During the past week (when I got my Borisbus ride!) I was commuting between
Paddington Station and Wilton St, Victoria. That meant the 36 and 436
routes. I haven't used London buses day after day for at least 30 years.
I did travel reasonably frequently into London and used buses regularly
until about 10 years ago.

I think one of the things I found most surprising and impressive was the
number and frequency of buses. In the past I can remember being turned
away from a bus but that didn't happen to me once this week, I doubt I
waited more than 5 minutes for either a 36 or 436 to turn up and at both
Wilton St and Paddington there was almost always a bus loading at the stop
where I was waiting.

There are far more buses on London's roads than was the case thirty years ago.
That's why the subsidy from the tax-payer has gone through the roof!

As one who also used buses frequently in the past - in my case between 36 and
32 years ago - I am very conscious that for able-bodied people the
service was better then. In those days we had bus passes and Route
Masters. The trick was to board the first bus going in your general
direction and to keep an eye out for any bus coming behind that was
heading more precisely towards your destination. As there were no bus
doors impeding passengers, it was possible to hop off one bus and board
the following bus smoothly.

Using that method it was possible to travel around London really quickly by
bus. Ah, the good old days!