| TOP STORIES |  | | | | | | | FEATURES | | | | | | MAYOR NEWS | | | | TRAVEL | | | | COMPETITIONS | | |
|
|
|
Goodbye Routemaster
 |
| Driver Winston Briscoe, 62, waves before he docks the last Routemaster on route 159 at its final destination, Brixton Bus Garage. (Picture: Martina Smit) |
They came from everywhere to say goodbye to London's iconic Routemaster bus: an entire school's children waving flags; transport enthusiasts; Londoners who grew up with them; the odd accidental passenger and the man who designed them.
The queue for the 159 bus at Marble Arch's stop L grew longer and longer on Friday morning. But bus after bus pulled off nearly empty as everyone waited for the very last Routemaster in front-line service.
As noon approached, hundreds heaved and kept asking: "Is that the very last one?"
A few modern double-deckers passed with "159" in front - the replacements. The crowd booed.
At 12.27pm the RM5 arrived - red and shiny in a new coat of paint. Built in 1959, it was the very first of the standard-sized Routemasters that replaced London's post-war trolleybuses and trams.
Nine minutes later the gold-coloured RM6 followed, the second standard-sized Routemaster. Its colour was changed from the original crimson to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2000.
Finally the very last one came: the 2217, last of the smaller Routemasters built in 1965.
Crowds of tourists, Londoners and photographers gathered in Trafalgar Square and on Waterloo Bridge to capture the last time a 159 Routemaster passes Nelson's Column and Big Ben.
All along the route pockets of people cheered as the bus drove by.
In Brixton Hill the children of what seemed like a whole primary school greeted the bus with dozens of Union Jacks. "Routemaster!" they shouted as it passed.
Mr Routemaster remembers
In the front row of the RM6's top deck sat the man known in the industry as "Mr Routemaster".
Colin Curtis, 79, oversaw the mechanics of designing the "Integrated Mounted (IM)" bus - later known as the Routemaster (RM).
In 1951 his team at Chiswick Works received three pages of specifications for the new model. "We had to make it work."
The Routemaster, built for 17 years of service, doggedly carried on for half a century while replacement buses broke down.
"We've done our homework. Because she was so reliable, she lasted so long."
But maintenance became costly and parts hard to obtain.
Yes, he "naturally" as an emotional attachment to the old work horses.
"But she's done her time. One's got to be realistic. You don't keep your car for 50 years."
At the entrance of Brixton Bus Garage, final destination of route 159, Mr Cutis stepped off his icon for the last time.
"Dinner's waiting," he said as he walked into the depot.
Sitting at the back of the RM6, retired classical music editor and transport enthusiast Don Kennedy came to witness "the turning of a page in history".
The Routemaster funeral marks the end of conductors on buses and the open-ended design allowing passengers to hop on and off at will.
Mr Kennedy was one of the first to enjoy technology like the Eurostar and the new Docklands Light Railway extensions. "But I've got a soft spot for the old designs."
Behind him sat Paul Houston, 34, who remembers Routemasters dominating his school years in Streatham, south London.
As a boy of 15 he and his friend Marcus rode home on the top deck of one. But when Marcus went downstairs to get off at Stockwell Station, the bus made a sharp turn at a roundabout.
"He literally just flew off the bus," Mr Houston recalls. "His feet didn't even touch the platform. He just flew off."
(Marcus was not injured.)
Accidental witnesses to history
But not everyone on the RM6 had planned to travel on it.
Sam Hird, 23, was surprised to hear he caught the second last Routemaster in full service.
| "One’s got to be realistic. You don’t keep your car for 50 years.” | | Routemaster designer Colin Curtis |
|
"I just want to go home," the Streatham resident said.
On the seat behind him Danish music student Thomas Hamilton-Moller, who lives in East Barnet, also became an accidental witness to history.
"When I had my breakfast, I saw the end of the Routemasters on the news."
He had to visit a music store in Oxford Street and decided to drop by at the 159 bus stop.
"I was lucky to just get into the queue and then this bus came."
Activists vs. enthusiasts
Alas, there were those who came to the funeral to make a statement.
Activists of the disabled group Transport for All brandished placards showing the bus as it enters a museum. "Good riddance, Routemaster," it read.
"We are celebrating the fact that we have an accessible transport system at last," said campaigner Peter Scott-Presland.
"I've got two bottles of champagne in my suitcase and I'm cracking them when we get to Brixton Garage."
Whilst waiting for the last 159 in Oxford Street, a heated row erupted between one activist and a bus lover.
The day was dotted with bus enthusiasts waving posters calling for the Routemasters to be saved.
Many carried mayor Ken Livingstone's now infamous statement of 2001: "Only some ghastly dehumanised moron would want to get rid of the Routemaster."
Twenty of the iconic buses are still running on two heritage routes. They are among 700 Routemasters refurbished with new engines and dcor in the early 1990s.
Number 9 buses run every 15 minutes between Trafalgar Square and Tower of London, while route 15 connects Royal Albert Hall and Aldwych via Piccadilly Circus. Normal fares apply.
'Just another day'
But for Lloyd Winston, 61-year-old conductor on the 2217, it was his last day on a Routemaster. Friday was the end of nearly 36 years on London's buses.
"I love being out in the open air, but it can get bitterly cold standing on the platform in winter.
Originally from Barbados, he came to London in 1965 and has three grown sons.
"It will be sad in a way to say goodbye to the Routemaster as I have really enjoyed my career as a conductor. But 35 years is enough for everyone."
To driver Winston Briscoe, 62, taking the 2217 into Brixton Garage for the last time was "just like another day".
His 36 years as a bus driver has taught the Jamaican-born father-of-five everything changes "usually for the better".
We are moving into a new era, he added. "The old goes, the new comes."
See our picture gallery of the day.
Why the Routemasters were taken off the road
Transport for London gave the official reasons of its decision to retire the iconic buses.
-Age:Designed for 17 years of service, the youngest Routemaster is now years 35 old.
-Cost:Maintenance is expensive. Also, with almost 90 per cent of bus passengers having a ticket before they board, TfL cannot justify the cost of paying both driver and conductor.
-Safety:Passengers are twice as likely to be injured on a Routemaster than on a modern bus, and five times more likely to be hurt alighting.
-Accessibility:One in ten Londoners are disabled and find it hard to get onto a Routemaster.
By the end of this year, all 7,000 London buses will be wheel chair accessible, fitted with CCTV and a trap to reduce emissions, TfL said.
7:16am Sunday 11th December 2005
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
