LDN- heritage routes 9, 15- First Day

Routemaster operation started today, again, on routes 9 & 15.
The routemasters work every day between 0930-1830 on sections on routes 9 and 15, every 15 minutes.

Route 9 is worked by First between the Aldwych and Royal Albert Hall and Route 15 between Tower Hill and trafalgar square. each route requires 5 buses for the operation, and each operator has 10 buses.

The buses were supposed to be painted by traditional early 1960s livery, have special adverts, inside and outside the bus.

But, on the first day, only RM1913 from First, and RM1933 were completed for the special press and media launch.

Stagecoach managed to paint at least 7 RMs for the first day, and they look superb, and the service was running well.

First did not paint their buses and the service was badly run.

Here is RM324 at Tower Hill representing the new colour scheme on route 15, with traditional blinds.

Then here is RM1776 at Hyde Park Corner on route 9, in condition as it was with Arriva on route 38, still with a garage code 'CT'[route 38]

and for comparison: here is London United's SLE57 on it's third day of service, being used on route 9 instead of Route 27. route 9 is operated by London United between Aldwych and Hammersmith.

regards

Yoram

Hi Yoram, are they working on those routes permantly or temporary? Many thanks!

1. The contracts were awared for 5 years with an option to terminate them at a short notice. in fact, such contracts are used by London Buses mainly for school buses . School buse routes are changed very often.[The contract is known as TG - Tender Gross contract]. it means that London Buses pay the operator to run the service, and London Transport keep the reveunes]
It is most unusual to grant contract for normal route operation in such a mode. Nowadays the new contracts are known as QSI= Quality service Initiative.
2. the routes are regarded as 'supplementary' service- i.e. if the buses are not available, the service does not run.
3. The operation is not advertised at all. there is no specific reference to the routemaster operation.
4. The vehicles were certified in 2001/2 for 5-7 years. so, by early 2007 they will be time expired unless further major work is carried out on them. [the chasis, the body etc]

This is not the way normal bus routes in London are awarded and operate.

We *think* that the routes would not last very long.  You see, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, promised [when he run for elections] to keep the routemasters going.
But,in fact, since he was elected for office, all of them were due to go by 9th dec 2005.
so, to keep his promise, he decided to keep 10 routemasters in 'heritage' mode, so he can say he kept his promises [which he repeated many times during his election campign].
The next elections are due in May 2007.

I think that certainly the route would operate till the end of 2006 and at least till after the mayoral elections of 2007.

I am sorry I can not be more precise, but very few details were released officially.

regards

Yoram

We therefore think that the routes would not be