In article , Robert Woolley
writes
On Wed, 3 Sep 2003 02:08:05 +0100, "I@n" wrote:

If San Francisco can continue to operate it's wonderful cable cars on three
"tourist/commuter" routes, I don't see why London can't maintain
routemasters on a couple of high-tourist-traffic routes. The 15 with all the
sights it passes would be ideal.

Sorry if this has been suggested on "smartgroups" but I don't know what that
is.

It has been suggested by the Managing Director of London Buses.

However, if you're going to run a 'heritage' route, you'd pick a
special one for tourists.
The 15 (along with the 9 and the 11) do in my view count as "special
ones for tourists", although I obviously accept that they have an
important transport function as well.

The mainstream bus network is not, despite
what the London Tourist Board think, a museum!
I've never heard the LTB suggest that it is. I've heard *many*
visitors express a desire for a ride on an RM, though.

I'd always thought that when "the Day" comes, when Routemasters are
finally withdrawn from "regular" service, that some would continue ad
infinitum, a la San Francisco cable cars or Melbourne W class trams on
routes most frequented by tourists/visitors. I had always, somehow, in
my own mid, envisaged these as the 9, 11 and 15, too.

Just my two penn'orth.......
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk