On 23 Aug 2004 20:26:35 GMT, Robin May
wrote:



They aren't generally bought for operating normal services. They're for
private hi things like weddings where a nice bright, shiny
Routemaster - the traditional and iconic London bus - will suit the
occasion a lot better than other kinds of bus.

Some months ago there was an article in the Financial Times weekend
section, under the general heading of 'collectibles' about
opportunities to buy a Routemaster. I seem to remember that potential
purchasers might be asked to demonstrate that they had somewhere to
park the bus once they'd bought it.

Presumably low scrap metal prices have the same effect for buses as
for cars, and if you really want to scrap a bus you need to pay to
dispose of it. This would make the economics of withdrawing
Routemasters look very different if the intention was to scrap a
significant number. Somewhere (it might have been the same FT
article) I've seen the range £2000-£15,000 quoted for a Routemaster
depending on condition.

On a different subject, but prompted by the remarks above about
private hire, does any of the disability legislation apply to tourist
coaches? I only travel on private-hire coaches once in a very blue
moon, but one of these occasions was last week, when I had a couple of
rides in a coach, complete with orange curtains and brown seating
fabric right out of the 1970s, and a tiny cupboard marked 'toilet'
which was surely only for extremely urgent visits...

In any case, one of my fellow-passengers was a bit under 2 years old,
so we were quite conscious of accessibility issues. Which turned out
to be appalling. The floor was much higher than on any urban bus that
I've encountered, with I think 5 or 6 steps up from the entrance.
Thanks perhaps to rather bulkier seats than a city bus, the central
aisle would barely have accommodated the most compact push-chair, let
alone an adult wheelchair. There was no luggage space within the bus,
unless you count some overhead racks with very limited capacity, so we
had to prop up the folded pushchair against an empty seat.

But once on the move, the views from the elevated position were great
as the bus was expertly driven along some rather narrow country roads.

Martin