14 The London Bus
L
ike most of the UK,
London Transport
emerged from
World War 2 in not
too great a shape.
As Michael Baker explains in
his article about the 1947-
investment in new buses, the
postwar imperative was to renew
the bus and trolleybus fleets
while scrapping the remnants of
the tram system.
Unfortunately, LondonTransport based its vehicle
orders on immediate postwar
passenger statistics, and seemed
not to have the foresight to
perceive a gradual recovery and
ensuing prosperity, as a result
of which it underestimated
declining passenger levels and
over ordered on its vehicle
requirements. Hence 144 new RT
and RTL double-deckers going
straight into store, stripped of
their tyres and wheels.Economic recovery also
had an impact on the labour
market and, with the benefit
of hindsight, arguably the
nascent rumblings of discontent
at London Transport became
apparent in August 1957, when
the Transport & General Workers
Union submitted a claim for an
increase of 25 shillings per week
(£1.25p in decimal currency, or
£29.75 at today’s values) for all
bus workers that it represented60 Years Ago
BELOW: One
of the buses
operated by The
People’s League
for the Defence
of Freedom
during the strike,
a 1939 Northern
Counties-bodied
six-wheel AEC
Renown still in the
livery of original
owner Leicester
Corporation,
heading south
across Tower
Bridge in June
- The
warehouses of
St Katharine’s
Dock are
behind, buildings
transformed today
into fashionable
housing, shops and
restaurants.
BOTTOM
RIGHT: Another
casualty was
route 17 between
Shepherds Bush
and London
Bridge, on which
RT916 appears
here with an RTL
behind. Later in
the year this RT
received a rear-
end shunt, as a
result of which the
body was rebuilt
with a right-hand
platform and left-
hand stairs as a
sales vehicle for
potential overseas
buyers, by now
mounted on the
chassis of RTL3.
It was last heard
of 50 years ago
somewhere in the
area of Geneva.
The 1958 bus strike
A bitter pay dispute took most of London Transport’s buses off the
streets for over six weeks in the spring of 1958, leading to a big
drop in the number of passengers using the service and consequent
cuts in services and the early disposal of many vehicles