"Mizter T" wrote:

(re Heritage RMs)

There is simply zero chance of them being cut though, at least now
whilst Boris is in office, given the political capital he has invested
in the whole Routemaster 'thing' - if he did, the furore would be
immense.

To the average Londoner, the Routemaster has gone. Where would this 'immense
furore' come from?

Chris - whilst one can look at them solely the context of TfL's real
job of moving people from A to B, I think it fair to say that they are
a small but important part of 'brand London' - and whilst they might
be costly to run, the tourist promotion folks would surely argue that
they are worthwhile investment in terms of tourism.

I remember similar doom-mongering about tourism when the mainstream
Routemaster routes were taken off. Who else remembers Matthew 'I'm moving
away' Wharmby's website? Since then, despite the recession, the number of
visitors to London has increased considerably. I accept the Routemaster is
part of 'brand London', but how many intending visitors would boycott London
if the 9H and 15H were taken off? My own guess is a two digit number per
annum, no more. The key determinant of the success of UK tourism is the
exchange rate - boring but true.

Also, the London transport network has more than its fair share of
museum pieces that are nonetheless integral parts of the system - I'm
thinking more in terms of architecture and buildings as opposed to
vehicles. Great lengths are gone to preserve many of these buildings
and stations, and the historical features thereof - under your strict
analysis, doing this is also not necessary but merely a 'nice to
have'. Maybe so, but I think in many cases the extra effort is
worthwhile.

In many cases, it is cheaper to repair older buildings than knock them down
and start again. And some of these buildings will be listed, so you can't do
much to them anyway.

But it comes down to a debate about where you spend a budget which is being
squeezed. Difficult choices will need to be made. I think we (all of us -
but especially the public sector) have forgotten what it's like to have to
make cuts.

(And this all comes from someone who is a bendy bus fan! Which leads
me on to think... will the LT Museum keep a bendy bus? One could
certainly argue they should - but the LTM is part of TfL which is
ultimately answerable to the Mayor, and I dare say he'd veto any such
suggestion given his professed desire to eradicate them. Thus we are
left with the potential for each and every Mayor to airbrush London's
transport history as they so please! Possibly a bit of an OTT comment,
but you see where I'm coming from. I dare say someone will be along
any moment to argue that such airbrushing of history at the LTM is
nothing new...!)

Well there we can agree on something. I too am a bendy bus fan, and I think
taking them off the Red Arrow routes, where they are well-suited, is an
expensive political stunt. Ironically, I think they are disappearing just as
Londoners learn to love them.

The reasons we didn't like the bendies we

i) They were new, and anything new in this country is treated with wariness,
if not hostility. Especially if it's also foreign.
ii) They were blamed for seeing off the beloved Routemaster, although most
bendy routes had not been RM operated latterly.
iii) The Evening Standard told us they were rubbish, and were responsible
for the mass murder of cyclists.

Three irrational reasons for disliking the bendy bus. But we are a rational
nation, and now quite like the idea of a bus which swallows huge crowds, has
easy access and a very good turn of speed. You wait for the moaning and
groaning when the Dennis Darts arrive on the 521.

Chris