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[crossposted from my livejournal
So, I was on the 25 bus the other day -- one of those horrid bendy buses that no one, but no one likes -- and reminiscing about the good old Routemaster open-back doubledecker buses which, as everyone must know by now (unless they've been lurking under a rock), are being phased out of use this year.
As I was reminiscing about how much I prefer the comfort and convenience of the Routemaster to the modern buses (especially those aforementioned bendy monstrosities), it occurred to me that it would be good fun to bid the final Routemaster buses a Proper Farewell.
So I googled to see when they'll finally be phased out, and here are the dates, ganked from Diamond Geezer:
14 Putney - Tottenham Court Road (last day of operation: 22 July 2005)
22 Putney - Piccadilly Circus (last day of operation: 22 July 2005)
159 Marble Arch - Streatham (last day of operation: 30 September 2005)
38 Victoria - Clapton (no final date set, but likely to be replaced by bendy buses in October)
13 Golders Green - Aldwych (no final date set, but will go before Christmas)
I know I'm not the only person who is regretting the loss of the Routemasters, so my idea is to arrange a gathering of sorts, where we meet at one place and bus it to another. It could be that we go from one end of the line to the other (which is the option I favour, because I love seeing bits of London I don't know, and you get a much better view from a doubledecker than from one of those horrid bendy things), but maybe not everyone would want to do that, so I was thinking of the 38, which goes from Victoria through Charing Cross Road to Angel, all nice and central, so people can't complain about the difficulty in getting there, and we can bus it there and back again.
Since most people can't seem to attend a public gathering unless alcohol is involved, then the logical suggestion would be to meet in a nearby pub between set hours, gather to get on the bus, bus to the other end, and have another drink or few at a pub there before bussing it back to the centre of town. Alternatively, if going from one end of the route to another, we could organise something of a pub crawl...
As there seems to be a bit of a window before the final Routemasers are gone, there's a bit of time for discussion. I think it would be good fun to open this out to anyone who is interested, but I guess some kind of date should be agreed on before crossposting it in a bunch of different places.
(But I thought this place would be a good place to start getting ideas...) |
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