What To Do With Old Oyster Cards
If you have finished using your Oyster card, like I did, when I got to an age that entitled me to a Freedom Pass or perhaps you are sadly leaving London for good, there are two things you can do with it.
You can donate it to charity by dumping it in a box like this one at Liverpool Street station.
Oyster Charity Box
Railway Children is an international charity that fights for children who live on the streets.
Or you could ride several times on the Emirates Air-Line.
Titian’s First Masterpiece
I don’t know much about art, except what I’ve picked up off a friend and a couple of talks, but I had heard that Titian’s First Masterpiece is worth seeing at the National Gallery. After all it has been brought all the way from St. Petersberg.
I found it very much worth travelling to Trafalgar Square on two buses. one of which was a genuine Routemaster on Heritage Route 15. Especially, as the entry fee at the gallery was what you felt like putting in an honesty box.
I might even go again, if one of my friends wants to go before they close the exhibition in mid-August.
Police Use London Bus For Disguise
London has been having trouble with Eastern European con artists, so they used the obvious solution of how do you get lots of boys in blue to the area, without the con-artists knowing. You use a big red London bus and cram it full of police. The story is here in the Evening Standard. More than 25 were detained and a dozen or so were charged.
Surely though, the choice of a Number 2 bus was wrong. Perhaps it should have been a 49 or 99, or perhaps one that went past a convenient prison like Wandsworth, Pentonville or Wormwood Scrubs. That would give a whole new meaning to the phrase “Go Directly To Jail”
A Dead Bus Outside NatWorst
Apparently, all of the passengers had jumped into the branch to get their money out. The cashiers decided to pay everybody out in 5p. pieces and the result was the extra weight caused the bus to stall and break down.
A Dead Bus Outside NatWorst
Apparently this ruse was tried in 1745 to stop a run on the Bank of England, when Bonnie Prince Charlie was marching on London. In those days though they used sixpences.
The Clockwork Orange
The bus advertising Ed Sheeran was also around.
The Clockwork Orange on Route 38
I’ve heard it referred to as The Clockwork Orange.
Ed Sheeran incidentally, was praised for his performance in the recent BBC Radio 1’s Weekend at Hackney.
New Buses for London Are Now Running In Convoy
Bus route 38 in London is one those with the highest frequency of buses. I have joked before that they often run in convoy and today for the first time, I saw two New Buses for London running together on the Balls Pond Road.
New Buses for London in Convoy
Perhaps, they are avoiding the U-boats in the Regents Canal to the South! Or the hippopotami in the New River.
Hit By a Strike
London’s buses are on strike today.
I can’t remember the last time, I was personally hit by a strike, but I suspect it was the odd Underground strike in the 1970s, when we lived in London.
It doesn’t really affect me much, as I can walk to the end of the road to get the Overground. But I know someone, who is having radiotherapy and the only way they can get to hospital is on a bus.
What annoys me about this strike, is that it appears to have been totally avoidable. Olympic bonuses should have been settled months ago, but I suspect UNITE were waiting to see if Ken got to be London Mayor. And where are Ed Milliband’s statements on this strike. Nowhere! But who funds the Labour Party? UNITE!
On fairness grounds, the bus staff should be getting something. But there is more to this row, than has appeared in the media.
Hopping On And Off Buses and The Underground
I often don’t do all my trip around London in the obvious and direct way.
Today for instance, I went from The Angel at Islington to Oxford Circus. I could have taken a tube changing at Kings Cross, but in the end I took a 30 bus to Kings Cross and then the Victoria line. So sometimes you inevitably have to choose where you get off from deep underground. Wouldn’t information on the weather be useful? Especially as the weather changed dramatically, whilst I was underground. But I’ve heard complaints of information overload already.
The other thing that irks me is that the Underground is a right-handed world. You stand on the right of the escalators, most staircases are easy to go up and down on the right side and the gates are always set-up to be right-handed. Why can’t at least the wide gates have a touch pad on both sides to speed-up those dragging mobile wardrobes? I always try to be left-handed to give my gammy hand something to do.
Route 38 Goes Topless
Admittedly, it was only one bus, but it made a change on a nice sunny day.
Route 38, has been unusual in the last few months, in that four of the New Buses for London have been mixed amongst the normal Wright buses for extended in-service trials. So in fact today worked out a bit more of the same with the Routemasters and RTs on the route. It gives a whole new meaning to bus roulette.
Route 38 Goes Retro
To celebrate the hundreth anniversary of route 38, Arriva have been running some old buses on the route today. three Routemasters, an RTL, an RTW and a K type are taking part according to this press release from Arriva. All except the elderly K-Type will be accepting passengers. I managed to get some pictures this morning.
I’m not sure whether the RTL was the RTL and not the RTW. It certainly wasn’t the RT which was also rumoured to be taking part. I remember the RTL particularly well, as they worked the 298 from Oakwood to Southgate, when I was going to school at Minchenden.
The RT and its various sub-types can be considered to be London’s first modern bus and the Routemaster was the ultimate example of the front-engined rear-wheel drive bus. The Routemaster was built with an integral aluminium body and two sub-frames to hold the engine and the axles. It was 0.75 tonne lighter than the RT, despite carrying eight more passengers. No wonder it became a design classic, as the construction of some modern buses, is not as efficient as the sixty year old Routemaster.
Some Routemasters still operate on Heritage routes 9 and 15. Bookmakers don’t take bets on when they will, if ever, be retired.
The Anonymous Widower 