London Banter - View Single Post - Routemaster heritage route contracts awarded

Mizter T · September 12th 05, 10:36 PM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote:
Don't get me wrong - I would LOVE there to be a successful Routemaster
route or routes running for many years to come but, I firmly believe,
this is a Mickey Mouse proposal by Mickey Mouse people and will likely
last 1 or 2 years at the most.

5 buses per route, on these restricted hours (and distance) is destined
to fail. No doubt the fools who put forward this proposal want to be
seen to be "doing their bit" for London's heritage, but that virtually
invisible service will satisfy nobody - hardly anyone (except dedicated
Routemaster enthusiasts) is going to wait up to 15 minutes for a bus on
a route that is already served by several other buses. The only people
likely to travel on it are those who, by sheer coincidence, are at the
bus stop at the right time. This will eventually be proved to be the
case, the service will be uneconomic (the economies of scale of
"proper" bus routes clearly being absent from this toytown approach)
and the number-crunchers at T.F.L. (who are presumably going to
subsidise the route) will deem it uneconomic and abolish it. And,
saddest of all, hardly anyone will notice its demise.

There will be poor maintenance and cannibalisation (hardly a portent of
a long-term future in any event!). The buses will become shabbier and
shabbier, the service even less reliable - if one of the buses doesn't
run (due to staff failure, for example), there will be a half-hour
headway. Not the sort of time tourists will be willing to spend
standing at a bus stop on the off-chance that another Routemaster may
eventually appear. All of this will add to the arguments for its
abolition.

What an ignominious end to the once mighty Routemaster.

Marc.

Marc - that's a thoroughly pessimistic, and quite possibly realistic
outlook. However the future is not predestined, so your bleak view of
things to come will only ring true if the routes are poorly patronised.
Fans of the Routemaster can help by spreading the word about it,
pestering TfL to promote it better in the event they fail to do so, and
actually doing some unofficial promotion themselves etc etc.