Celebrating a British icon 5
The London bus scene
new requirements.
Worse still, labour relations
were deteriorating, prompting an
all-out strike by bus crews that
spring, a stoppage that lasted
seven weeks, discouraged even
more people from riding by bus
and led to some major cuts in
the number of routes that were
operated. It would take well
over 40 years before passenger
numbers got back to where they
were before that strike.
Another 10 years and, in
1968, London Transport was
implementing its bus reshaping
plan, a brave attempt to tackle
the woes that had beset it since
the mid-1950s.
This was a turning point in
the design of the London bus.
The RT had paved the way for
the ultimate development of its
traditional double-decker with
engine alongside the driver and
conductor on an open platform at
the back, the Routemaster. The
first one appeared in 1954 and
production got under way from
1959, enabling this legendary
vehicle to replace the large fleet
of electric trolleybuses operated
mainly in north and east London.
The last of 2,760 Routemasters
arrived in early 1968, but
although a prototype with a rear
engine and front entrance was
on trial, this was the end of the
bespoke London double-decker.
Or at least for the next 40 years.
It looked even as if this could
be the end of the London double-
decker, as the reshaping plan
embraced ideas from overseas
in the shape of single-deckers in
which many passengers would be
expected to stand at busy times.
Like they did on the Underground
or commuter trains.
It also looked like being the
rapid end for the bus conductor,
too, as the new buses —
operating shorter routes in many
places — would only have a
driver. Passengers would either
pay the driver or use one of
the fancy self-service machines
available to pay a fare and
perhaps receive a ticket.
The plan got off to a roaring
start in 1968, but the new buses
came with all sorts of faults
and unexpected operationalcomplications and were soon
considered such a mistake that
many were put up for sale with
the same haste that had cleared
out those wartime utility buses
20 years earlier. The red double-
decker refused to go away and
was back in fashion. Universal
driver-only operation would
have to wait for advances in
electronics and payment systems
that even science fiction writers
would have struggled to predict
over 40 years ago.
New vehicles came and went
and the Routemaster — the last
traditional London double-decker
— went on and on, upgraded
mechanically and refurbished
inside, until the last few hundred
were finally retired in 2005.On the up again
By then the London bus was on
the up again, with many services
running round the clock and
the network carrying increasing
numbers as the population also
kept on rising.
There was a brief flirtation with
high-capacity single-deckers
on some of the busiest routes,
articulated vehicles better known
as bendybuses, but a change of
mayor saw them shipped off as
peremptorily as the products of
the bus reshaping plan or those
wartime utility buses.
Back came a red double-decker
designed exclusively for London,
a hybrid electric with three
doors, two staircases and —briefly — the facility to hop on
and off the backs of some of them
when they were held up between
stops or were waiting at red
traffic lights. An internationally
esteemed designer was given the
task of making them look stylish.
And they were given a name.
New Routemaster.
Today there are 1,000 of them
among the 9,500 London buses,
along with a few other double-
deckers with styling features
taken from this design. But there
will be no more, it seems, as
another mayor has come along
with his own priorities for public
that include cheaper fares and no
more New Routemasters.
Another priority is to clean up
London’s air quality. Buses are
in the forefront, with ultra-low
emissions — even zero emissions
where possible — the base
requirement for central London,
ultimately beyond. Buses will
also be removed from Oxford
Street in the heart of the West
End.
The number of electric and
hydrogen-fuelled buses is
growing and the technology of
the ever larger fleet of hybrids
continues to advance.
This is a story that is
continuing to evolve and in this
publication we pause to consider
some of the major parts of it, as
well as looking at some of the
buses around London today,
the routes that they ply and the
garages that support them.● AMBELOW: Film
extras pose as
London Transport
driver, inspector
and conductress
against a line of
four RTs in the
Ensignbus depot.
KEITH McGILLIVRAY