routemaster buses

routemasters

thankyou for the responses, in the final analysis theres the old addage .”if something is working well,why change it ” they were utterly reliable not overly complex and people liked them. its rather like changing the shape of londons underground train tunnels to square shaped isnt it ,point being ,theres no point end of:cool: 😎 😎

Lack of disabled access (mandatory on all public transport by about 2015)…plus they stopped making them in 1969! 😀

I guess the answer to the question is here.

Isn’t it also something to do with getting rid of bus conductors too, I’m sure that there was a rare breed of front entrance Routemasters as well, which would have helped.
About 40 years ago, the famous Bartons Bus Company suffered a catastrophic fire at their Chilwell depot, Nottingham. Quick solution, a convoy of Routemasters drove up the M1 from London and took over. It was strange to see these beasts in Ilkeston market place, with London Transport hastily painted out, but still sporting all their London adverts and destinations such as Spondon, stuck over those large LT route boards.
Anybody know what happened to them as presumably they were still relatively new and went back to London, there may still be Bartons tickets in the used ticket box, not such a daft idea.
When Crich Tram museum was taking off, I was in the Nottingham Trolleybus Group, which had connections with them, and no-one had ever thought of going through the old used ticket boxes on these trams, some of which hadn’t seen service for years, what a collection we built up.
Ok, Ok, I used to be a bus anorak, but what you see today is pretty sad, at least First have painted up one of our local buses in Eastern National colours, looks the part too.
Any other former keen types.

Haven’t got rid of all of them, I frequently see them on the 15 route through Central London, I think they’re used on another route as well. Much prefer the more modern doubledeckers, more comfy and at least they have security cameras so the drivers knows what’s going on upstairs

I stand corrected, glad some are still around!

Great history of the Routemaster on Wiki with licence plates for ‘bus anoraks’. They are an endangered species, but can still be seen on the roads of London.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routemaster

Haven’t got rid of all of them, I frequently see them on the 15 route through Central London, I think they’re used on another route as well. Much prefer the more modern doubledeckers, more comfy and at least they have security cameras so the drivers knows what’s going on upstairs

I agree! The Routemaster was an ageless masterpiece but they were not just in red, I used to go to school on green Routemasters operated by Greenline and then London Country. This was in the Hertford/Hatfield area in the mid 70s. One version we used to see had doors on the rear platform area and nicer seating with flourescent lighting instead of the usual bulbs on the red RMs. I was told that LT got rid of them due to escalating maintenance costs….sad to see them go:(

Lack of disabled access (mandatory on all public transport by about 2015)…plus they stopped making them in 1969! 😀