At nearly 60, Scarlett the Routemaster bus has travelled from London to captivate Sydneysiders

Scarlett is a classic London Routemaster bus trundling through the back streets of suburban Sydney after being lovingly restored by owner Sergio Fiorenzo who uses her for events.

The most iconic London bus of all has been the red Routemaster bus and Sergio, who grew up in Bristol, is very familiar with them.

"In Bristol in the 1960s, no one had cars and we would catch buses," he said.

"I have always been a mad keen bus nut and would drive mum and dad crazy because I would only hop on one bus. I'd refuse to get on other brands.

"I ended up driving Routemasters in London. I've had my bus driving licence for 41 years.

"We moved to America when I was a kid and at 17 I bought my first bus - one of those yellow school buses."

Routemaster bus, RML 2353, aka Scarlet, was taken in to stock by London Transport Country Bus Division in November 1965.

She was originally painted green until 1980, when she was re-purchased by London Transport.

She worked at various locations in Central London until early 2004. She was exported to Australia in 2006, where she worked on the Gold Coast until June 2012, when she moved to Sydney.

"My wife named her Scarlett," Sergio said. "She calls her the other woman."

Sergio was made redundant in 2014 so he used his redundancy money to buy the bus.

"I was working for working for the NSW government doing revenue protection on the bus system. There were 30 of us and we were made redundant.

"I was aware of the bus up on the Gold Coast and chased the owner to buy her."

With a total seating capacity of 69 passengers, Scarlet offers more seating than a regular bus at the same price.

"I do weddings and anything really," Sergio said. "We do heritage shows as well.

"We can tailor make all our events. Our party planner can help you plan your route, food, drink and decorations to make your day special and unique."

And with Sydney's chronic shortage of bus drivers Sergio is often called upon these days to do school sport charters.

"Often they need a second bus to get kids to sporting events so they hire me. You should see their faces when we turn up."

Scarlett is quite a novelty out on the roads but Sergio always has to keep an eye out for any safety problems.

"I'll be driving along and people are hanging out of car windows taking photos or they stop in the middle of a pedestrian crossing to film Scarlett. It gets a bit hairy sometimes."