Meet the Man Who Keeps London's Double-Decker Tour Buses Rolling

On a normal summer day, scores of open-top buses stream out of the Big Bus Tours engineering depot in London, heading out onto the streets of the UK capital, ready to pick up curious tourists. If even one of them is late, that's a big problem. “It runs like clockwork here. In the summer we have, like, up to 65 buses a day going out. So you haven't got much room for error,” said Rory Budge, 36, who is technically called a senior electrician at the company. For Budge, that means keeping a close eye on things, picking up and dealing with minor problems like a blown bulb or topping up the washer fluid, before moving on to tackle the more formal inspection process that takes place every 42 days. His shift starts at 6:30 in the morning and finishes around 3:30 in the afternoon Monday through Friday, but over the summer months he's often in on a Saturday as well. A big challenge for Budge — who has been at the company for nine years — and the rest of