We're very near the end now. One
penultimate epic was mounted to see off another London
crew route, with ten scheduled specials accompanying the
fifty Routemasters scheduled on the 38 until close of
play on Friday. The swapping around of the specials,
combined with one invitation-only museum entrant and
three private owners milling hopefully up and down the
route with their buses, made for another very busy day,
and coming only one week after the last day of the 13,
has made October one hell of a month.
I don't think the unaccountable individuals who are
wreaking these changes on London have the slightest idea
of how angry their spiteful decisions are making ordinary
people. Talk to any ordinary, non-enthusiast passenger
and they'll tell you that they don't want bendy buses -
simple as that - but TfL have simply stopped caring about
the opinions and needs of the people who are forced to
pay increasingly large sums of money to keep them in
business. When a state body wilfully abrogates its
responsibility in this way, it's time to get rid of it.
Thanks to their arrogance and selfishness, I would never
want to live or work in London again. Transport into town
takes up so much of the average Londoner's time that it
has to be the absolute pinnacle of quality, and a bendy
bus patently isn't. The crush-loading, airless conditions
they offer are a nightmare from out of the Third World,
not befitting a world capital or its citizens, and
representing an outside influence that's not welcome
here.
There's still a great deal to be proud of, for just a
little while longer; as well as the great achievements of
the extra operators, Arriva London North at Clapton
garage put on a terrific show on Friday, enabling
something that's an irreplaceable part of the culture to
be fittingly mourned by regular passengers and
enthusiasts alike. It's not only the passengers of the 38
who've been thrown on the fire, as 120 conductors were
laid off. They played a blinder on their last day, and
are to be congratulated for their hard work over the
years. May these pages' tribute serve as a better
valedictory than the boot they have received after
contributing so much. |
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Three for the
price of one here at Dalston Junction at 11:15 as
eastbound RML 2528 (JJD 528D, as CT113)
leads RML 2750 (SMK 750F, as CT112),
passing RML 2328 (CUV 328C) as CT101
heading into town. Unfortunately none of
Clapton's Routemasters wore their yellow-on-black
running number cards today; they had all been
removed to forestall any opportunistic souvenir
hunters. A regrettable necessity, but the
temporary sheets of A4 paper in the windscreen
made the buses look less complete on their final
day than ought to have been the case.
The 38 is a tremendously busy route, with even
pairs and trios full at most times of the day or
night, and converting the route to artics is a
contemptuous kick in the teeth for its regular
passengers, who can only now get revenge for
their Third World future by no longer paying. |
 |
Again the
BBC's weather forecast for Friday proved almost
complete nonsense. The rain disappeared by
mid-morning and it was mild, if not particularly
clear, for the rest of the day. Such is the case
at Victoria at 9:40, where we see RM 1941 (ALD 941B), one of the
Marshall-refurbished RMs that returned in 2001
and first served at CentreWest until the 23 was
lost. After that they formed the reinforcements
for a whopping service increase to the 38 that
boosted its PVR from 41 to 50 buses - an act that
is not only to be reversed with the coming of the
bendies, but cut down even more severely with the
huge reduction in seating capacity.
This bus actually has something of a future,
albeit a contrived one, as it is to be one of the
ten allotted to Stagecoach East London for their
portion of the 'Disney' routes commencing on 14th
November. Since these limited sections of the 9
and 15 will run at neither peak and serve no rail
stations, they will be totally useless to the
kind of people who need intensive routes like the
38. |
 |
Spectacular
surprises characterised the last day of the 38 -
and what more of a fairytale ending (or
beginning, if you like!) can you get than the
appearance of RMF 1254 (254 CLT). Believe it
or not, it's the bus's first day in London
service. Back in 1962, this bus was the first
Routemaster to be built with a front entrance (a
provincial fashion of the time) but London
Transport could not figure out where to deploy it
and sent it on tour to drum up potential
business. Northern General ordered fifty, and
picked up RMF 1254 to boot. As their No 2145 it
spent fourteen years on Tyneside, becoming 3129
along the way and gaining the dreary poppy red
livery of the NBC. Its full restoration was
completed by Imperial Buses in time for
Routemaster 50 in July 2004, and that company
kindly loaned it to Ensignbus for today's work on
the 38. Perhaps it's earned its keep at last.
Superb! |
 |
Sharing the
honours for gold medal in the 38's funeral was a
bus that reminded us of an almost forgotten link
between the old London Transport and the
provinces, more than fifty years ago. Not long
after the war LT was suffering shortages that not
even the massive RT-family building programme
could alleviate in the short term, and had to
take on hires. Hants & Dorset, among other
Tilling group companies, provided buses from the
Bristol K series of double-deckers, and just such
is TD 895 (HLJ 44), which has
been restored by Ensignbus for their Museum. It
is seen in Graham Road on its way to Hackney, and
looks absolutely splendid. |
 |
Cobham Bus
Museum, which has another open day on Sunday 30th
October, excelled again, and for today's
contribution went even further back into London's
bus history than did Ensignbus's Bristol K. AEC
Regent ST 922 (GJ 2098) shows that in
the early 1930s the shape of the classic bus had
nearly finished taking form, with outside
staircase still to be enclosed and the upper deck
not yet extended over the driver's cab. The
London Transport driver of the time, although
still having to start the engine with a crank at
the bottom of the radiator, could count a
windscreen of his own as a considerable luxury!
Today ST 922 performed on some short-workings of
the 38 between Mildmay Park and Green Park,
avoiding by turn the shabbiest and busiest
extremities of the route. Its northern stand was
Dove Road in Mildmay Park, an area cleared for
this terminus by the visit overhead of a Zeppelin
in 1917. ST 922 worked for a time on its own
'heritage route', the 100 operated by Obsolete
Fleet. |
 |
As with the
12, we had silver and gold, the latter bus last
November 5th being RM 6 (VLT 6) guesting from Arriva
London South. I missed it that day, but it was
out again today on the 38 and at four o'clock I
captured it at the Angel. It still looks superb
in its Golden Jubilee scheme applied with real
paint, but unlike the recipient of Golden Jubilee
honours three years ago, there is no more line of
succession for the Routemaster. From Merlins and
Swifts to DMSs, Ms and Ts, Olympians, minibuses
and Tridents, it's outlived them all. |
 |
Blue
Triangle's RT 3871 (LLU 670) has operated
on the Last Days of all of the last twenty
Routemaster routes apart from the 11, 14 and 22,
and of course the 159 which is clinging to life.
In fact Blue Triangle put the lot out today,
really helping the very large numbers of
enthusiasts get from each photographic spot to
the next, as well as the more mundane duty of
simply ferrying Londoners about in the conditions
to which they are accustomed, and which the 38
will not see again. At 3:15 RT 3871 is seen at
Islington Green heading north. The specials were
instructed not to terminate at the Clapton Pond
stand, which is barely big enough for its
outgoing stock (and accordingly, hopeless for its
replacements) but a little further up the street
close to the Kenninghall Road roundabout. Three
of the specials continued beyond Clapton to
Leyton, where the 38 terminated between 1970 and
1990. Before that the route got all the way to
Walthamstow and Chingford, but was cut down upon
the arrival of the Victoria Line. A 38A diverged
at the Bakers Arms and ran to Loughton, spiritual
home of the STD class of early postwar Leylands. |
 |
As the night
drew in I went to photograph 38s in the West End
thoroughfares that would shortly be bereft of
Routemasters. New Oxford Street, Charing Cross
Road, Shaftesbury Avenue and of course,
Piccadilly. Removing the classic buses from
theatreland, one of London's most important
attractions, is cultural and commercial suicide -
people dressed up don't want to stand
cattle-packed on articulated boxcars to get to
the theatre, and neither do I; they'd rather get
taxis. RML 2325 (CUV 325C) is seen in
Charing Cross Road at 8:45. The Routemaster came
to the 38 only in 1971, and RMLs in 1981, with
Leyton (T) ceding control to Clapton (CT) in
1990. The RML fleet at Clapton today was still
composed mostly of the vehicles transferred in
when Ash Grove closed on 23rd November 1991; RML
2325 was one of them. The balance was made up of
the Marshall-refurbished RMs mentioned earlier,
and eight RMLs that escaped Tottenham when the 73
was one-manned on Black Friday 3rd September
2004. |
 |
I lived in
Dalston briefly, and the 38 was at that time my
conduit into town; busy, reliable and safe, in
stark contrast to the area itself! After dark,
38s laying over do not use the Clapton Pond
stand, which is infested by tramps and winos, but
pause at the last stop before coming round the
roundabout. That last stop is the location for RML 2567 (JJD 567D), an old
favourite from those days and still going till
today. It started as CT128, stepping back to
CT127 during the mid-morning and staying put on
that duty for the rest of the day. The route
branding seen on the sides evolved from a
yellow-themed version used when the operating
company was known as Cowie Leaside, and includes
a promotion mounted a few years ago for Sadlers
Wells theatre. |
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The organisers
of these Last Days really do think along the same
lines as me; for historical completeness I prefer
that the Last Bus should be something from the
normal runout, and the 38's last bus was exactly
that. But when I got to town, the first occupant
of CT131, the duty scheduled to come in last, was
RM 1640, a Marshall buyback and a very recent
Clapton vehicle, thus not appropriate. When the
buses stepped back RML 2534 took its place, but
further tinkering handed CT131 back to RM 1640.
Happily, for the final two rounders one of
Clapton's long-term RMLs was swapped onto the
duty. This was RML 888 (WLT 888), Clapton's
oldest bus, a bus from the prototype batch of
30-foot Routemasters, and the last
Cummins-engined Routemaster in service. Its last
fourteen years were spent on the 38, its last day
as CT106 (moving to CT105) and as CT131 its final
rounder commenced at 23:56 (scheduled 23:39) from
Clapton Pond. The crush to get on was, frankly,
brutal, but I made it - I have to make it - and
stayed on throughout, not budging at Victoria
when the bus turned around shortly before one. To
a throng of enthusiasts, locals, journalists and
TV crews (yes, the ITN representatives' efforts
earned them a full ten seconds of coverage on
Saturday's midday news!), RML 888 pulled into
Clapton Pond's stop at two minutes to two. |
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Full marks to
Clapton garage's staff for some very efficient
and good-natured supervision of the narrow
entrance into their premises, a section of which
was taped off especially for us to photograph
throughout the day. Their thoughtfulness was a
privilege to behold, but what has it got them?
The death sentence for a large number of
colleagues and for the survivors, the
inconvenience of having to be transported to the
38's new base at Ash Grove, a wasteful practice
that begins the winding down of Clapton garage as
a whole. No doubt expensive flats will occupy the
site in due course. The final act of the 38 was
to position RML 888 (WLT 888, left) beside
its duplicate, RM 5 (VLT 5), and line up for photos
one last time. Here are some of the heroes of the
day beside their machines, and both will be
missed. There's simply nothing good that's come
out of these unwanted and unpopular conversions.
Nothing at all. |
|
| Here are the lists of what operated
on the 38's normal runout on its last day as a crew
route. Bear in mind that the route's middle order stepped
back with a vengeance after the morning peak, with a good
dozen buses assuming the running number of the duty ahead
of them; so there are bound to be loads of omissions and
(hopefully not) inaccuracies. Of Clapton's 59
Routemasters still based there by the end (14 RM & 45
RML), only RMLs 897, 901, 2287, 2457, 2468, 2483, 2503,
2544 and 2742 were not operating on Friday 28th. It would
have been nice to see RML 897 out, given its pedigree as
an ambassador abroad, while fellow prototype-batch RML
884 was sold earlier, but RML 888 did the business for
both of them. |
| CT101 - RML 2328 |
CT118 - RM 1968 (RML 2280) |
CT135 - RML 2334 (RML 2325) |
| CT102 - RML 2325 (RML 2526) |
CT119 - RML 2277 |
CT136 - RM 2050 |
| CT103 - RML 2356 |
CT120 - RML 2280 (RM 909) |
CT137 - RML 2434 |
| CT104 - RML 2356 (RM 1145) |
CT121 - RM 909 (RML 2401) |
CT138 - RM 848 |
| CT105 - RML 888 |
CT122 - RML 2344 |
CT139 - RM 2122 |
| CT106 - RML 888 (?) |
CT123 - RML 2359 (DLA 15) |
CT140 - RML 2525 |
| CT107 - RML 2416 (RML 2408) |
CT124 - RM 1312 (RML 2494) |
CT141 - RML 2406 |
| CT108 - RML 2408 (RML 2675) |
CT125 - RML 2494 (RML 2492) |
CT142 - RM 2060 |
| CT109 - RML 2675 |
CT126 - RML 2492 (?) |
CT143 - RML 2688 |
| CT110 - RML 2546 (RML 2571) |
CT127 - RML 2386 (RML 2567) |
CT144 - RML 2409 |
| CT111 - RML 2571 (?) |
CT128 - RML 2567 (RML 2638) |
CT145 - RM 1185 |
| CT112 - RML 2750 |
CT129 - RML 2638 (RML 2346) |
CT146 - RM 1776 |
| CT113 - RML 2528 (RML 2315) |
CT130 - RML 2346 (RM 1640, RML 2534, ?) |
CT147 - RML 2304 |
| CT114 - RML 2315 |
CT131 - RM 1640 (RML 2534, RM 1640, RML 888 (last bus) |
CT148 - RM 1941 (?) |
| CT115 - RML 2370 (RML 2562) |
CT132 - RML 2534 (RML 2655) |
CT149 - RM 652 (RM 1941) |
| CT116 - RML 2562 (RM 1968) |
CT133 - RML 2355 |
CT150 - RM 1164 |
| CT117 - RML 2597 |
CT134 - ? (RML 2334) |
CT510 - RM 5 (duplicate to the
last run) |
| And
here are the extras that operated, with running numbers
where known. As with the normal route 38 runout, they
were apt to swap about and not all buses listed
necessarily ran at the same time; if you weren't aware of
the running order, you could have thought Blue Triangle
and Ensignbus were putting their entire fleets onto the
route! RMF 1254 was loaned to Ensignbus by Imperial
Buses, while RML 2760 was a second entrant from
Stagecoach East London. |
Stagecoach
East London
RML 2665 (WA1) & RML 2760 |
Ensignbus
RT 4421 (PT2), TD 395 (PT5), RMF 1254
& RT 1431 (PT7) & RLH
61 |
Blue Triangle
RTW 75 (FL4), RT 3062
(FL6), RML 900
(FL8), RT 3871 & RM
298 |
Arriva
London South
RM 6 (N) |
First CentreWest
RM 1650 (X3), RM 613 (X9) |
Cobham Bus Museum
ST 922, invitation only |
| |
Preserved,
not in service
RT 190, RT 1702, RMC 1456 |
|
So
we're very nearly at the end, as I've said. I'm all out
of pithy headlines, as you may have noticed (thanks to
contributors of suggestions!), and I'm exhausted in
general. This pastime is almost finished for me, as is
public transport as a satisfactory option. I never
particularly felt the need for a car in London, with and
all its tribulations and arguable impact upon the
environment, but the destruction of London's public
transport standards doesn't really leave me with any
other option. Londoners deserve much better than what its
politicians snidely think we're entitled to, and for all
the money we pay we've got nothing back - and for that
matter, where's the money all gone? And what was the
rationale for the utterly disgraceful treatment of the
public consultation that was supposed to determine
whether the 38 would or would not succumb to artics? Was
that another lie? I wouldn't be at all surprised, since
the cynical method employed now is to not bother to
canvas or consult anybody when changes are being planned,
then rubber-stamp and order for the changes anyway. Only
in the week before changes do they make a pretence at
public consultations, by which time it's too late for
people to question. They don't even bother with publicity
any more, and they had to be taken to court to remove
some of the lies in the last batch concerning artics.
They've simply stopped listening,
and that's the point at which they become redundant and
have to be got rid of.
In only twenty-five years it seems we've come full
circle. The out-of-control profligacy and nauseating
fringe politics of the last Livingstone administration
became so damaging that to dispose of it, the whole
infrastructure of London's buses had to be destroyed with
it, and we don't want the repercussions of that again -
we're still living with the ruination of the industry,
the disaster that was deregulation and the shame of
division and privatisation. Surely it's not too much to
ask to steer away from either extreme by replacing this
wretched mess with one
non-political, non-corporate, nationalised, unified and
public-owned London bus-operating body, managed and
staffed only by professional busmen, the calibre of whom
are still out there in large numbers and who have been
outperforming consistently in impossible circumstances,
just like during today, and who listen
to the public who pay their wages and do what's in their
best interest. Surely it's not too much to hope for.The 159 is now London's only
Routemaster route, and it has six weeks left. Thursday
8th and Friday 9th December are its own Last Days, but
it's too late for the 38. Thanks to all who organised and
crewed today, and to all those who have been doing so
since there first were London buses - your efforts are
very much appreciated by this individual, and in the case
of Clapton's people, from the applause they received at
the very end (as at every end) I can take comfort in
knowing I'm not alone.
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