LESSON 23

UNIT 12 The London bus LESSON 23 The new buses in London are just ‘buses’. They aren't ‘London buses’. The real ‘London bus’was the old Routemaster. This was our favourite bus for fifty-one years. It was a design classic. Were Routemasters really dangerous? The back of the bus was an open platform with no doors. Perhaps this wasn't very safe -but Londoners like to do their own thing. And the Routemasters were fast in the traffic. Modern buses are safe, but they are slow. Passengers hate the doors. Car drivers hate the buses. The bus drivers have a hard time.

The first Routemasters were on our roads in 1954. The last official Routemaster journey was on Route Number 9, on 15th February2006. That was some years ago. Today, Londoners remember the Routemaster's name. They remember the designer's name: Douglas Scott. The new buses don't have a name. How can we love them?