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Out of a
requirement of 26 vehicles on a Friday, the 19's
last day could field four RMLs and ten RMs, and
two of the latter are seen in Highbury. RM 29 (OYM 453A, ex VLT 29, left)
and RM 1975 (ALD 975B, right)
had only been refurbished recently, complete with
brand new engines and gearboxes that were
perfectly within current emissions standards, so
to avoid accusations of wasting of taxpayers'
money the refurbished RMs are transferring to
Brixton for the 159's final months, where they
will replace an equivalent number of worn-out
RMLs. The vehicles treated by Arriva's own
facilities at Enfield (like RM 1975) retained the
wind-down windows, unlike those done by Marshalls
who rather needlessly fitted the disliked and
unsatisfactory hopper units.
To round up the vehicle history of the 19, RT
family buses replaced STLs in 1949, with
Battersea (B) - the original garage at Hester
Road, that is - operating RTLs (until 1966) and
Holloway (J) RTs. RMs appeared in 1972, at which
time Holloway (HT) former trolleybus depot
replaced 'J', and 1987 saw RMLs filter onto the
Holloway allocation when they became available.
Victoria (GM) took on Battersea's work in 1985
and later in the decade Merton (AL) had a share
on Sundays, introducing DMSs on that day when the
route was OPO. |
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If any route
was ideal to form the much-trumpeted 'Heritage
Route', it would be the 19 in its entirety, as it
serves both important functions of linking places
quickly and giving the passengers some sights to
look at on their way. Even the Finsbury Park area
at the top end isn't too much of a comedown,
dirty though it is in general (I blame the
Arsenal!). RML 2533 (JJD 533D) fought all
the way to the end as an original 'Kentish Bus'
Routemaster at Battersea, but all the longer
buses were looking very neglected by the end,
some believe by policy so that Londoners will be
fooled into thinking the buses are no longer fit
for the job they have been doing perfectly well
for nearly fifty years. Not that any other London
bus won't look dishevelled after four years of
carrying around all sorts of people, many of whom
have no respect for them - that was what Aldenham
overhauls were for!
The Kentish Bus livery disappeared in 1998 when
it was decided to return buses operating in
Central London to at least 80% red. I was never
that comfortable with the idea of tendering at
all, but the Kentish Bus livery provided an
interesting interlude before some sense of
tradition was restored following years of a
seeming free-for-all that had devalued standards
sharply. |
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Sullivan Buses
pitched in today with RML 2272 (CUV 272C), a vehicle
they acquired from Stagecoach East London when
the 15 became the first Routemaster route of the
final twenty-two to be lost. Its accident damage
was repaired and some of the original features
restored. Sullivan Buses have grown steadily from
their initial days in 1997 when just one bus
(Titan T 85) started work on rail replacements
for the ever-ailing Tube, and just recently
purchased Southlands Travel, a coaching firm that
used to be part of Metrobus in Kent. The very
large route number blind appears to be from one
of the final set of blinds used by Victoria (GM)
garage, which ran the 19 on its own after 1991.
The loss of the route to Kentish Bus on 24th
April 1993 proved to be the death sentence for
Victoria garage, and a supermarket now sits on
the site. |
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Companies like
Ensignbus have really inherited the pride that
used to be the norm within the old London
Transport. Once again they pulled a surprise out
of the hat, because it was looking like RT 1431
would need to be substituted after its first run
and so into action went RMA 58 (NMY 655E). Even though
the Routemaster was, with the exception of the
Northern General examples, a design taken new
only by London Transport, in 1966 British
European Airways (today's BA) bought sixty-five
forward-entrance buses to convey air travellers
to Heathrow and directly to their flights once
they'd checked in at Gloucester Road, a practice
that's long since disappeared. After nine years
they were replaced and London Transport started
buying them, classifying them as the RMA class.
They didn't prove quite right for the brief spell
on the 175 undertaken by the first thirteen, but
as trainers and staff buses they were perfect and
lasted a decade and a half in that role. In 1989
RMAs 5 and 8 were even fitted out as coaches for
the X15, which was the last time an RMA operated
in revenue service until today. RMA 58 is seen at
the top of Highbury Hill, a location perfect for
nearside photography between about half past nine
and eleven in the morning. As it happened, RT
1431 was still good for more service, so both
ran! |
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Commemorating
the Kentish Bus era - sort of! Although rumours
floated around of an RML being put into Kentish
Bus livery, instead the appearance of
Alexander-bodied Volvo Citybus (VA) 115 (F115 PHM), preserved by the LT
Museum in Grey-Green colours, covered the
independent era. For a long time there was
trouble with where to allocate the 19 on Sundays
when it was OPO (a state that had existed since
1987). When Kentish Bus took over, Olympians from
the 22A, 22B and 55 worked the 19 on Sundays, but
in 1998 the closure of their Ash Grove base under
Arriva's rationalisation programme caused its
reallocation into Grey-Green's base at Stamford
Hill (at first the traditional coach depot and
then 'SF' at Rookwood Road) and used buses like
this, normally dedicated to the 24. In March 2000
Stamford Hill closed, with Tottenham taking over
the 19's Sunday work. After a month it crossed
the river to Brixton, seeing first Ms and then
Ls. Finally the obvious step was taken to revert
the 19 to crew operation on Sundays and open
Battersea all week, soon adding a very large
increase to the route which brought it to today's
26-strong requirement. Unfortunately even now the
additional buses required to service the more
inefficient operation that is OPO are too much
for this little (very little!) garage, and nor
can Brixton cope either these days, so an
outstationed complement is having to be provided
by Norwood (N), which is a considerable distance
away. By the time of this picture I'd reached
Islington Green. |
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Getting closer
and closer to the West End, we see Ensignbus's
marvellous Cravens-bodied RT 1431 (JXC 194) outside
Sadlers Wells Theatre. Here is a famous location
that was brought bang up to date without
sacrificing its essential qualities and which has
since become more popular than ever, so why is
nobody capable of doing the same thing with
London's traditional and now long-unique type of
bus? With all the engineering and technological
innovations out there, there is no reason not to
- it worked with the basic taxi cab design, after
all, which is considered just as important a
symbol of London as the Routemaster and its
open-platformed predecessors. The 19's new VLAs
are totally anonymous by comparison with this
bus, and will soon be devolved to their intended
fate of getting vandalised to pieces by the
passengers of the 249 and 432 in South London and
duly forgotten.
Only a few years ago all three routes passing
Sadlers Wells (the 19, 38 and the somewhat
incongruous 341) had comprehensive branding
extolling the theatre, but that has since
disappeared. |
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Stagecoach
East London's RML 2665 (SMK 665F) is seen at
Sloane Square on its latest special duty, having
been seen last on the one-day-only reactivation
of the 36B on 28th January and now seeing off the
19. The bus, which finished its days at Bow on
the 8, now normally resides at Waterden Road
(WA), bringing a bit of class and comfort to a
base otherwise occupied by cattle-truck artics
allocated to the 25! Its retention as a dedicated
private hire vehicle enabled it to escape the
fate suffered by seven other former Bow RMLs that
had been stored at Ribble's Carlisle depot. The
floods of 8th January inundated them and eighty
other buses - but Ensignbus, who else, bought six
of the seven and will rebuild them! |
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What better
plug does one need for Cobham Bus Museum and the
outstanding achievements that its dedicated
craftsmen are capable of than this shot of STL 2377 (EGO 426). This
1937-vintage vehicle was fully rebuilt for the
2000 rally season and looks absolutely immaculate
as it performs a run along the 19 with invited
guests only. Its southbound trip, during the
course of which I managed to get a clean shot of
it in the Kings Road, brought it to Tooting Bec,
the southernmost terminus of the 19 until only as
recently as November 1987 (and until 1991 on
Sundays). At this time obsessive penny-pinching
and the increasing crush of traffic forced the
planners to snip off the ends of crew routes and
replace them with shorter OPO services. The 19's
section between Clapham Junction and Tooting Bec
was appended to the section of the 88 south of
that point to produce new route 219, which has
since been withdrawn out of the area. It is
regrettable that the 19's OPO conversion has not
tempted a restoration of the service to Clapham
Junction, which is the obvious objective where
Battersea Bridge (South Side) is about as
impractical as you can get and causes today's
through route 319 to suffer overloading on its
DAF SB120 single-deckers.
Don't forget the Open
Day at Cobham on Sunday 3rd April - it's a
superb event in a terrific location, and will
become all the more important when London's
normal bus services cease to be of much interest
or significance. |
 |
Aside from the
splendid guest vehicles and the last sightings of
the ordinary runout on the last Routemaster
routes, the third facet of the enjoyment these
events have brought to us is the opportunity to
recreate the better days of London Transport when
its bus routes actually served more places
directly, in contrast to today's frustrating
network of too-short, traffic-hampered services
and forced changes. Having covered the Tooting
Bec extremity of the 19, this shot of Ensignbus's
RT 4421 (NXP 775) at the first
northbound stop (with Battersea garage in the
background) takes care of the northernmost
limits, which from 1975 projected beyond Finsbury
Park to Tufnell Park and then, between 1984 and
1985 even further to the obvious turn-around spot
at Archway Station (also convenient for Holloway
Garage just a couple of hundred yards down the
street). These roads are now the exclusive
province of the 4, and from the accounts of that
route's passengers suffer for it! |
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As always, RT 3871 (LLU 670) of Blue
Triangle furnished the key 'Last Day' role of
conveying the onlookers and photographers to the
final rendezvous points on journeys timed just
ahead of them. And a wind through the blinds by
company boss Roger Wright (who really ought to be
knighted for his contribution to these events!)
showed us why this has been possible - the
ultimates contain a whopping total of 174
possible destinations for all remaining
Routemaster-operated services!
At half past eight the bus is seen awaiting its
20:41 departure from Finsbury Park on a short to
Tottenham Court Road and an hour's break before
returning to the fray. Unfortunately, as can be
seen Finsbury Park bus station was being dug up
again, less than a year after its last round of
frivolous roadworks, so I chose to photograph
elsewhere for the most part. It's fair to say
that some of our lot (including myself, I admit!)
don't do themselves any favours by getting in the
way of passing traffic and other buses, so I try
to hang back and blend in - and hopefully get
pictures as good as those who have to obstruct
everybody else! As at Vauxhall earlier in the
year, efficient and sympathetic bus station
controllers who have been briefed beforehand,
have been capable of making conditions acceptable
for everybody. As these events progress and the
'conventional' media worldwide continue to awaken
to what is being done, there are going to be
larger and larger crowds - with or without
specials - so forewarned is forearmed. |
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When the plans
were being made for last day of the 19, the last
bus, BA8, was pencilled in as RM 85, the
rationale being that this bus, although the
penultimate of the Arriva Enfield refurbishments
only a year ago, retained a more 'traditional'
appearance with black numberplates,
silver-painted edging to its radiator and no
advertisements. Its duplicate was going to be RML
2524, the mock-Shillibeer liveried Routemaster
painted for Routemaster 50 by art students - but
yesterday this bus's engine seized and it was
taken out of service (having already been bought
and paid for by its new owner, one would hope
that a new engine is included in the deal!).
After last-minute discussions with the staff at
Battersea it was decided to make RM 85 the
duplicate and put out on BA8 something most
representative of both the Kentish Bus era and
the London Transport Country Area that was its
predecessor three generations back. That meant
only one possible bus - RML 2347 (CUV 347C), which had
been soldiering on blithely under BA10 during the
day, later moving to BA23 before its
eleventh-hour catapult into immortality. Its
advert holders on both decks filled with
commemorative signwriting, RML 2347 sets off from
Battersea garage (its exit road also congested by
roadworks for today only!) at twenty past eleven.
Duty BA8, the last round trip, was due out at
23:15 to reach Finsbury Park at 23:55, wait ten
minutes and then return south. |
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I couldn't get
any pictures at Finsbury Park because I daredn't
get off in case I lost my seat! The place was
knee-deep in photographers, so at least one of
them will have a got a shot there in case I need
one. Timekeeping, which was very good today, was
now free to disintegrate entirely owing to the
West End's customary grinding to a halt on Friday
night, and we departed 24 minutes down and lost
another half-hour again grinding through town. At
the death the two buses were posed side by side
at the foot of Battersea Bridge, comprising RML 2347 (CUV 347C, left)
and its duplicate RM 85 (VLT 85, right),
with the last conductor. With traffic stacking up
in either direction (and the clubs disgorging on
either side of the street), it was prudent to
move the wake to Howie Street behind the garage
as soon as possible so we could photograph the
buses there at our leisure. This was where the
specials had rested in between turns, obviously
not being able to get in and out of the garage
amid the normal runout and its incoming
replacements. Finally, at 2:35 the two now former
Battersea Routemasters wound the 19 off their
blinds for good and headed south. |
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| With
the end of the 19, crew operation is lost from Islington
north of the Green, Highbury and Finsbury Park and I
won't bother taking it again if I want a peaceful,
civilised and supervised journey to points north -
before, it was so much more civilised than the gruelling
and debased 29, which is going to receive the death blow
itself if the option to convert it to bendy bus operation
is executed in a few months. What a crass coincidence that the
Ghastly Dehumanised Moron (before anyone gives me any
lip, the name is self-ascribed!) to choose today to
announce the raising of the Congestion Charge to £8 -
thank you so much. Just watch me start a business in
London now, and watch everyone who still has one clear it
out of town as quickly as they can as their custom
disappears. If that's an April Fool, as was the
conversion of the 19 itself, it's way past twelve
o'clock. London is rapidly turning into a Third World
slum with Third World travelling conditions, and it's no
laughing matter.
The next Routemaster loss will see London General's glory
days end when the 14 and 22 are one-manned together on
23rd July. The 22's contract is up on that date, but the
14's does not end till well into 2007, which shows you
the value of a contract these days.
Today's extravaganza was
all about PRIDE. No, it's not a dirty word - it's a
simple desire to show Londoners and the world that London
was the best, and that our way of doing things was so
much better that it stood the test of time. To that end,
my thanks are due to all the organisers of today's route
19 events, to the owners and crews of the preserved
vehicles, to the crews of Battersea, both the ones thrown
on the scrapheap and those who've managed to survive into
the unenviable role of OPO driver, and yes, even to TfL
for sanctioning the Last Days in general. Even though I
believe that what they are doing with London's buses is
morally, culturally and economically wrong and a disaster
for our city and country, there do still remain in the
organisation those that still appreciate the value of
London's unique form of transport that is still respected
throughout the world. Making sure that our Routemasters
receive fitting sendoffs is as important to our history
and heritage as a Coronation or the Olympic Games
(because without RMs to show off, London doesn't deserve
them). So keep up the Last Days, or preferably call a
halt to the OPO conversions at once, before it really is
too late to save face.
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