Celebrating a British icon 41
was discontinued beyond Marble
Arch, and was replaced by new
service 94 to and from Acton.
This service again ran along
the western half of OxfordStreet, and again was operated
by Routemasters – actually
increasing their numbers on
the street. However, two years
later the residual Oxford Street
section of the original 88 was
finally lopped off, and the service
was switched to rear-engined
double-deckers. Their northern
terminus was now Oxford Circus.
Ironically, in this case an
additional northern section was
tacked on to the route in 2009,
taking it up to Camden Town.
So from running east-west along
Oxford Street, the 88 ended up
running north-south across it.
Other long routes have simply
been curtailed somewhere in
the environs of Oxford Street.
Typical is the 159 (famously
the final Routemaster route in
December 2005), which once ran
from Thornton Heath in south
London to West Hampstead in
the north – traversing most of the
western half of Oxford Street in
the process. In 1992 the northern
section was dropped, leaving the
route to terminate at Marble Arch.
Some routes were removed
completely from Oxford Street
in previous culls – among them
the 15, which arrived in central
London from the East End,
progressed up Regent Street to
Oxford Circus, ran along Oxford
Street to Marble Arch, then
turned north up Edgware Road
to Paddington.
As late as 2004, a year beforethe end of normal Routemaster
operation, the very last example
of the type to be built, RML2760,
could still be seen frequently
on the route. The Oxford Street
section of the 15 survived until
2010 with modern rear-engined
buses, but then the route was cut
back to Oxford Circus, and three
years later it was cut back again
to Trafalgar Square.
For routes that have continued
to serve Oxford Street, you
could almost argue that it
has gradually become one
long, dynamic bus terminus.
Admittedly, not many routes have
ever started or ended in Oxford
Street itself; instead, buses have
tended to turn in side streets
such as John Princes Street, just
round the corner from Oxford
Circus, or at Marble Arch.
Nevertheless, Oxford Street has
remained the real target.Where will they go?
So what is happening to all the
buses that have been using the
western half of Oxford Street?
The first five routes have
been either diverted to new
destinations that avoid the need
to use Oxford Street (the 13 to
Victoria instead of the Aldwych,
for instance), or truncated just
short of the affected section of
Oxford Street (for instance, the
73 in Cavendish Square, just to
the north).
Nine further routes are dueOxford Street
LEFT: The
bendybus era
saw these
Mercedes-Benz
Citaros replace
Routemasters
on route 73 for a
time. This one is
passing the John
Lewis store.