London Banter - View Single Post - Sad day for London and farewell to faithful friends

Martin Rich · September 5th 04, 10:31 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On 04 Sep 2004 12:03:22 GMT, are (Acrosticus)
wrote:

Finally, a couple of interesting asides. I remember pretty clearly the demise
of the RT (because I'm an old fart), but I don't remember that being as much of
a cause celebre as the death throes of the RM seem to have become today. Has
anyone else formed the same impression?

I remember the end of the RTs, notably finding an excuse to travel on
the 140 which was one of the last RT routes circa 1978, and yes, I did
form the same impression.

Partly that's could be accounted for simply by age: the oldest RTs at
the time must have been a bit newer than the newest Routemasters are
now. But mostly it was simply the end of one particular model of bus;
now we are seing the end of a whole way of operating buses. In the
1970s there were still buses with engines at the front and open
platforms at the back elsewhere in Britain - albeit rapidly on the way
out by the time that the last RTs were used in London. And, at the
end of the 1970s, continuing crew operation seemed assured for the
time being in London, after being threatened in the late 1960s and
early 1970s; in fact a lot of the then new rear engined buses were
used with conductors

This is different: Routemasters have outlived most other open-platform
buses by 20 years (the resurgence in crew operation, particularly in
Scotland, in the late 1980s was all using Routemasters that had been
withdrawn from use in London), and the open platform bus has become
synonymous with London much more than it has with Britain as a whole.

Finally, I think the Routemaster has a sronger claim than the RT to be
a design and engineering classic: Douglas Scott's industrial design,
and innovative suspension, brakes, and construction which set out to
be way ahead of their time.

Martin