last routemaster bus countdown..check yr diaries pls

http://www.lots.org.uk/pdf/38281005.pdf

with the 19 one, it ran up to finsubry park going thru central london about midnight, then arrived finsbury park about 1 i think, then ran back down to battersea or whereever and got there about 2 or seomthing

http://www.granta.com/shop/product-file/18/theb2418/product.jpg

Wolverhampton Cityhopper - Cherish The Night

Also I am currently very glad that my bus is not a routemaster because in my current condition I wouldn't find them very useable at all. And if I had had to keep crutches, not at all.

I like them, mind.

Can anyone remember an occassion when Routemasters have randomly burst into flames?

Anyone else ever missed a bus by three seconds and then had to watch it standing in the stop for five minutes while it tries to pull back into the traffic flow?

i get travel sick thinking about how long i will have to stand on a packed 38 Bendy now though. Can't they just use modern double deckers instead?

bendies are pretty rub though.

I bet they pollute less too, meanwhile, by the way.

Wouldn't take much, would it — take a Routemaster, add an accessable door on one side, sort out the suspension and bob kiley's your uncle.

I suspect that people who design modern buses have never been stuck in traffic, sat near the front on the top deck in blazing sunshine. It's like being in a greenhouse, as some muppet forgot to put opening windows in the front half, and those further back that do open a teeny little bit let no air in at all.

x-post:

Wouldn't suprise me if the main reason for scrapping the open back platform and the useful windows the Claims Direct culture we now live in, whereby if a kid threw a stone out of a top-deck window and hit someone, or if someone got drunk and fell off the back, TfL would be held responsible.

Which means, once again, life is made a little duller by trying to legislate for idiots.

xpost

I have a travelcard but if I didn't then I'm not sure I'd bother getting a ticket out of one of those machines.

I get the 12 fairly regularly and have never seen an inspector.

The buses fill up so much that it quickly becomes more or less impossible for ticket inspectors to get around the bus, even if they did exist.

Bendy buses surely also much more accessible to wheelchair users/mums with prams etc?

best excuse for not coming to the first forget about the sugar was "omg i am so poor i can only travel on bendy buses".

I put it to you that this is the most you thing you have ever said.

ponce

my least favourite thing about the routemasters - that odd metallic lump in the floor by the rear seats on the lower floor. the number of times i've tripped over that _thing_...

I thought koogybots were programmed to learn, but apparently not.

bumpy bit near back l.h. wheel?

I have just this minute hopped off a 38 Routemaster. I travelled from Gray's Inn Road (ish) to High Holborn in the name of scientific research.

There was nothing good about it. I sat at the front, upstairs. It was indeed smelly, but not because of the bus itself. It was being used to transport a large number of derelicts, along with a rowdy selection of "Yeah But No But" kids.

You take your life in your hands getting on it (it pulled out before I was properly on board) and you take your life in your hands getting off it, at least if you are upstairs and do not wish to miss your stop. This is without taking the rear differential deathtrap into consideration.

It was very dirty.

The conductress did not check my ticket, neither did she look likely to.

Mind you, I will say this for it: It goes like the clappers. I was back at my desk long beofre I had intended to be.

xpost-- i guess it's a matter of opinion, but none of the complaints about routemasters hold enough weight with me to compensate for the convenience of being able to jump on and off at will. and i've noticed 38 conductors being especially lazy about fare collection in the last couple weeks, but can you blame them since they're presumably going to lose their jobs in the name of 'progress'?

Yes, they are terrible forms of trasnsport too, apart from walking.

That's a problem with the driver, not the bus.

"you take your life in your hands getting off it, at least if you are upstairs and do not wish to miss your stop"

That's true of any London double-decker.

"It was very dirty."

As is that.

"The conductress did not check my ticket, neither did she look likely to."

As stated above ticket checks on bendies are as rare as a bald goth.

Oh, and to put the boot into Bendies even more, my GF is just over 5ft tall and can never reach anything to hang on to if she's stuck in the middle of the standing area, whereas Routemasters are much more dwarf-friendly.

Bigest bugbear with modern double deckers is that the upstairs has heating and this seems to be left on even in summer. Buses do not need heating, I'm not likely to be able to take my coat and jumper off am I and when they are busy they are backed with bountiful and sweaty heat sources.

I know my criticisms could be applied to any London bus, but there aren't loads of people claiming normal buses or bendy buses are in any way wonderful.

My problem with the modern double decker is the TV screens.

I hate the heating on trains.

Rear seats that face each other or otherwise? I think I prefer it when all rows of seats are facing forward.

Staircase nearer the front or middle of the bus? I think middle is best.

Rear seats without cushions and less legroom? Presumably these are measures to deter people (noisy intimidating thuggish youths?) sitting there, but this seems at odds with the trend for having the penultimate row of seats facing the rear window. I don't like it anyway, neither upstairs nor down (hard to find a bus that doesn't employ it downstairs now)

Seats downstairs that face the sides of the bus? They're okay I guess, but do they result in fewer seats than if they were rows facing forward?

These would be good if they showed better things on them.

bus maps, anyone? i seem to remember that i got some when i moved to london from somewhere inside oxford circus tube, and that was one of the few places you could find them, but i can't find any info like that now. they do still make paper maps, presumably?

(also ed, did you get our email?)

If anyone on here takes the 38 regularly, it's the conductor with the mouth organ. He was playing Roberta Flack and laughing at some kids giving him the finger.

Machine to buy bendy bus tix accepts money. Doesn't issue ticket. Get on bus, explain to driver machine isn't working, what are we to do etc.

HIM: 'you should have bought a ticket'

GF: ' We tried but the machine is broken. We put money in, but it wouldn't print tickets.'

HIM: 'you have no ticket. You should have got a ticket.'

GF: 'Listen. The. Machine. Doesn't. Work./ We couldn't buy a ticket beacsue it was broken.'

HIM: You'll have to get another bus. You need to get a ticket. I'm not moving until you get off.'

Feeling the stares of the other passengers, we get off. I call him a wanker and give him big v-signs, which makes me feel better.

Last Sunday, Albion Road Stoke Newington awaiting for 73.

Machine to buy bendy bus tix accepts money. Doesn't issue ticket. Ring number on machine. They say we need to tell the driver to issue a customer care voucher, which wen then fill in and send to company managing ticket machines.

Get on bus. Tell driver that we're not after him issuing a ticket. We've called the company who run the machines that issue tickets to get on the bus he drives, and they told us to ask him for said voucher.

HIM: 'I don't issue tickets and I don't handle money'

GF: 'We know. We're not trying to buy a ticket. The machine didn't work. The company told us you would issue us a card.'

HIM: 'I told you, I don't issue tickets'

GF: 'We know. Can you issue us a customer care voucher?'

HIM: 'Look, how many times do I HAVE TO TELL YOU! I DON'T DO TICKETS. YOU'LL HAVE TO GET OFF. IF THE INSPECTOR COMES HE'LL CHARGE YOU 20 POUNDS'

GF:'WE DON'T WANT A TICKET. WE WANT A CUSTOMER CARE VOUCHER'

HIM: 'I'VE TOLD YOU I DON'T DO TICKETS'

ME: 'LISTEN. VOUCHER IS NOT THE SAME AS TICKET. IT IS SOMETHING YOU GIVE TO US AS THE MACHINE WAS BROKEN. IT IS NOT BOUGHT FROM YOU. WE GIVE NO MONEY FOR IT.

HIM: 'YOU'LL GET FINED. YOU SHOULD GET OFF'

GF calls company to check understanding. I shake my head calling him a rude bastard. Realise is a 73 and who gives a fuck anyway?

What is it about the drivers of the bendy bus? Have they scoured London for the rudest, most stupid men with rudimentary command of English is to drive them?

It is easier when you have a system that works brilliantly and is really cheap. Everything's a self-financing fucking cost centre here. Well done to the cunter of a management accountant twathead who came up with that.

I saw a great row on a 38 recently. An agressive conductor was arguing with a punter about 10 pence worth of change. The argument came to a head when he called her a 'fuck wipe'.

What fresh madness is this? Honestly Dave you live in a dream world.

Who will pay the drivers? = THE REST OF US! You freeloading fuck-wipes!

Rosa Parks would have been required to stand in the bendy bit with no windows.

as for routemasters, i have never met someone who uses a wheelchair or pushes a buggie get nostalgic (this is mainly because i dont know anyone in either of those categories). but i fail to see how a routemaster can be used by either constituency.

i like the idea of a newly designed routemaster. low floored, accessible entry and space for wheelchairs/buggies, but essentially just an internal redesign more than anything. the thing bus companies wouldnt like is that you have to employ conductors rather than just have One Person Operation.

that leads me on to bendy buses. why oh why, people cry, do they have bendy buses which save money by cramming more people on and haveing only one person operating, when in fact this cost savin is a false one as they then have to employ gangs of inspectors? (eg on 149). i presume that this is because the inspectors will be contracted out by TfL, whereas conductors/drivers will be employed by London United or Metroline or whoever.

Maybe they'd have had separate ticket machines for whites and blacks.

cheers ambrose - do you just call a general enquiry number or something?

the only people i know who prefer bendy buses to routemasters are people with pushchairs, who do much prefer them. i think they're very much in a minority, though.

i probably only have 2 more journeys to go on a routemaster, unless i make a special effort :-(

I think these things are more important than a bit of "I'll get you, Blakey" nostalgia.

toby, i would just contact:

Email: [email protected]
London Buses Customer Services
84 Eccleston Square
London SW1V 1PX
0845 300 7000 (0800-2000 Monday to Friday)

dont know how long it will take to send them out, but they will do it.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/popupmovies/1945to51_jbalbb.htm

That's you lot, that is.

Is that bad, Ed?

I like routemasters too but the stairs do give me the ph34r.

this would suggest that different parts of the bus are decelerating at different speeds. now that's what i call a bendy bus...

i think it's because the deceleration is happening in the same direction as you are travelling (ie forwards / backwards) rather than at right angles to it (you go left to right as you descend on a routemaster).

does anyone here who likes bendy buses actually use them on a regular basis?

You will feel a greater force on you decending the stairs on a Routemaster if it is turning as the stairs are quite far from the center of rotation of the bus. Turning will of course include pulling into or out of a stop. Most modern busses try to place their stairs as close to the center of rotation as possible. Any lurching in a straight line is due to crap acceleration or breaking on the part of the driver, it may be easier to stop the modern busses in a gentler fashion.

wouldn't this be the back (over the back wheels anyway) given that only the front wheels steer? i'm dubious about the effect of this rotation compared with the braking.

i.e. now and then.

"is it really true?"

Click for yourself:

http://images.google.com/images?q=Bilbao+Metro&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

I used to complain about Barcelona a lot, but Porkpie et al were right.

(I'm talking about the Surrey Iron Railway, which ran along the Wandle valley from Croyden to Wandsworth)

It means that Routemasters will continue to run on normal bus routes that normal Londoners use every day that just happen to go through tourist central. So all this "last Routemaster ever!" stuff is a load of old cobblers.

http://www.spleenville.com/journal/archives/careometer.gif