BRITAIN: Hordes of bus enthusiasts brought lunchtime London to a near standstill yesterday to hail the end of regular services by the iconic jump-on-and-off double-decker Routemaster.
Waving and cheering, crowds jammed pavements and traffic islands as an Arriva 159 bus completed the Routemaster's final journey from Marble Arch to Brixton Garage in south London.
So great was the crush at the start of the bus's journey on Oxford Street that police ordered the vehicle to leave with some seats unfilled.
As the bus pulled in to the next stop, shopper Jean Carney was amazed to find herself able to board the bus that brought the curtain down on 50 years of Routemaster regular service in the capital. She was joined by a collection of die-hard enthusiasts, some of whom had queued in the cold for more than two hours. One was Mike Hurley (56), from Leeds, who was delighted to be aboard having also travelled on the last London trolley bus in 1962.
Another was Helen Barrett (31), from East Finchley, north London, who is six months pregnant. She said: "It's a tragedy the bus is going from regular service. It's like turning up for a funeral."
Taking the bus through its one hour, 20 minute journey was Winston Briscoe (62), originally from Jamaica, who came to the UK in 1962.
Still happy to be driving buses after 36 years in the business, a smiling Mr Briscoe was cheered into Brixton garage. "I feel great," he said afterwards.
His conductor was Barbados-born Lloyd Licorish (61), who confessed to feeling sad at the end of the run - not so much because the Routemasters were ending regular service but that he would miss his mates at Brixton garage.
Londoners chose a variety of ways to say goodbye to the last regular Routemaster. While most took photos, some held placards denouncing London mayor Ken Livingstone for the move.
Disabled people, who have been unable to board the bus, carried "Good Riddance to the Routemaster" posters. Taxi-drivers gave thumbs-up signs as the bus passed them, motorists sounded horns and shoppers simply stood and clapped.
Fittingly for such a symbol of the city, the bus's route took it past some of the great London landmarks. Welcomed all the way, the bus went down Oxford Street, on to Regent Street, across Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall.
It then passed Big Ben and drove over Westminster Bridge before passing through south London to a tumultuous welcome at Brixton garage.
Introduced in 1956 to replace the trolley bus, the Routemaster had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s. The need for safer, more accessible public transport meant the arrival of shut-door, driver-only buses with the phasing out of Routemasters beginning in the 1980s. This is not quite the end for the Routemaster, as about 20 of them will be retained as tourist or "heritage" buses on parts of routes 9 and 15.
PA