The Routemaster at 70
I am not a bus anorak. I have never felt the need to jot down numbers of buses in notebooks or anything like that.
Even so as a Londoner I use buses every day when I am in the Capital [which is on occasion in 2024] so I have some interest as a user.
According to Wikipedia, which may or may not be accurate, the first Routemaster was built in September 1954 and the last in 1968. The link to facts or otherwise of all things Routemaster is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routemaster
There were two heritage Routemaster routes operating in central London until quite recently
I am certainly a fan of the Routemaster and in particular of the 73 route which ran originally from way out West [Hammersmith and beyond] via Victoria to Tottenham Garage. These days it goes no further than the Jolly Butchers and the Axe in Stoke Newington which is not perhaps exactly the end of the world.
Of course while the Routemaster was reliable and relatively speedy as it was conductor crewed, the modern world has overtaken it somewhat.
It is not low floor and so not accessible. That is absolutely not sustainable in 2024. I was not a fan of the original solution to this issue- the bendy bus- now long gone. A new generation of electric buses is doing a bit better.
Even so the Routemaster was and is a design classic, a London icon.
The Routemaster’s longevity and sustainability, despite the downsides noted above, is a tribute to when London Transport was a genuine public service run for passengers by decently paid crews who took pride in being public servants. The struggle goes on.
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