Transport for London retires last heritage service of Routemaster buses

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...es-last-heritage-service-of-routemaster-buses

With comments by @timmydunn

 

That’s a shame. Always enjoyed a trundle on a Routemaster. Will have to look to private owners in the heritage sector now.

 

Agree totally. London without RM's is hard to picture

 

Spans my lifetime pretty much. I can remember seeing RM1 on the number 2 bus route at Marble Arch in 1956. It seemed like a dramatic innovation compared with the RTs.

 

Another forum (when they are not ranting about Covid restrictions) did mention that a pre Covid a private operator had been granted a licence to operate a Heritage service along Route 15. Of course if that will happen now is highly debatable.

 

That's a shame, but has been on the cards for a while… when they moved to weekend and holidays only I lost what had been a fairly regular opportunity to jump on one of the buses, which was invariably pretty empty, for a quick trip from Tower Hill to Aldwych.

Will always have special memories of travelling by Routemaster in my time in London, they really are unique (and whilst I quite like some elements of the Roastmasters, the criminally expensive Boris buses, they're not comparable with an original).

Simon

 

The low usage was caused at least in part by TfL’s poor publicity of the heritage route.

 

Not old enough to miss the trams, I still miss the RTs. Just before their demise at AM, AW, NX and SP, (TL held out a couple of months longer) I've an enduring memory of a fully laden RT1066 (one of the ex-London Country transfers) grinding up the entirety of Griffin Road Plumstead, on the notoriously unreliable old 192 route, at below walking pace! Ian Smith's 'Bus Stop' site lists that one's demise following sale to Wombwell Diesels and I pity the poor soul who had to drive it to it's Yorkshire grave!

 

The low usage was because I don't really think there's that much of a market for a steady stream of old bus trips every weekend - their offering was cheap but seriously below that offered by all the tourist bus operators who do "experiences", sightseeing, audio guides and so on. There aren't THAT many people who wanted to really use them. And I speak as a local who could use it if I wanted to get on my usual route - I just can't usually be bothered. Anyway - it's not TfL's job to subsidise a tourist trip experience. I reckon most Londoners would rather have better day to day buses elsewhere. Most RMs I see in town are private operators - let them take the risk and profit.