Comsidering that the Routemaster was a collaboration between AEC/Park Royal and LT one would have expected the Park Royal bodied Regent V to have a decent means of access to the drivers cab, but no... it is just like the Swindon Daimler.

Left foot in bottom step, step rings are usually too slippery so instead right foot on top of tyre - don't do this if the front wheel is jacked up!!! left foot either in cab or top step followed by right foot into cab. Turn round and sit down while shuffling left leg in and then swing right leg over the top of the hand brake.

Only someone who has had to do this could sum it up so well! It is an incredibly poor arrangement that comes with the near certainty of the right foot being placed on the tyre or on the wheel nut guard - which was absolutely forbidden in the LT driver training school. Not that a tyre needed to be used but some drivers did put a right foot on the wheel nut guard.

If seen by an Instructor it would most likely be mentioned - not just within the Training School but to a long qualified driver if such an observation was made. If seen by a DMI (Divisional Mechanical Inspector who had disciplinary powers either on the spot or at a subsequent hearing) it would never go unchallenged on the basis that if slippery through grease or wet, falling off the wheel trim had the potential to cause an injury.

Rm9 looks terrible now a no guts dartmaster engine it couldn't knock a skin off a rice pudding. Also the blinds are not good on both buses as well what a let down their are. Rm9 looked 10 times better in the 1990s and up to 2003. Then she went down hill

RM9 is my wife’s 2nd favourite Routemaster. Our wedding bus 20th September 2003

My bus number (if any): M1001 RML2276 T806

I have to agree with roy regarding cab access on "provincial" buses. The Bristol Lodekka is as bad as the Regent V and Leylands. I find it impossible to get into Regent Vs these days! Despite being designg and made by PRV, the East Kent versions I've worked on are years behind the RM.

My bus number (if any): RML2532