Following a trial on behalf of the National Bus Company, in which five Metro buses were compared against other vehicle types, Maidstone & District bought ten of the MkII version in 1984. These were delivered in NBC's green and white livery, three of them, including 5204, received the smart but short lived green and cream colours introduced in 1997 under British Bus Group ownership. Although some first entered service at Tunbridge Wells, the Metro buses spent most of their lives in the Medway Towns, before being based in Maidstone for their last few months in 1999, by which time M & D had become ARRIVA Kent & Sussex Ltd.