Outrage.The Routemaster is dead, and so, by definition, is the London bus. On 9 December, the very last of the red double-deckers to be designed and built in London, by and for Londoners, plied plied 1 v. Past tense and past participle of ply1. its final journey over Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames between Westminster and Lambeth, in London, England. and into history. Yes, there are thousands of new double-deckers working London's bus routes, but these are, without exception, oversized o·ver·size n. 1. A size that is larger than usual. 2. An oversize article or object. adj. o·ver·size also o·ver·sized Larger in size than usual or necessary. , ugly and designed, if the word is applicable, and built, a long way from the city of Routemasters. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Noisy, jerky jerky see biltong. , greedy for diesel, and with interiors styled by what appear to have been a cage of drug-crazed monkeys let loose with tiny tots' paint boxes, the new buses sneer at the quiet refinement of their purpose-built predecessors. Unlike these out-of-place provincial monsters, the Routemaster was a bus designed to enhance the streets it served. A handsome and rigorously thought-through tool, it was also a work of mobile architecture, scaled to fit the streets it ran through nimbly nim·ble adj. nim·bler, nim·blest 1. Quick, light, or agile in movement or action; deft: nimble fingers. See Synonyms at dexterous. 2. and economically. This was clearly a London bus, from its discreet, functional good looks, to its coat of scarlet and gold and updated Roman lettering. The specification for the Routemaster was originally drawn up from 1947 under the direction of London Transport's chief bus engineer, A. A. Durrant. The result was a lightweight, chassisless vehicle, designed so that it could be assembled, overhauled and reassembled with ease every few years. RM1 took to the streets in 1954. The bus was tested and developed over the next five years before mass-production began. Over the ensuing en·sue intr.v. en·sued, en·su·ing, en·sues 1. To follow as a consequence or result. See Synonyms at follow. 2. To take place subsequently. 45 years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time production open-platformed Routemaster has served London well. Although the superb original interiors of the buses were gutted and replaced by unkind tat from 1992, and the fleet badly run down ever since, what survived of the Routemasters was much appreciated by most Londoners. Proper replacements had been considered, but in the event, the new regime in charge of a now privatised public service went for buses with no connection to London, neither to its streets, nor to a proud twentieth-century public service design tradition for which, today, there is evidently no room either 'inside' or, indeed, 'on-top'. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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