On Jul 10, 10:26*pm, John Swallow wrote:

MIG wrote:
I don't think there was such a thing as a 453 before bendys though.
Or a 436. *They made overlapping sections with the 53 and 36 which
were shortened, and my impression was that it happened with
bendification.

You're correct (apart from the 453 running with deckers for the first
month or so at first until the artics were delivered). So the yellow
plates would have been on the stops for all of about a week before the
routes were over to pay before boarding.

Yes, I sort of remember that remember that - a great fleet of double-
deckers was laid on instead. I'm guessing they operated as per normal,
with the driver checking the tickets.

I've a vague recollection of double-deckers stood in for bendy buses
on some routes after the artics had been withdrawn after a number of
them infamously caught fire - however I've just found this BBC News
story from 2004 which states they were withdrawn altogether on few
bendy bus routes pending modifications:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3563279.stm
---quote---
There are no services on the 436, 453 and 521. Reduced services are
operating on the number 18, 293, 507, and RV1 have been replaced by
ordinary buses.

Extra services are running on routes 36, 53 and 185.
---quote---

So it seems my recollection is wrong (unless there was a separate
incidence of this happening, but on reflection I don't think there
was). Interesting to see that at least some of the 18, 507 and RV1 (a
non-bendy Citaro) fleets were apparently considered ok enough to be
out on the street - maybe they'd had the crucial modifications done.
(And the 293 - that's not an artic - is it a Citaro then?)

I'm half-curious to know whether the 36 and 53 were extended to cover
the extra stretches normally covered by the missing bendies (that's
New Cross to Lewisham for the 436, and Whitehall/Horse Guards to
Marylebone for the 453). Maybe other routes were left to take the
strain (though no other route from Whitehall or Trafalgar Square
exactly replicates the 453).