Scrapyard Buses
For the last upload on a scrapyard theme, I have picked this scene at Norths on 4 November 1982 of RM`s 1402, 1629 and 1445 awaiting scrapping.
Looking back at this from forty years ago I`m sure many of us are resentful of the circumstances that brought about the first mass RM withdrawals. If only a different way had been found to negate the challenge to the concept of heavily reduced fares that achieved exactly what was hoped for in terms of a massive increase in public transport use alongside a massive reduction in car use. I was driving on LT at that time and clearly recall how successful the Fares Fair idea was - albeit for just a few months.
Who would ever have guessed as the travelling public appeared to respond so favourably to lower bus fares and quicker journeys that it would soon result in a large scale reduction in the overall fleet strength which caused fully serviceable buses to be driven to scrapyards.
As the end of the RM class seemed to begin in 1982 with the intent to speed up the process so that by the end of the decade they would all be gone, a later turn of events took us all by surprise. The RML class were refurbished and re-engined less than ten years after the first RM withdrawals and then many RM`s were similarly treated. Even more bizarre was the buying back of RM`s from wherever they were available with vast sums of money spent on them to return them to front line service. And if I recall correctly, it was nearly twenty years after those first mass withdrawals that we had the famous quote `only some ghastly dehumanised moron would want to get rid of the Routemaster`. Shame that wasn`t thought of sooner....
Scrapyard Buses
For the last upload on a scrapyard theme, I have picked this scene at Norths on 4 November 1982 of RM`s 1402, 1629 and 1445 awaiting scrapping.
Looking back at this from forty years ago I`m sure many of us are resentful of the circumstances that brought about the first mass RM withdrawals. If only a different way had been found to negate the challenge to the concept of heavily reduced fares that achieved exactly what was hoped for in terms of a massive increase in public transport use alongside a massive reduction in car use. I was driving on LT at that time and clearly recall how successful the Fares Fair idea was - albeit for just a few months.
Who would ever have guessed as the travelling public appeared to respond so favourably to lower bus fares and quicker journeys that it would soon result in a large scale reduction in the overall fleet strength which caused fully serviceable buses to be driven to scrapyards.
As the end of the RM class seemed to begin in 1982 with the intent to speed up the process so that by the end of the decade they would all be gone, a later turn of events took us all by surprise. The RML class were refurbished and re-engined less than ten years after the first RM withdrawals and then many RM`s were similarly treated. Even more bizarre was the buying back of RM`s from wherever they were available with vast sums of money spent on them to return them to front line service. And if I recall correctly, it was nearly twenty years after those first mass withdrawals that we had the famous quote `only some ghastly dehumanised moron would want to get rid of the Routemaster`. Shame that wasn`t thought of sooner....