old routemasters

[Bungle73]

As an aside, I can't believe Victoria Coach Station hasn't been moved yet.

It takes an hour to actually get out of London from it as it's so poorly located for road access, terrible layout and over packed with no facilities, poor connections to the rest of the public transport network, fills the local small streets with coaches and on top of that on some pretty prime land.

I'd have thought that siting it on one of the big roads like the North Circular where they could build modern facilities would make sense. Tie it in with one of the Crossrail stations and you'd have something that makes much more sense to everyone.

You talk about "poor connections" but then you want to move a major coach station from a central area that has a major railway and bus terminus, plus two Tube lines, to some obscure part of north London.

The owners of the coach station want to redevelop it for housing, but the sticking point is finding an appropriate site for its replacement. You'd need a gigantic site to do it justice and London is already well built up around the major rail/tube stations. And you just know that local residents would kick up a stink about the impact on traffic.

Acton Cemetery would be pefect, if it wasn't for all those pesky graves. Right by the A40 and North Acton on Crossrail.

The "owners"? Victoria Coach Station is owned by TfL.

 

[Crispy]

The "owners"? Victoria Coach Station is owned by TfL.

Grosvenor estate owns the freehold.

 

[Bungle73]

The building is listed anyway.

 

[Crispy]

The building is listed anyway.

Doesn't prevent a change of use, extension or conversion.

 

[Crispy]

You talk about "poor connections" but then you want to move a major coach station from a central area

Poor *road* connections, which is important for a coach station. It takes ages just to get out of central London from Victoria. Much better to take fast regular crossrail train to the suburbs and make your connection there. It'd be quicker, and remove a load of traffic from central London streets.

 

[salem]

You talk about "poor connections" but then you want to move a major coach station from a central area that has a major railway and bus terminus, plus two Tube lines, to some obscure part of north London.
.

Crispy has already covered my point on poor road connections (but seriously, it's an hour from Victoria to the M25 in any direction). But even the public transport connections aren't great - you've got a 10 minute walk to the tube. The new station would obviously have to be integrated to the wider transport network.

Kuala Lumpur is a good example of how to do it in my experience. They've got a big bus station out of town it's on the fast train line to the airport so you can be in the main KL Sentral train station in 7 mins. The bus station itself is more like an airport, all the usual facilities and food etc and when you're called for your bus you just go to your gate and down an escalator to where the bus is waiting, you're otherwise separated completely from the noise, traffic etc. When you leave you drive straight down a sliproad onto the highway and you're on your way with no messing around.

 

[Crispy]

Like that in a lot of South America too.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

A few events offering the chance to travel on aged buses on the fringes of London over the coming months, all Sundays -

2 April - Hemel Hempstead / Tring

21 May - Staines (upon Thames)

9 July - Leatherhead

1 October - Amersham / High Wycombe

(these organised by the Amersham & District Motor Bus Society)

30th April - East Grinstead

4th June - Hertford & Stevenage


2nd July - Eastbourne (OK, it's not that close to London)

16th July - Sevenoaks

(these organised by Country Bus Rallies)

 

[hash tag]

Staines Upon Thames

 

[Puddy_Tat]

another few coming events -

Sat 1 April - South East Bus Festival at Kent showground, Detling - there is a Routemaster running from Victoria / Oval / Camberwell / Peckham / Lewisham (pay on bus)

Sun 2 April - small scale event - Community Day at West Croydon Bus Station, includes 2 RT buses (the generation of bus before Routemasters) doing local rides every half hour. Something about it here.

Sun 9 April - 'spring gathering' at the London Bus Museum, Brooklands - more here - again, there's a bus running from the Lewisham - Victoria patch.

 

[hash tag]

Remembering my trip to the bus festival a while back, buses aside, I remember some superb model layouts and some great radio controlled model lorry's being shown off.
The weather looks good tomorrow, so should be a good day.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Sat 22 April - : Open Day at Ash Grove Bus Garage (near Cambridge Heath station)

not much detail yet - may be some special bus services running.

 

[hash tag]

This just hit my radar for Sunday next Heritage bus service on TfL Route 406

 

[mx wcfc]

Glastonwick has its very own bus service....


The last bus on Sunday was a number 73 - I could well have ridden that bus as a stundent. I loved the old routemasters.

 

[existentialist]

This just hit my radar for Sunday next Heritage bus service on TfL Route 406

The 406 was one of my local routes...and I'm in London on Sunday!

 

[hash tag]

A quick bump as I see Potters Bar Bus Garage is throwing open it's doors on Saturday POTTERS BAR BUS GARAGE OPEN DAY Saturday 22nd July 2017 | Metroline

 

[Crispy]

If you've got £110 rattling around your wallet, you can soon buy this huge detailed Lego routemaster:

 

[hash tag]

Oh, yes please, we want one.

 

[Poi E]

Followed a restored one on the motorway the other day. Fuck, they are dirty old things.

 

[salem]

If you've got £110 rattling around your wallet, you can soon buy this huge detailed Lego routemaster:

View attachment 111635

I'm sure my uncle had that or something similar decades ago - I found it when I was a kid and it was very old then so I rekon he must have got it at least 40 years ago.

Edit to add - must have been this set - 384-1: London Bus

not quite as fancy

 

[hash tag]

Robbed; it is not on sale yet! I like the umbrella stand. You should be able to have a choice of routes/destinantions

 

[salem]

You should be able to have a choice of routes/destinantions

But did you see the destination they use?

Would have been better if they picked a bus route which actually goes to Brixton though.

And not impressed with the mismatched black/yellow numberplates, neither of which seem to fit a UK format.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

A few coming events in the south east with classic buses running -

Sat 9 / Sun 10 September - it's Heritage Open Day weekend outside London. A number of places have classic buses linking some of the attractions.

Sunday 10 September - bus event at the Epping - Ongar Railway. More here.

or similar sort of thing at the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. More here.

Sunday 1 October - bus running day in High Wycombe / Amersham - more here.

or similar at the Bluebell Railway, Sussex - more here.

Sunday 8 October - main event of the year at the Canvey Island transport museum. more here.

and 1950s / 60s buses on the streets of central London - running on route 11, some journeys on routes 3 and 31 as well. more here (more detailed timetable to follow.)

 

[hash tag]

Any of the railways that Puddy_Tat mentions are well worth a visit in their own right.
i think I saw there was a heritage bus thing in Manchester this weekend.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

i think I saw there was a heritage bus thing in Manchester this weekend.

yes - one of the heritage open day things. more here.

 

[hash tag]

Anyone else spotted any bus art yet?
Bus Art – Year of the Bus Sculpture Trails « Events Archive « Posts « Wild in Art Website

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Anyone else spotted any bus art yet?

these were on the streets in 2014, and sold off (proceeds to charity) the following year - not sure how many are visible to the public now

 

[Dogsauce]

There were a load of them up round Olympic Park a couple of years ago, mainly on that wide bridge bit by the pool. One of those things that's been done to death in every city now (think it was somewhere in the US that did it first with cows).

 

[jakejb79]

One question about the new Routemaster, have they been built to last 50 years like the original?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Friday 17 November - Routemaster RML903 is due to work on route 24 in the aid of the BBC Children in Need Appeal.

in service at 0815 Camden Town to Pimlico,
0923 Pimlico to Hampstead Heath,
1050 Hampstead Heath – Pimlico,
1211 Pimlico – Hampstead Heath,
1354 Hampstead Heath– Pimlico,
1515 Pimlico – Hampstead Heath, Arrive Hampstead Heath 1628

(news from LOTS)

Further ahead, Saturday 2 December is annual running day (usually involves some Routemasters, some older generations of buses and some 1970s / 80s buses) operated by Ensign Bus - based on Lakeside at Thurrock. Full details not yet published, but usually involves routes to / from Brentwood, Gravesend (via Dartford Crossing) and the like. (Note that this is not a free service)

Saturday 9 December will see a run of Routemasters over route 159 (probably the 1980s incarnation of the route from West Hampstead to Thornton Heath) - although this will pass through the area not the sort of thing where you can get on and ride - it's an event for vehicle owners and invited guests.

There's also usually something on a Sunday in early December based on Bromley (mainly 1950s single deck buses on route 227 to Penge / Crystal Palace) - from what I can gather, currently pending permission from TFL.