PalenqueBob

A venerable icon of London - the antique-looking red double-deck 'Routemaster' buses will reach the end of their amazing journey dec 9, when, after 51 years of continual chugging over London streets the last Routemaster line sends them to the scrapheap of history.
Transport for London says that the Routemasters have outlived their usefullness - because not only are they aging but are inaccessible to wheelchairs, and they pose an important liability problem as in a given year 1 to 3 people are killed when they fall from the openair entrance platform - 25 folks are injured by such falls per 100 Routemasters vs 5 for more modern buses.
So one of the most phenomenally successful and lasting of transport vehicles will now be seen not in London, though two token 'Heritage Routes' will be maintained, but will continue to be seen in various places around the globe as old Routemasters have become much sought after items in tourist areas.
I myself just rode the Routemaster last summer and stood on the platform, where you were able to hop off anytime the bus slowed as there is no door - quite a thrill but it did cross my mind that this could be a little dangerous.
Any have any good stories of Routemaster adventures?

Surfergirl

I will miss them, primarily because when you're stuck on the number 8 or 25 in traffic, you can jump off and walk faster, especially down Oxford Street.
Ah, well maybe they will show up on Ebay.

PatrickLondon

I believe they're still chugging away in different parts of the world (didn't Colombo take a lot at one time?).

I thought they weren't the most comfortable of buses when they first came in (that gear change!) but I shall miss demonstrating the classic Londoner's manoeuvre for getting off a moving bus.

In the words of the great Augustus Carp (a Truly Good Man):

" Nor shall I forget the thrill, perhaps a trifle guilty, with which I discovered, soon after I was sixteen, how to descend from a vehicle in motion without the sacrifice of an erect position. Hitherto, like my father, when travelling by tram or omnibus, I had always insisted upon complete immobility prior both to entrance into and departure from one of these public conveyances; and many a conductor had been reported by us both for failing to secure the requisite lack of motion. Upon my sixteenth birthday, however, perceiving that the omnibus in which I was journeying could not be brought to a standstill at the desired position, I decided to alight from it notwithstanding and boldly descended from its posterior step.

Naturally leaving this at right angles, what was my rather rueful amazement to discover myself, in the next instant, lying upon my side in the roadway. At first I imagined that I must have stepped upon something slippery or that some such article must have been adhering to my footwear. But a minute examination both of this and the roadway failed to reveal any such cause. Completely baffled, I made a second attempt, but with an equally discomforting result, and time after time, in spite of my utmost efforts, I was the victim of a similar loss of equilibrium. Many a less determined and timider lad would indeed have given up the venture, and again I ought to confess, perhaps, in view of municipal regulations, that my pertinacity was not wholly defensible.

Robbed of candour, however, such a record as the present would lose the greater part of its spiritual value; and while I am prepared to admit that, in this particular instance, my youthful conduct may have been open to misjudgement, I cannot concede that it was in any degree incompatible with the highest expression of the Xtian character. Refusing to be cast down, therefore, save in the most literal sense, I continued dauntlessly with my efforts, to be rewarded at last with a final success no less gratifying than entire. Failing to remain upright in departing from the moving vehicle either at right angles to it or with my back towards the driver, I found that by facing in the same direction I could not only descend from it with greater immunity, but that by running after it, as it were, for two or three steps, I could do so with complete integrity. Needless to say, having acquired this knowledge, I only made use of it in an occasional emergency, and for some years now, owing to declining success, I have discontinued the practice altogether. "

PalenqueBob

Other unique attributes of the Routemasters:
tartan plaid cloth on seats
slatted wooden floors
an old fashioned bell that the conductor would ring with a string to tell the driver to move on (new buses largely don't have conductors but automatic ticket machines on the street or on the bus

some Routemasters are being replaced by 'Bendy buses' - double one level buses that can bend in the middle where the two parts are connected, making them more manoeuverable in traffic-clogged streets.

wombat7

A sad post - so much fun jumping on and off

Tallulah

Putting the argument regarding the iconic status that the routemasters hold, as a Londoner I will sorely miss them. They are just about the most practical form of public transport that one could hope for - jump on and jump off just where you want, and a conductor to ensure your safety.

I am absolutely livid that they are consigning them to the scrapheap, it's beauraucracy gone mad. The reason there are injuries is because people take stupid risks - given that there are probably more injuries from people being hit by buses, why not just abolish buses full stop..?

kris4n6

I rode on one just by chance about three years ago on my first visit to London. It was very different from buses over here in the States! I kind of liked being able to hop off whenever, though I can't remember if I did that or waited for it to stop (I think I hopped off on a corner...but it has been three years).

I wish I'd known they were getting rid of these - I didn't get a chance to ride one on my most recent trip (in September) and I definitely would have.

And as for the bendy buses - I hate those things. We have them here and I've never cared for them. I did ride on one in London and wasn't impressed - they seem to take up so much more space, wouldn't that be *worse* for traffic???

xyz123

Unfortunately, they are dangerous. I read an account about 5 or 6 years ago of a Swedish tourist on her first visit to London on her first day getting on one of them and some idiot trying to grab her pocketbook, she lost her balance and fell under the wheels and was killed.....yes things happen but that sort of thing is somewhat harder to imagine if there wasn't an open platform.....

It was fun to get on, not have to show a ticket to anybody and wait for the conductor to come around to collect fares or inspect tickets but times change, there are oyster cards now and other such 21st century things.

I'm afraid time marches on.....

oldie

As Flanders and Swann sang:

Hold very tight please! Ting-ting!
Hold very tight please! Ting-ting!

When you are lost in London
And you don't know where you are
You'll hear my voice a-calling
"Pass further down the car!"
And very soon you'll find yourself inside the terminus,
In a London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus.

Along the Queen's great Highway I drive my merry load
At 20 miles-per-hour in the middle of the road.
We like to drive in convoys - we're most gregarious:
The big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus.

Earth has not anything to show more fair
Mind the stairs! Mind the stairs! Mind the stairs!
Earth has not anything to show more fair
Any more fares? Any more fares? Any more fares? Any more fares? Any more fares?

When cabbies try to pass me, before they overtakes,
I sticks me flippin' 'and out and jams on all me brakes,
Then jackal taxi drivers can only swear and cuss
Behind that monarch of the road,
Observer of the Highway Code,
That big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus.

I stops when I'm requested although it spoils the rides
So he can shout "Gert out of it, we're full right up inside!"
We don't ask much for wages, we only want fair shares
So cut down all the stages and stick up all the fares.
If tickets cost a pound a piece
Why should you make a fuss?
It's worth it just to ride inside
That 30-foot-long by 10-foot-wide
Inside that monarch of the road,
Observer of the Highway Code,
That big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower, 97-horsepower omnibus.

Hold very tight please! Ting-ting!

rkkwan

What's the average pay (including benefits) for a London bus conductor? Does he sell enough tickets a day to cover his/her OWN pay, not to mention the driver, maintanance and for the bus itself?

GeoffHamer

For bus routes that pass through central London, tickets must be bought in advance - there are machines at bus stops, or travelcards (passes for a day or longer) can be bought from various outlets. Therefore, the conductors on the remaining Routemasters have very little work to do: they check tickets but do not sell them.
I don't know anything about current rates of pay, but conductors used to get nearly as much as drivers because the conductor is in charge of the bus: he or she tells the driver when to start and stop.
The Routemaster was specially designed for London so has many admirable features. Ventilation, for example, is much better than on modern buses which become like a sauna when they're stuck in a traffic jam on a warm day. I suspect the designers of the Routemaster had first-hand experience of travelling on buses, while the people who design modern buses do not have to travel on their vehicles.

flanneruk

rkkewan:

Much as I hate RMs, the cost of the conductor is a very small part of the issue.

It's clear that one-man buses (and we're keeping one-man double-deckers) create serious traffic congestion around bus stops. Everyone but Red Ken is convinced that vandalism (and even terrorism) is a greatly bigger problem on one-man double-deckers than on RMs. Indeed, from time to time, some of the operating companies have reintroduced conductors on the busiest non-RM doubledeckers.

Everyone but Red Ken is convinced fare evasion on bendy buses is sometimes close to 100%.

And bendy buses are wrong for London in lots and lots of other ways. Public transport virtually never covers its costs. Managing monopoly public services just to keep costs as low as possible is precisely the mistake the Soviets and their imitators (like Britain's National Health Service) made.

Public services have to reflect what their customers want, or the objective of those services will fail. Londoners' objections to bendy buses and one-man double-deckers are real. If TfL doesn't listen to them, more and more of us will find other ways - yes even driving - of getting around.

The fact that RMs are dysfunctional relics of the worst era in State planning doesn't make the only alternatives Ken has come up with any better. Two seconds on a Hong Kong bus, for example, shows how much better buses can be when you don't have the dead hand of Ken's inanity behind you.

rkkwan

Good that Hong Kong is mentioned in this thread. Hong Kong has always used UK double-decker buses. New, used, UK-designed, all sorts.

I think you'll find the most amazing buses there in HK. Super clearn, air-conditioned, straight stairs, nice padded seats, super-low platform, spot for wheelchair, video screens, Octopus card reader that takes a split second for each passenger.

One person can run a bus that holds 130 persons (60 upper seats, 30 lower seats, 40 lower standing) efficiently. They've done it in Hong Kong for years. If you've rode in one of those new gold-color buses in HK, you'll forget the Routemaster. They've gotten rid of similar buses in HK >20 years ago.

Keith

The news stories that I read all said that the Routemasters are being continued after today on two routes that area heavily used by tourists.

Keith

flanneruk

Greater London and HK have similar-sized populations and occupy similar amounts of space.

Both are, in practice, semi-autonomous areas, with phenomenally successful economies built on ruthless dedication to global trading in spite of a national government, run by a single party, that brooks no opposition and is convinced the State knows best.

But HK has a Chief Executive who makes sure it's run efficiently. We have a Mayor who thinks he knows what's best.

rkkwan

Actually, the main difference between the London and Hong Kong bus systems is that Hong Kong has always have private bus companies running a franchise. They are for profit companies that have to compete with trains, taxis, minibuses and ferries.

That's rare among major cities, but it has worked well. KMB is the world's largest privately owned bus company.

henneth

From November 15th two routes will be introduced with refurbished Routemaster buses.
The 9 which runs from Albert Hall to Aldwych via Piccadilly Circus and the 15 from Trafalgar Square to Tower Hill via Fleet Street and St Paul's.

xyz123

Are they changing the #9 and #15 routes or just introducing short routes...the #9 is supposed to continue to High Street Kensington and then further west while the #15 is supposed to continue past Trafalger Square to Picadilly and up Regent Street to Oxford Street?

PalenqueBob

RED KEN TO THE RESCUE?
Some Londoners are not taking the Routemasters' demise so casually and have launched a save-the-Routemaster appeal - the group has garnered 11,000 signatures in support of not necessarily keeping the old circa 1930s Routemasters as being impractical, given their drawbacks, but designing modern double-decker retaining the looks of the Routemaster but without its safety and accessibility problems. Old Routemasters simply cannot be re-fitted to meet the Disability Discrimination Act that requires wheelchair-accessibility for all buses, which, the director of operations for London buses says every bus on the network will meet by the end of the year (save perhaps the few Routemasters on the above-mentioned token 'Heritage routes').

henneth

My guess is they'll supplement the bendy buses on these routes with a limited Routemaster service taking visitors past some of the central tourist sites.