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On Westminster Bridge

September 2nd 1982 and all around the fleet Leyland RM`s were about to be stood down from service in great quantity as a result of the schedule reductions caused by the end of the Fare`s Fair scheme. I was out and about with my camera trying to catch those RM`s on `the hit list` - and anything else that happened to come along such as RM 1871 - looking rather scruffy.




A couple of years later after it had been sat withdrawn at The Sales Department for some months, I took it from there to Stamford Brook for some pre-sale work. It had the most bizarre electrical fault I ever encountered on a Routemaster in that it would, with the gear selector in neutral, engage auto with the indicator switch in the nearside position and drive along quite happily even though the actual indicator wouldn`t flash! An example of `sitting around disease`?

Re: On Westminster Bridge

If the 'Fares Fair' scheme had carried on (ie.cheap bus travel), I wonder if we would have had the explosion in traffic volume and cyclists/cycle lanes that have contributed to the increased bus journey times and current reduction in ridership, or even the need for congestion charging and the existence of high pollution levels ? We would certainly have heard the roar of those Leyland RM's for a few years longer !

My bus number (if any): RML2747

Re: On Westminster Bridge

Difficult to know how to answer this without falling foul of commenting on `policy` from that time.

But as someone who was driving RM`s on central London routes before, during and after the Fare`s Fair scheme, I can say without any doubt whatsoever that there was a staggering difference to be seen in traffic / ridership patterns during the unfortunately short run of the ground-breaking scheme that had the potential to change the way in which people travelled around central London.

The Fare`s Fair scheme was undoubtedly politically motivated. A significant reduction in fares was financed by an increase on domestic rates (council tax as we call it now) and whilst many people thought it was a good thing, others didn`t and a legal challenge eventually brought the scheme to an end. It also brought about a massive reduction in the bus fleet and removed over two hundred RM`s from weekday schedules from September 4th 1982. It effectively began the withdrawal of Routemasters.

Even if it wasn`t initiated and managed to everyone`s liking, there is no question of the success that the Fare`s Fair scheme had. Bus and underground useage shot up as car traffic into central London fell. The end result being that it became easily possible to complete a full duty without lost mileage due to traffic delays and to maintain the schedule even through both rush hours. This was virtually unknown in the run up to Fare`s Fair and was a source of surprise to all concerned as we were able to run around with a full bus all day and keep to time. Route Control Inspectors had the perfect situation as regards buses keeping to their place in the schedule and RM`s were perfect to achieve this with minimal dwell time at bus stops. Helped in part by people having the freedom to use the open platform elsewhere - in the days before compensation culture and risk assessment were everyday sayings. Did each crew routinely have several people per day falling off the back of their RM? No, we didn`t. Not even several per month. People took responsibility for their actions then.

Even though we were working harder in terms of busy buses this was nothing compared to the ease of getting around and a near certainty of finishing on time. It was even possible to get enough time at a terminus to have a cup of tea or to just rest awhile before the next trip. And that goes a long way to keeping people happy. It also made a difference to the inclination of some staff to do overtime when asked to. Once it became clear that a gap in a service caused by a shortage of staff would have dire consequences for the next (and probably already full) bus to come along, asking staff to do an extra `rounder` on a busy central London route was less likely to be refused if it wasn`t going to be a stressful, delayed experience to be done either before or after a standard day`s work stuck in traffic.

The really frustrating part of it all was when within a couple of weeks of Fare`s Fair being abolished we went back to less people using public transport, more cars in central London and significant lost mileage due to congestion. Plus two hundred and twenty RM`s deemed surplus to requirements.

And in case some commentators might suggest that RM`s were already past their intended life span when Fare`s Fair began in 1981, it`s worth remembering that, a few years previously, some one person operated routes had been converted back to crew operation and several years after Fare`s Fair was abolished, RML`s were massively refurbished to keep crew operation going. Penalising the RM concept by withdrawing so many perfectly serviceable buses as a reaction to the abolition of Fare`s Fair wasn`t an entirely sensible move.

I`m not going to get involved in how modern day London has become except to say that if there were some significant decision makers who had first hand experience of the good points that Fare`s Fair achieved, things might well be much better than they are. But just how many people are there now who can say `I worked through the before, during and after of that scheme thirty six years ago and experienced what a positive difference it made.`

Re: On Westminster Bridge

Interestingly, The Fares Fair thing caused a 12% drop in road traffic mainly car use in less than 6 weeks of its commencement.

Even with all the more recent initiatives this figure has not been matched, The higher usage is due to the huge rise in London's population.

The intervention by Bromley Council and then the Law Lords arrested that decline by causing uncertainty and the by then 16% decrease soon went back to zero and started to increase rapidly.

Given how congested Bromley Borough has now become, I suspect that they probably rather regret being used as a political pawn.

A legacy of how playing politics to score points defeats well intended initiatives.

I hope that's not too political a comment for this site.