Celebrating a British icon 87
determined by the number of
zones crossed.
Following a legal challenge by
the Conservative-led London
Borough of Bromley, the scheme
was ruled unlawful and, as a
result, fares more than doubled
from March 1982.
Passenger numbers fell
dramatically, leading London
Transport to reduce costs as
rapidly as possible. An immediate
consequence was that conversions
of routes to driver-only operation
resumed and withdrawal began
of Routemasters, which by then
were between 14 and 24 years
old. By the end of the decade, they
were largely confined to routes
running through the West End.
Although the reshaping plan as
such disappeared, London’s bus
network continued to change,
with a particular desire to split
longer routes into shorter
sections less vulnerable to delays
caused by traffic congestion.
Many of these routes were
similar to some of the local
satellite routes conceived under
the reshaping plan.
Ultimately the most successful
method of speeding-up bus
boarding was to encourage pre-purchase of travel from outlets
such as newsagents. Although
bus passes had been available
for some time, it was the launch
of the Capitalcard in 1985
that really encouraged off-bus
ticketing.
This was followed shortly after,
and ultimately superseded by
the Travelcard, developed in
conjunction with British Rail’s
Network SouthEast business to
provide a ticket that covered all
road and rail services in Greater
London.
In January 2000 London’s
buses adopted two fare zones,
with journeys entirely in the
outer zone costing 70p and
those within the central zone £1.
The range of off-bus tickets was
increased with the introduction
of Saver tickets which provided
for the purchase, in advance,
of six tickets that gave a slight
discount on the cash fare.
Electronic smartcard ticketing
began to be developed in the
1980s, and in the early 1990s
it had reached a point where
practical trials were possible,
which led subsequently to
development of the Oyster card
that has, since 2003, becomethe foundation for Transport for
London’s multi-modal ticketing
system. In 2004 the fares system
was further simplified with
a single flat fare across the
network. This speeded up the
process of boarding considerably
and helped pave the way for
the final conversion of the bus
network to driver-only operation
in December 2005.
More recently, mayor Sadiq
Khan’s Hopper fare has allowed
passengers to make multiple
changes of bus within an hour
without paying an additional fare.Turning full circle?
Between 2002 and 2011, many
of London’s busiest routes were
operated by articulated single-
deckers, popularly known as
bendybuses. Although disliked by
many, they proved to be effective
people movers with three doors
and cashless operation.
Cashless operation was
subsequently rolled out across
the West End, initially with
self-service ticket machines at
bus stops. By 2014, cash fares
only accounted for around 1%
of journeys, a change assisted
by the acceptance of contactless50 Years Ago
ABOVE: Mercedes-
Benz Citaro
bendybus MAL3 in
the Go-Ahead fleet
crossing Lambeth
Bridge on Red
Arrow service 507.