The R. J. Waterhouse Web Site
Routemasters 2
Another selection of Routemaster shots illustrating more of the routes enthusiasts said would never be converted to one-person operation.
It was rather surprising to some people that, in 1993, the busy and well-known route 3 (Crystal Palace to Oxford Circus) was converted to one-person operation by the London Central subsidiary of London Buses, using a batch of new single-door Optare Spectras. The route is now operated by Connex, whose train operations in south London have been much criticised by passengers and the media because of their unreliability - hopefully their operation of the 3 won't go the same way. We remember Routemaster operation on the 3 with this portrait of RM 1818, taken at Crystal Palace on 28th July 1987, about to work an end-of-morning peak journey to Kennington Church.
The 'real', as it were, 28 and 31 are illustrated here. On the left, RM 769 is seen on the 28 in Kensington Church Street on 25th February 1989, with only a week to go until midibus conversion, whilst on the right RM 953 makes a fine sight in the sunshine in Rudolph Road on 8th September 1987, probably before the midibus idea had been conceived.
When they were converted from DM operation in 1980, the 16 and 16A received a lot of ex-London Country RMLs, although the two buses illustrated here weren't among them. The routes received doored buses again (Metrobuses) in 1987, and lost their conductors at the same time. The 16 is now operated by new double deckers, while the 16A has been withdrawn and replaced by route 189, using new low-floor single deckers. RML 2542 is seen in Kilburn High Road, destined to turn short of the 16's usual southern terminus (Victoria), while RML 2464 waits time at Brent Cross Shopping Centre, both in November 1987.
Conversion of major central London routes to single-deck operation is nothing new now, but the conversion of the 36B to OPO with new Dennis Lances in 1992 caused controversy at the time. The conversion meant that London Buses' Selkent subsidiary became the first to go 100% OPO. Before the route (subsequently renumbered 136) saw the back of the Routemaster, we see the back of RM 701 outside the Ladywell Leisure Centre in March 1992.
The 43 is best known these days for Metroline's operation of state-of-the-art Dennis Tridents, but up until July 1987 this is what you would catch on the route - represented here by RML 2434, which is an ex-London Country bus, at Highgate on the route's last day of Routemaster operation.
Having posted a Metrobus on the 49 as front-cover picture a while back, it gives me as great pleasure - really - to post a picture of an RM working the route on the site! This is how most enthusiasts remember the 49, in the shape of RM 1996 of Shepherds Bush garage seen in Kensington High Street in June 1987.
The 55, converted to OPO at the same time as the 49, changed operators in February 1990 when Kentishbus, an operator no longer with us, took over the route - along with the 22A/22B - using new Leyland Olympians. The route is with Stagecoach East London now, operated by Dennis Tridents. In February 1987 here's RML 2713 rounding Hyde Park Corner.
Another route that has been the recipient of new buses - coach-seated, too - has been the 74. Such an event couldn't have been imagined when RM 1988 was caught speeding along Park Road in January 1987.
Today's version of route 88 is one that has been severely cut back from the one illustrated here - and it's seen single deckers too, but the operation of 13 Volvos bodied by Northern Counties was destined not to last. The section beyond Trafalgar Square to Turnham Green is now the 94. RML 2722 passes Chiswick Park Station on 12th August 1988, the day the route was extended there from Acton Green and revised to work in two overlapping sections. The 94 took over this part of the 88 in 1990.
As a dedicated anything-but-Routemasters bus enthusiast in what generally was an anything-but-Routemasters era, it was a mystery to me why route 139, which took over from the 159 between Baker Street and West Hampstead in March 1992, used standard (or short) RMs from the start, apart from to suggest that it was LBL subsidiary London Northern's short-term answer to the problem of keeping its Chalk Farm garage open (conductors returned there for the first time since the 24's OPO conversion in October 1986). The 139 now uses - yes, you've guessed it - dual-door low-floor single deckers, Dennis Darts no less. RM 1758 works on the first day of this enthusiasts' gimmick route in West End Lane on 28th March 1992.
The 253 went the way of most routes in November 1987, receiving an extension to Euston in 1992 by which time it was predominately worked by new Leyland Olympians. Arriva London North something-or-other operates it nowadays, sometimes using the former Kentishbus Olympians! RM 2188 works it here at Manor House in the last few months. This, I believe, was the first Routemaster to gain the then-new London Buses roundel.
The spread of
one-person operation proceeded apace during 1987, with route 30 (then
Hackney Wick to Putney Heath, nowadays terminating at Marble Arch)
one of the many routes to lose Routemasters. This shot was taken
on a Sunday, 25th January 1987, as RM 822 heads south in the
Marylebone Road, opposite Baker Street Station.
Here is one of
the many versions of the Bank branch of route 15 that there have
been in the last, well, 15 years. When they were first rejigged,
the 23 (via the Tower) became the 15 and the 15 (via Bank) became
the 15A, and it is this version of the Bank route that is seen
here, with RML 2709 seen in the Strand on 23rd April 1987. This
was also the tail-end of the 'tourist' livery era on the 15 /15A
buses, with yellow relief bands (occasionally yellow roofs too)
and yellow and blue blinds. This bus has a yellow band plus the
blue-on-yellow number blind, yellow-on-blue intermediate blind
with 'Via Bank' in blue on yellow, and yellow-on-blue ultimate
destination (in this case Paddington). The 15A was incorporated
into plain route 15 from 6th June '87: it was renumbered 15B in
1989, converted to one-person operation in July 1992 and
renumbered 115 in December 1999.
The former
Labour party leader Michael Foot was a regular passenger on the
24, from Hampstead Heath to Pimlico, but on balance the route is
possibly better-known for being the first major central London
bus service to be put out to tender and won by an independent
operator. Grey-Green built up a good reputation on the 24 from
their takeover in November 1988 to the company's acquisition by
Arriva and the route was widely acclaimed as the most reliable in
London. Prior to one-person conversion in October 1986, RML 2373
of Chalk Farm garage is seen in Camden Town on 28th August that
year.
Another of the
best-known North London Routemaster routes was the 29, from
Victoria to Enfield Town, until its one-person conversion in
November 1988. As this shot of RM 1339 at Mornington Crescent
illustrates, some buses on the 29 also received the 'tourist'
treatment, here with yellow band, yellow-on-black blinds and
promotional posters either side of the blind box.
It was very
rare for a route operated by Routemasters not to touch central
London come 1987, indeed the 207 from Uxbridge to Shepherds Bush
Green was the last such service. In the last week of crew
operation on the 207, RML 2608 passes Uxbridge RAF Station on 24th
March 1987. You can access a picture of Uxbridge garage's last
RML via the front page.
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