Ian Jelf wrote:

writes
I mourn the demise of the conductor - and that is one of the main
reasons for the demise of the Routemaster. Cost, I mean - cheaper to
pay one person than two.
Sadly yes. But I believe it's a false economy. Having extra people
on hand helps with all sorts of things, mot least security, limiting
damage and making people feel safer (and therefore happier to use public
transport).

Does anyone know what the running cost difference between Routemasters
and their replacements is? Even if the Routemaster's no faster, its
extra cost of a conductor is offset by fuel savings (and with oil prices
going the way they are, I'm sure that must be significant). And some of
these new buses are so poorly ventilated - if you want to do better than
a Routemaster, you really need air conditioning, so unless you're happy
for then to be replaced by junk, you should include the costs of running
that in your calculation...

I've not seen the figures, but if you also take vehicle costs into
consideration, I'd be surprised if there weren't some situations where
Routemasters would be better value.