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Travel east from Oxford Circus is
about to become a 'standing joke' any way you put
it, whether on a Central Line tube or on the
competing 25 bus. Double-deck operation finished
tonight with the return appearance of silver
Routemaster RM 1650 (standing in for the intended
open-top RM 120), joined later by RTW 75 from
Blue Triangle duplicating the last journey into
town and out. It had come from assisting the
Piccadilly Line derailment cover at Hammersmith
and simply headed across town to link up with the
RM at Aldgate. To remind the luckless commuters
and shoppers what they will be missing is an
example of one of the outgoing Alexander-bodied
Tridents, First Capital's four-year-old TAL 947 (W947 ULL, top)
from Rainham garage. It's one of a batch of
twenty-two bought initially to provide low-floor
buses for the 97 and 357, but when they arrived
it was decided to use them to provide desperately
needed extra capacity on the 25 and release its
TNs instead. The route is so busy it gobbles any
passengers you can throw at it, which makes the
decision to convert to artics even more
ludicrous. Even after an enormous increase to the
route's peak vehicle requirement from thirty to
forty buses during the early Ken years, the 25
would still wilt under the pressure. It acquired
an unhappy reputation which I don't think was
warranted - whenever I used the route, which was
fairly often, there were enough buses to keep
soaking up the constant onslaught of passengers.
But not any more.
The midnight
handover proved a bit fraught - a huge gap
between when the last Rainham TNL arrived at
Oxford Circus and when the first Stagecoach
artics appeared on the newly 24-hour route 25
turned what might have been a peaceful and
respectable night run in smart vintage buses into
a bit of a battleground as the RM and RTW
collided with the chucking-out time crowd bent on
staggering drunkenly home from the West End - but
this is part of London these days, and something
bus operators have to steel themselves for. It's
a dangerous job at times!
Prior to the
midnight departure, RTW 75 (KGK 575) and RM 1650 (650 DYE) were posed
side-by-side at Oxford Circus (bottom).
Not immediately apparent from this shot is that
the terminus has been changed to accommodate the
road-hogging bendy buses. Instead of turning
right into the stand as before, 25s now have to
come round the back via Hanover Square. The
outbound stop has also been moved, resulting in a
massive gap between the first and second 25
stops. No longer can intended short hop
passengers contemplate the 55 as an alternative,
and all hell broke loose straight away as we were
mobbed. That's going to be the case for ever
after!
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