Bus News
The end of the road for the Routemaster bus in London
The 159 bus runs Northwards from Streatham Station to Marble Arch and Southwards back to Streatham and was the last in London running the famous Routemaster (http://www.routemaster.org.uk/faq_histo.html) buses with the open rear platform for getting on and off.
The Routemasters were withdrawn from service on Friday, 9th December 2005 and replaced with modern, driver only, buses. There are now no Routemaster buses on any normal London bus routes for the first time in almost fifty years.
For details of the last day of the Routemaster you can read the reports from BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4510410.stm) and see some photos (photolink:http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/routemaster_gallery.shtml?8) of the final journey. For a bus enthusiast's viewpoint see Matthew Wharmby's (http://www.londonbuspage.com/051209.htm) report or for more recent news see the Routemaster Association (http://www.routemaster.org.uk/22.html) website [www.routemaster.org.uk].
To mark this historic event the BBC even ran a themed Bus Night (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/features/bus-night.shtml) of programming on Saturday 10th December on it's BBC4 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/) digital channel.
I was fortunate to travel on the last 159 bus that actually ran the full route to Streatham Station (maplink: http://tinyurl.com/ad7js), arriving shortly after 1pm - there were three more buses after the bus I was on but these terminated at Brixton Garage/Streatham Hill (maplink: http://tinyurl.com/8oh6m), about 1.5 miles to the north of Streatham Station. The picture to the right shows the final bus entering the garage at Brixton.
Transport for London (http://tfl.gov.uk/tfl/) are still running Routemasters on two special Heritage Routes (http://www.routemaster.co.nr/) which will mainly be of interest to visitors to the capital - indeed a trip on one is probably an essential part of any tourist's itinerary whilst in London.
