like. Personally I've been doing it since 1969 so not one of those! These people are now having difficulty finding sufficient work to get a decent if any return on their investment, let alone finding drivers who know how to drive them, and to find parts to keep them on the road. To put it simply, there's too many at it.

To the hirer the fad for hiring a Routemaster may have passed. We had an enquiry this week for a vintage bus, but "not a boring old red double decker".

Someone in the midlands who is sadly no longer with us invested not only in buses but spares as well. The buses have as far as I know been put for auction, what has happened to the considerable stock of spares in not know. I know he has some unique bits off me a few years back, fuel tank, half shafts etc. Whether the buses have sold yet I don't know. Who knows, maybe the long-awaited cull of dead RMs may happen soon. It happened to the Rf and RTs in the 1980s.

My bus number (if any): RML2532