"Paul Corfield" wrote:

The heritage routes run every 15 minutes on each service.

The last e/b route 15 working (18:33), is quite well timed to get me from my
Pall Mall office back to Eastcheap, and hence a short walk to Fenchurch
Street. I thought I had missed it today, but evidently traffic was bad and
it turned up ten minutes late.

The Stagecoach RMs are immaculately presented, and the staff friendly. One
nice touch is that the blinds between the drivers cab and lower saloon are
being left up, to give a better view. The driver didn't hang around (we
overtook a route 15 Trident), but even so, I left the bus without the
slightly nauseous sensation I often get on modern buses, which must be
something to do with the suspension set up or vibration. So *far* more
pleasant than taking the District Line from Embankment to Tower Hill, and on
a good day, just as quick.

A small detail, but it would be great to see the original Routemaster
mocquette applied to the cushions on these vehicles.

Unfortunately, I think these routes will struggle to generate significant
patronage. This is because:

i) Running every 15 minutes, you'd have to be *very* keen on Routemasters to
let two or three Tridents sail by, in the hope the next Routemaster is on
the way. Even as an RM enthusiast, there's a limit to the amount of time I'd
spend standing at Charing Cross, on a cold night after a long day at work,
waiting for an RM.

ii) The bus stops I looked at today didn't differentiate between 'Heritage'
and 'normal' 9 and 15 timetables. Therefore as a tourist, how would I even
know that the next bus might be 'something special'?

iii) Yes, the routes go past lots of 'the sights', but I would dispute
whether most of these are significant destinations for either tourists or
Londoners - whereas (say) Oxford Street, Victoria and Liverpool Street
station certainly are.

I think there will come a time when TfL will have to decide whether they are
primarily looking to serve:

a) 'Ordinary Londoners'
or
b) Tourists
or
c) Bus enthusiasts

If (a) they should vary the routes to serve significant traffic objectives.
Or possibly even combine resources and just run one route, Tower Hill -
Royal Albert Hall, to garner some cross-London traffic.

If (b) they could look to work with the sightseeing tour businesses, perhaps
by donating/hiring out RMs and offering free publicity, in exchange for
Travelcard discounts.

If (c) they could scrap the heritage routes, and spend the money on adding a
few RMs to the LT Museum collection, then organising some running days on a
variety of routes every summer, which would bring the RM to more Londoners
and garner more additional revenue.

Good luck to all the staff involved, and well done to Stagecoach and First -
I hope you all prove me wrong.

Chris