By the mid-1930s, malpractices in pursuit of maximum profit began to compromise safety and comfort.

The setting up of the limited liability omnibus companies by the British around 1940 was the first meaningful step in regularising public passenger transport in the country.

The creation of a single nationalised entity made possible long-distance operations and running buses on a large number of rural routes.

[3] Colombo has an extensive public transport system based on buses, some of which is operated by SLTB.

Inter-provincial bus services often start in one city and extend to another urban or rural destination.

The commercial capital of Colombo is mainly centered on the internal services of the Western Province.

It uses modern Lanka Ashok Leyland buses on the expressway to connect Galle with Maharagama.

Most of the fleet consists of buses from Ashok Leyland, Dennis, Volvo, Yutong, Tata, Mitsubishi and Isuzu.

[9][10] The buses ordered have modern facilities, including low-floor design and air-conditioning.

In July 2011, trial runs began in Colombo to gauge passengers' response to the new buses.

The second-hand London Transport buses, which were the backbone of the fleet, just needed to be half-painted in blue, saving on costs.

When aluminium bus bodies became the norm, large areas of the surface were left unpainted, with just red front and back and blue strips down the side, in order to save money.

The Logo was originally a blue oval with the words 'CTB' and the equivalents in Sinhala and Tamil painted on it in red.