please empty your brain below
7 - from the Metro?

MartinO'Holcombe | 15.04.21 - 7:11 a.m. | #

Even as an American who would spend a couple weeks a year in London I loved spotting the Routemasters and riding them from Trafalgar square.

johnd | 15.04.21 - 7:21 a.m. | #

Most of the time I see comments on articles about the "last" Routemaster people don't seem to be able to tell the difference between Routemasters and RTs.

Simon | Homepage | 15.04.21 - 7:36 a.m. | #

9. Don't go by registration numbers for RM ages, Aldenham swapped identities between vehicles as part of the overhaul process, so with the exception of a handful of examples, none of the buses are the actual vehicles their registration numbers identify them as.

The 15H should have been withdrawn long ago (or not even introduced), it was never an essential service.

Still Anon | 15.04.21 - 7:44 a.m. | #

Is £1.3m or £800,000 a large amount? How much does it cost TfL to operate buses on other routes?

Three buses an hour each way for 8 hours a day for 7 days a week all year cost around £1.3 million That appears to be about £75 per bus each way (£150 return).

Andrew | 15.04.21 - 8:12 a.m. | #

A sad demise, for a mode of transport worthy of a better send off than this current lumpen administration has given it.

Instead of down-grading it, if they'd put more effort into promoting it, especially as a tourist experience, which is what the heritage routes were originally intended to be, perhaps they would have fared better. Like the San Francisco Cable Cars, they offered a ride on an iconic piece of London's history.

But the decision to kill them off was taken pre-covid. When you only know the price of something but not its value, then it's just so much easier to get rid of it instead. The dead hand of political indifference had struck.

Sadly the Big Yellow Taxi has now called for the Big Red RouteMaster. The streets of London are just that little less interesting now, and less enticing, to this visitor at least.

IanD | 15.04.21 - 8:18 a.m. | #

So, though we didn't know it, the Routemasters retired the day before I did.

Because the bodies and chassis were separated for overhaul, it was commonplace for a body to leave Aldenham on a different chassis to the one it arrived on, and often with a number plate that had arrived on a third vehicle.

There were plenty of Routemasters (and even older buses) on routes 65 and 465 last Sunday, for Cobham bus museum's running day.

timbo | 15.04.21 - 8:22 a.m. | #

RMs should have gone 30 years ago! Outdated from the moment they were built.

D9000 | 15.04.21 - 8:31 a.m. | #

re 7 - if you want to see those old buses now in private hands, but without shelling out the £24 fee, quite a few are parked on the Greenwich peninsula, just south of Morden Wharf. They are visible from the Thames path. Some are now black for Ghost Bus tours.

Will | 15.04.21 - 8:46 a.m. | #

I remember seeing this as brand new in my Buses publication. The Evening Standard days late again after the result of the FOI request was known days ago. If there hadn’t been this request tfl would still not have announced it. Thanks DG for the different ways you have announced it. The most iconic bus ever imo.

Dave B | 15.04.21 - 8:52 a.m. | #

I now feel very fortunate indeed to have had a chance to ride a RM in its twilight years. It happened quite by chance and I never paid TfL a penny for the privilege. One damp evening during a rare DLR strike I waited upon a replacement bus at Pontoon Dock - lo and behold a dimly lit Routemaster approached. What could I do but climb the stairs and sit in that cramped space for the short ride to Canning Town. Cramped, uncomfortable and aged beyond its years I would hesitate to pay for the privilege in these modern times, but just in that moment in dark outer London I felt like a tourist again. Thanks TfL.

Michael T | 15.04.21 - 8:55 a.m. | #

What does "public service" mean? As timbo says, plenty of Routemasters along with RT's and RF's were running as extra buses on route 65 last Sunday. Free to use and even complete with TfL Covid signage.

The 15H was a bit of a travesty. With their dodgy replacement windows most of the buses did not look like the real thing.

ap | 15.04.21 - 8:56 a.m. | #

Some people genuinely care about this, don't they?
My memory of riding route 243 Routemasters to and from school (they may have been RTs, I really don't care) are of windows with broken winders allowing arctic winds to circulate, and being unable to stand straight on the top deck from about the age of 13. Only someone of restricted growth could miss that experience.

Frank F | 15.04.21 - 9:21 a.m. | #

Frank, thats the fifth time you’ve been surprised that “some people genuinely care about” something you don’t. Enough now.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.04.21 - 9:26 a.m. | #

Apologies, I will rein in my genuine bemusement.
You really do count everything then.

Frank F | 15.04.21 - 9:35 a.m. | #

Frank- I care so I looked it up. The 243 never used RTs. It used Routemasters from its introduction in 1961 (replacing trolleybus routes 543 and 643) until converted to one-person operation in 1985

timbo | 15.04.21 - 9:36 a.m. | #

It's a shame but inevitable. I would like a world where we can afford to spend a little public money on something frankly trivial and unnecessary - a daily celebration of a London icon. But that's not the world we live in.

Without a doubt they were no longer fit for a modern bus network, and really they shouldn't have survived in general service as long as they did. But they did, and that made them special. And still to be able to travel on one on a normal bus route was special too.

(Anyway, nice way to show you can spin a news story in many ways.)

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 15.04.21 - 9:45 a.m. | #

No one seems to have told Stagecoach London it had been withdrawn permanently. Some of the crews were still on furlough until at least last week.

Kim | 15.04.21 - 9:48 a.m. | #

Meanwhile, in 1952, when trams were finally withdrawn from the streets of London, the event was celebrated by 'Last Tram Week' when thousands of Londoners could take their last ride and keep their souvenir ticket.

And on the night of July 5th, the last official tram, driven by a London Transport boss who'd started his career as a tram driver, was delayed by several hours as it slowly pushed its way through the crowds that had come out to celebrate the event.

This is all captured in the British Transport film 'The Elephant will Never Forget' here.

It's a shame that the end of the Routemaster bus couldn't have been recorded in the same way and the public allowed to celebrate it with the same affection.

ActonMan | 15.04.21 - 10:10 a.m. | #

I am really glad I did ride on RM's when ever I got the chance, plus I have enough images and videos.
They were just another reminder of a London that has long gone.

Michael | 15.04.21 - 10:14 a.m. | #

Ironic indeed that "Red Ken" should be the Nemesis of this bright red London icon! I realised I had to move away from the capital when RM's (or was it RML?) was withdrawn from the 133 route, and not only was each stop stopped at longer, but instead of nipping out at the first set of traffic lights before London Bridge, I had to get through all four, thus all but guaranteeing a missed train.

cau1khead | 15.04.21 - 10:28 a.m. | #

Replace them with double deck trolley buses, that would be environmentally friendly and attract some tourists.
Of course it will not happen.
I will not miss the old Routemasters always cold upstairs on the top deck in winter

John | 15.04.21 - 10:55 a.m. | #

I don't think one bus journey goes by without me wishing I could 'just hop off here'!
The Boris buses were supposed to do that job - ha!!

Very sad. I always waited 3 buses to get the Heritage one if I was needing a 15. And even if I didn't, just seeing them would make me (and others) smile.

Thanks for your worthy send off at least, DG.

Cornish Cockney | 15.04.21 - 11:52 a.m. | #

I love the Routemaster, but the implementation of the Heritage route 15 was a total waste of this icon.

i) they didn't accept Contactless (although they didn't seem too worried about me providing other form of payment)

ii) they didn't actually operate the route as a tourist attraction - they bombed along shaking the air out of their passenger lungs

iii) I'm not sure the route was the best fit for Heritage - maybe something going past Houses of Parliament would have attracted more tourists

iv) they never seemed very busy

Very sad that they're gone from regular use.

ADS | Homepage | 15.04.21 - 12:05 p.m. | #

It was always my big tip for friends who were popping down to London '£1.50 for a ride on that old bus you see in pictures - bargain!'

I rode it a few times (a couple of times because I genuinely needed to get from Trafalgar Sq to Tower Hill!) it was always worth waiting for the H to come along. But, every single time I rode it, I was alone. Cheapest taxi in London.

R2 | 15.04.21 - 12:06 p.m. | #

I have no regrets since I took one during my first visit to London in 2015, albeit finding it with automatic gearbox and the trip cut short at Aldwych.

Patrickov | 15.04.21 - 12:34 p.m. | #

Given the number in preservation/available for hire, it's hardly a disaster - it's totally understandable that TfL have plenty of more important things to spend money on right now than what's basically a tourist attraction.

Moogal | 15.04.21 - 1:30 p.m. | #

All part of yesteryear, along with smoking on the top deck. Perhaps a way of keeping them visible would be timed round trips from the Strand as a LT Museum visit add-on, as people's apatite would be kindled by the static displays. A 'new attraction' without being fully accessible, however, will not be on the priority list.

Fair comment that withdrawal without a sendoff is a bit sad.

NickW | 15.04.21 - 2:09 p.m. | #

On one of my trips on the No9 Boris "Routemaster", when they still had the Customer Service assistants masquerading as conductors, I got chatting to the lady at the rear platform. She told me the true reason why the 9H was withdrawn was that the heritage crews were not exactly 100% committed. They would wait at Olympia for a standard No9 to pass then skulk around behind it trying to avoid picking up too many passengers!

Robert A Devaney | 15.04.21 - 2:43 p.m. | #

They could have easily run them as a Heritage service in Central London between TCR and Marble Arch in a circular route via Trafalgar Square and Euston Road. Whilst not disabled accessible they would duplicate other services so could be run as a hop on hop off service for a £15 charge all day

Andrew Jarman | 15.04.21 - 7:33 p.m. | #

What a coincidence that only this morning I was telling a colleague my recollection of running like the blazes to jump on the platform of a #29 rounding Parliament Square. The discussion then proceeded to Michael Crawford's roller skating antics, finishing with my singing the full chorus of the Flanders and Swan-song "A transport of Delight"!

Nick K | 15.04.21 - 11:04 p.m. | #

Yes, cramped, uncomfortable and aged, rather leaky and bits dropping off and wearing out all the time. But, then, I’m even older than the Routemaster and I am still running - in some gears. And I remember spotting the first batch of RMs including RM2 in a Walthamstow bus garage, in Hoe St I think.

I enjoyed a ride on the H9 and H15 all the way. I think there was also H13 for a short while. I seem to recall a third route at Traf Square.

Herbof | 15.04.21 - 11:30 p.m. | #

Robert, that's interesting as I used to catch the 9H from High St Ken into London from time to time, and it really sped along, helped by the lack of passengers! I always wondered if the people at the bus stops even knew that this was a proper TfL service bus

Mikey C | 16.04.21 - 12:37 a.m. | #

Cold, damp, cramped? That was part of the joy of the things. You knew what to expect, it was cold outside so you had a coat on anyway.

Fond memories I have of junping onto the platform, clambering upstairs and collapsing maybe into the snogging seat at the back or having a quick gasper in the smoking section back in the day knowing that my work was done and I'd be fuggily and delightfully transported home, reassuring thud thud thuds aplenty.

Like the ticket kiosks at the tube, the trust placed in the public shown by the open platform and mischief-tempting red bell cord have sloped off, as have these last beloved dinosaurs, without so much as a "Hold tight."

JP | 16.04.21 - 4:40 a.m. | #

Pedant's corner: Last routemaster in passenger service IN LONDON, UNDER TFL CONTROL.

I believe there are some regular routemaster services still running in other parts of the world (certainly for a while as campus transport for a US university, I believe)

And does Imberbus count? Obviously a very infrequent service, but a service none the less.

MilesT | 16.04.21 - 11:56 a.m. | #

All the fanfare for the withdrawal of the Routemaster took place in December 2005, when the last RMs ran on the 159. The 9H and 15H were never 'real' bus services, running limited hours only, then on certain days of the week.

Paul | 16.04.21 - 12:08 p.m. | #

The old girls are owed by Tfl not stagecoach so they will sold by Tfl and rm1280 is being scrapped

James Balchin | 17.04.21 - 4:15 p.m. | #

Sad, but obviously necessary from TfL's viewpoint.

I could see a heritage bus route past things that tourists would actually want to see being useful - route 15 was not exactly exciting. It seems this will now be down to a private company to provide.

Last time I was on one was one hired for a pub crawl in South London, which was good fun, but even then the top floor lost its appeal after the first hop.

Sykobee | 13.05.21 - 2:11 p.m. | #











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