Reading Mainline.
As mentioned a few postings ago, several enclaves of Routemaster operation broke out in the early days of 'Deregulation'. Some had more success than others, but the basic headline concept was usually to provide a faster 'conductor operated' service and thereby benefit the travelling public harking back to the better days of their youth. In reality, the general idea was to run rings round the incumbent operator's 'OPO' buses in the quest to boost revenue ... unless the operator was an enthusiast who saught just a vent to his hobby, a scenario which usually has a short shelf life.
Here in late '80s Reading, one of Reading Mainline's RMs has one of Reading Transport's Metrobuses on its tail. The Mainline fleet was usually (from my experience) well kept, but this re-registered Routemaster seems to have had some repairs to a damaged NSF wing uncompleted. Maybe someone out there in Flickrland can tell us how long the firm traded please?
Reading Mainline.
As mentioned a few postings ago, several enclaves of Routemaster operation broke out in the early days of 'Deregulation'. Some had more success than others, but the basic headline concept was usually to provide a faster 'conductor operated' service and thereby benefit the travelling public harking back to the better days of their youth. In reality, the general idea was to run rings round the incumbent operator's 'OPO' buses in the quest to boost revenue ... unless the operator was an enthusiast who saught just a vent to his hobby, a scenario which usually has a short shelf life.
Here in late '80s Reading, one of Reading Mainline's RMs has one of Reading Transport's Metrobuses on its tail. The Mainline fleet was usually (from my experience) well kept, but this re-registered Routemaster seems to have had some repairs to a damaged NSF wing uncompleted. Maybe someone out there in Flickrland can tell us how long the firm traded please?