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The enforced
rundown of London's irreplaceable Routemaster
fleet has reached a critical watershed. Now that
the 22 is gone, there is not a single stretch of
London street that isn't occupied by 'accessible'
buses - this bit of the New Kings Road by Eel
Brook Common, where WVL 30 (LF52 ZSR) is passing RML 2517 (JJD 517D), was the
last. So it's time to be a graceful victor and
put a stop to the conversions, because there's
nothing left for the disabled lobby to win. Any
further moves against the Routemaster now smack
of reverse discrimination, which is just as
unpleasant and unwelcome. There's room in this
game for everybody, as one size does not fit all
- tell that to the ten people left without seats
now that the Volvos have come in - some access
they're going to have. |
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When plans for
the end of the 14 and 22 were being put together,
thought was given to which of Putney's
Routemasters would perform the final duty on each
route and thus ensure immortality (or at least in
the book I'm writing! Stay tuned for more about
that, as it represents these pages' future
direction.) RML 887 was always going to do the
honours on the 14, but the choice for AF71, the
running number which would be the last on the 22,
fell between RMLs 2637 and 2640, for reasons
unknown. As it turned out, neither of these ended
up as the last bus - RML 2637, on which I had a
rough ride midweek, did not work at all on the
last day and although RML 2640 (NML 640E), seen here
near Parsons Green at 10:20 am, was on AF71 for
most of the day, it was subbed for the final
rounder by RML 2466, the Putney bus with the
second longest service record after RML 2590. |
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If it wasn't
for the heroics of Blue Triangle, many of us
would have missed the connection between the last
14's arrival, which was late, and the last 22's
departure, which was bang on time (probably due
to the vehicle substitution). RTW 75 (KGK 575) was out all
day, working on both routes 14 and 22, and is
seen here setting off from the Piccadilly Circus
stand and about to make a hard left turn into the
Piccadilly bus lane. RM 548 on the 159 shows the
status quo on what will be the last Routemaster
route, while the Trident further away shows the
anonymity to which the 15 has sunk, nearly two
years after that route's conversion started off
this whole unhappy business.
The 22 suffered harsher cuts than most during the
retrenchments of the late 1980s; having run in
and out of town for many years, its Piccadilly
Circus to Homerton half was sectionalised as 22B
in 1987, and today's 242 has even lost the
overlap, meaning that not only does the 22 barely
brush the West End, but the through traffic
(which continues to form a major part of travel
patterns, whatever the planners may choose to
believe) has switched on to, and overburdened,
the 38. |
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Withdrawing
Routemasters hasn't just meant wasting more of
Londoners' taxes on inadequate modern transport,
but today's scheme has invalidated the very hard
work Putney garage put in less than two years ago
in treating many of their RML fleet to
substantial rebuilds. This included fitment with
Cummins B-series engines, well within today's
exacting emissions standards. RML 899 (215 UXJ, ex WLT 899)
is in superb shape, as can be seen from this shot
at the south side of Putney Bridge where the 22
breaks out of its bus-only traffic light to turn
right into Lower Richmond Road (a location which
enabled perfect shots at 7 pm on a summer's
evening, but which simultaneously made shooting
14s impossible, as they went straight ahead,
behind the traffic!).
Putney garage, only a couple of hundred yards
down the High Street behind this view, was only a
latecomer to the 22 - it was historically shared
between Battersea and Hackney, who used RTWs
between 1951 and 1966. When these garages closed
in the 1980s, Wandsworth and Clapton stepped up,
but these too soon closed and the final pair
became Putney and Ash Grove before the 22 became
a south of the river-based service only. RMs
worked from 1967 to 1987, after which RMLs took
over and became the staple until today. |
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Putney Heath
and Putney Common were the last Routemaster
termini at pubs, and the 22's idyllic turning
circle could be surveyed leisurely with a pint
from the Spencer Arms, now restored to that title
after some time as the Putney Page (and the
beer's cheaper now too!). They will have had as
much of a run on takings as the Green Man further
to the north, with large numbers out over the
last few weeks and absolute throngs on the last
day. In this 7:20 pm shot, RML 2669 (SMK 669F) has just
arrived and will pull in behind Ensignbus's
Cravens-bodied RT 1431 (JXC 194). That was
Ensignbus's second special, after RT 4421, but
even more was to come. Two privately owned
preserved vehicles RF 48 had already been out
over the 22, comprising RT 1702 and Green
Line-liveried RF 48. |
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These things
increasingly get to me - call me melodramatic,
but it's hard to stave off a lump in your throat
at the twin spectacle of so many people being
thrown out of work needlessly for the furtherance
of an irrational and extremist brand of politics,
and the sheer pride that continues to survive
where, in today's twisted logic, to excel is not
considered politically correct. When RLH 61 (MXX 261, also Ontario
BD9-424!) arrived at Putney Common at half past
seven, it capped a remarkable adventure that
began when the sun-bleached shell of this
lowheight AEC Regent was driven gingerly onto a
low-loader to begin its return from Canadian
exile only fifteen months ago. As a present from
Ross and Steve Newman to father Peter, MD of
Ensignbus, the acquisition of this bus also
brought full circle the sale of this bus abroad
after it performed the last journey of the RLH
class in April 1971. The Weymann-bodied RLH class
of 76 buses, the first twenty of which were
diverted from an order cancelled by Midland
General and then added to by fifty-six, were
similar enough to the all-conquering RT to add
capacity to otherwise single-deck routes running
under low bridges, and they lasted twenty years
in both red and green livery. RLH 61, although
immaculate to look at, is not quite back to its
best under the skin, and the gamble was taken to
bring it to Putney Common and perform just the
one rounder on the 22 - a gamble that paid off,
and one that was much appreciated! |
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As darkness
fell, RML 2640 was subbed on AF71 by RML 2466 (JJD 466D) as explained
earlier; behind RML 2590, this stalwart spent
only five of its thirty-nine years based
somewhere other than Putney. Its departure from
Putney Common at eleven-thirty and its return
from Piccadilly Circus was accomplished under
bittersweet circumstances - while a carnival
atmosphere reigned, with four bottles of
champagne even produced by the conductor to hand
round the passengers, that same conductor was
close to tears throughout the journey as he
explained that he had been in this job for
fourteen years and was pretty much on the streets
thereafter, a fate shared by very many of his
fellow employees, with the cull still not over.
At the close of play, after the cavalcade
(preceded faithfully by RTW 75) had returned to
Putney Common to a blaze of flashbulbs (and the
actually rather helpful klieg light, enabling
more illumination than my recalcitrant flashbulb
would offer - especially when I dropped it on the
asphalt!), he is seen at the front of his bus one
last time. |
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| So
London General's glory days are over, and they are now
just another unremarkable London operator in a sea of
them. Their only interesting buses now are those run by
the Private Hire Department, which is taking more than a
few of the Cummins B / Allison combinations; RML 2604,
which figured today on the 14, has already blazed the
trail with its treatment to gold fleetnumbers and
polished chrome headlight rings, while DRM 2516 is being
dismantled and its unique features (including RMC-style
platform doors and WLT 516 registration) rebuilt onto RML
2283. The
next route to go is the 13 on Friday 21st October, and
just a week later the 38 follows, and after that it's
just the 159. I'm deadly serious when I say that these
conversions are no longer justifiable - the disabled
lobby, if you'll pardon the pun, hasn't got a leg to
stand on now. In a London that needs like no other time
to shout its identity and uniqueness out to the world,
the removal of its last unique feature, in the form of
the Routemaster bus, is making those responsible as
reprehensible and unforgivable as the terrorists of 7th
and 21st July.
My thanks go to all those
who gave up their time to provide the specials on the
last day of the 14 and 22, to all those crews whose
livelihoods have been put in jeopardy over such spiteful
and unnecessary politics, and to those who will provide
the pride yet to come.
From here you can return to
Part
One and
the story of the last day of Routemasters on the 14,
return to the introduction, or begin again at the Table of
Contents.
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