The route was a major trunk service, so that unusually for newly introduced routes, there were seldom changes to it. RTs were originally used on the route but were replaced with RMLs as from May 1971. It ran as a daily service between Whipps Cross and London Bridge Station via Leyton, Lea Bridge Road, Clapton, Dalston, Shoreditch, Liverpool Street Station, Monument and London Bridge. It was an amalgam of sections of the altered route 35 and the withdrawn route 38A. One of the many routes introduced on that date was the 48. The first section of the Victoria Line opened on 1 September 1968 and a week later a large scheme of bus route changes took place. The 48 was introduced on 7 September 1968 as part of the Reshaping Scheme of London Buses, that had been proposed by London Transport in 1966 and with forty years in service, it has now become the longest surviving incarnation of the 48 route number in London.