On 12 July, 22:37, "Chris Read" wrote:
"West Yorkshire Bus" wrote:
With Boris being pro-Routemasters, anti-Bendibuses, I'm surprised
there hasn't been any changes to the heritage Routemaster services in
London since they were introduced
I was in London recently and the services seemed popular and the very
sight of one on the road caused tens of tourists to get out their
cameras.

They are expensive to operate, and often very quiet during the winter
period. There is no longer a stock of Routemaster vehicles to expand the
service, even if that were desirable.

In fact, I'm quite surprised these services are still operating at all. If
drastic cuts become necessary at TfL, I would expect the 9H and 15H to be in
the firing line. They are 'nice to haves' which contribute little to the
real job of TfL - moving Londoners efficiently from A to B on a daily basis.

Personally I think they should extend the 15 so it runs from Tower
Hill to Trafalgar Square and then to Marble Arch.

The 9 is fine, but both these services are east to west routes so I
think if they were to introduce a third service it should be north to
south and one that actually crosses the Thames.

On the assumption 'heritage route' resourcing remains static, I would scrap
the 9H (with its random and useless western terminus), and put the vehicles
onto the 15H to extend it beyond Trafalgar Square. Marble Arch would be
nice, but Oxford Circus would be more realistic with a 10 vehicle run out I
suspect. No doubt stand space would be problematic. Such a route would,
however, be of more use to regular commuters/shoppers than the current 15H.

An ideal route for a heritage service in my opinion would be the 453
running from Baker Street to County Hall (or from Marylebone Station
to Elephant & Castle if there would be no space to turn or stand at
those other locations). The high service number is a bit unfortunate
though.

Has anyone any thoughts on this?

A nice idea which won't happen.

Chris

I'm sure some extra Routemasters could be sourced if they needed to
be, many of the main bus operators seem to have about 10 each in their
fleet and there are probably loads that were bought for preservation
or private hire which hasn't worked out

The low profile routes may not help loadings, hence why it would be
better if they served the likes of Oxford Circus, Parliament Square
etc

I wonder if the advert space on the Routemasters should carry adverts
saying that Travelcards and Oyster cards are valid. Many tourists may
think they are seperate paid service like the open top routes, or
alternatively maybe the Routemaster routes could be sold off to become
part of say the Arriva Original Tour operation

Andrew