| | The routemaster was the last bus to be wholly designed by London Transport for use in the capital, It was designed in the 1950s for the large scale replacement of the London Trolleybus fleet. Although it is well known that the Routemaster was more expensive than alternative vehicles available at the time, it proved to be a vehicle with untouchable longevity. Some thought as the last vehicle entered service that the Routemaster design was obsolete, having been effectively killed off by its exclusion from 1960s Bus Grant Specifications. No one would have thought that hundreds of Routemasters would still be in use at the start of the 21st Century. It is nearly twenty years since the first large scale withdrawals and sales of Routemasters by London Transport commenced. With the sudden emergence of large numbers of well maintained second-hand vehicles, the Routemaster was to be an obvious choice for would-be owners. But it was with the arrival of Deregulation from 1986, that the Routemaster provided to be a very useful tool in the highly competitive environment, and had the advantage over more modern vehicles of speed of loading and passenger acceptability. Although all major operations of Routemasters have been discontinued for one reason or another, the Routemaster continues to have its role to play in bus operation. Nowhere more so that the crowded streets of London, the home of the Routemaster. With the completion of the first round of the tendering of the crew routes in London, these operations are currently stable until the second round of tendering for the contracts for the various London Bus Services routes are renewed between the provisional dates of 2001 and 2006, Ken Livingstone, the new Mayor for London, took office and what was previously known as London Transport Buses became the responsibility of Transport for London under the leadership of the Mayor. He is known to support the use of conductors on buses, and supports the continued us of the Routemaster fleet for the foreseeable future. Contents:
- Introduction
- Current PSV Users
- London
- London sightseeing operations
- Outside central London
- Non-PSV Users
- Preserved
- Overseas
- 21st Century Routemasters
- London Operators
Continent: Europe
Country: UK
Area: UK London | | Tag cloud: routemaster trolleybus second-hand would-be tool livingstone mayor morgan non-psv | Tell a friend about this publication  |
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