The last 'proper bus' or 'bashed-up old relic'?
Over 50 years since they appeared on London's streets, the Routemasters are still running -- but not everyone is delighted.
The veteran vehicle with its curvy design and its open platform has been called "the last bus to be a proper bus".
Many Londoners remember fondly how they used to hop on and off them and pull the string to ring the bell.
But a Disability Rights Commission spokesman says it is "a bashed-up old relic from a bygone age" and the fact that it is still running on two central London heritage routes is "a disappointment".
A programme of repurchase and refurbishment -- begun after the election of Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2000 -- stopped in 2003-4, and the last full-scale route -- the 159 -- withdrew its Routemasters in December 2005.
What remained was the heritage routes - though only in the hours from 0930 to 1800 and only on the central part of two routes, the 9 (Albert Hall to Aldwych) and 15 (Tower of London to Trafalgar Square).
Read entire article at BBC News
The veteran vehicle with its curvy design and its open platform has been called "the last bus to be a proper bus".
Many Londoners remember fondly how they used to hop on and off them and pull the string to ring the bell.
But a Disability Rights Commission spokesman says it is "a bashed-up old relic from a bygone age" and the fact that it is still running on two central London heritage routes is "a disappointment".
A programme of repurchase and refurbishment -- begun after the election of Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2000 -- stopped in 2003-4, and the last full-scale route -- the 159 -- withdrew its Routemasters in December 2005.
What remained was the heritage routes - though only in the hours from 0930 to 1800 and only on the central part of two routes, the 9 (Albert Hall to Aldwych) and 15 (Tower of London to Trafalgar Square).