Signature British buses rumble into retirement

LONDON — It was the end of the line Thursday for London's red Routemaster buses, trundling into retirement after half a century of rickety but reliable service.

Fans of the old style double-deckers traveled from across Britain to take a last ride on the hop-on, hop-off buses, whose curved lines and cheery scarlet color have inspired affection among drivers and passengers alike.

"I don't want a BMW, I don't want a Merc," said Graham Lunn, 45, a former London bus driver who owns a 1968 Routemaster. "A Routemaster is the best you can get."

London transport authorities disagree. They say the venerable vehicle cannot accommodate disabled people and must be replaced by more user-friendly buses — either boxy modern double-deckers or articulated Mercedes-Benz "bendy buses."

Thursday was the Routemaster's last full day of service. The final bus on a regular route will leave central London just after noon today; after that, Routemasters will remain on two "heritage routes" aimed at tourists.

"We want to provide the most modern, fully accessible, safest buses we can," said Stephen Webb, a Transport for London spokesman. "It's not romantic, but it works."

The Routemaster's demise as part of everyday London life has triggered an outpouring of nostalgia. The British Broadcasting Corp. is running an evening of TV program celebrating the bus on Saturday. The composer Tom Smail has composed a "Requiem for the Routemaster," an orchestral piece that evokes the throb of an engine, the tinkle of a bell and the zip of a conductor's ticket machine.

The German-born London photographer Ralf Obergfell helped create a tribute to the much-loved bus on the Web site www.routemasters.co.uk.

"When I was living in Germany, I always thought it was a piece of art, moving street furniture," Obergfell said. "From an artistic point of view, it has so many interesting features — the chrome, the little light bulbs, the bells. There's nothing on this bus I don't like."

Transport bosses allowed privately owned Routemasters to join their civic cousins Thursday to ferry passengers on the model's last remaining route — the 159 from Marble Arch to Streatham Hill.

Along the city's bustling Oxford Street, the familiar red buses were joined by a silver Routemaster, painted to mark Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee in 1977; a golden bus marking her golden jubilee in 2002; and the first Routemaster ever built, a 1954 prototype labeled RM1 that is owned by the London Transport Museum.

The Routemaster entered service in the mid-1950s as a replacement for electric trolley buses. It was the last bus to be designed specifically for London, by engineers who had worked on World War II bombers. Supporters say its light but durable aluminum frame, fuel efficiency and easy-to-repair components make it a classic piece of British design.

Travelers appreciate the conductors who dispense tickets — and often travel information — once passengers are seated.

For many passengers, it remains an important symbol of the British capital.

"It's something I've grown up with — an icon of London," said Mark Binnington, who traveled more than 200 miles from his home in northern England for a last journey on a Routemaster.

The death of the Routemaster has been announced before, and had always proved premature. In 1970, London Transport said they would be gone within a decade. In 1996 it said five years, in 1999 six years.

Mayor Ken Livingstone promised during his 2000 election campaign to keep the old buses running for as long as possible. In 2001, he said that "only some ghastly dehumanized moron would want to get rid of the Routemaster."

In 2002, transport officials insisted they had no intention of withdrawing the Routemasters. But the next year, they quietly began taking the old buses out of circulation.

Two years ago, there were still 500 Routemasters running in London; after today, there will be only the 16 "heritage" vehicles.

Drivers say it is the end of an era.

"There were never any delays. The passengers loved it, the drivers loved it," said Lunn, the Routemaster owner. "What better way to travel?"