As already reported in a posting on the 8th November, Remembrance Day Monday the 11th November, saw the special operation of two London Routemasters in front line service. Long Routemaster RML 903 owned and operated by Metroline ran the full length of route 24 (Parliament Hill Fields-Pimlico), which took it past the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Standard length Routemaster RM 1005 ran on loan to Abellio over route 211 (Hammersmith-Waterloo Station), which in turn took it through Parliament Square and close to the Cenotaph.
Timings were such that each bus was respectively at the Cenotaph or nearby at 11.00am, where they both paused for the 2-minutes silence. No fares were charged but donations were received from passengers, which amounted at the end of the day to several hundreds of pounds, that were later passed to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
Routemaster RML 903 is illustrated as it paused for the 2-minutes silence, adjacent to the Cenotaph at 11.00am. The route nowadays is home to a fleet of LT-class New Bus for London (Graham Smith)
Routemaster RM 1005 with Westminster Abbey in the background, heads from Victoria Street into Parliament Square prior to pausing nearby to the Cenotaph for the 2-minutes silence. A special advertisement had been affixed that read "SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH ALL WHO SERVE", and had been used on several associated events around London during the previous week. Incidentally this bus is privately owned by Sir Peter Hendy CBE the Commissioner of Transport for London (Haydn Davies)
RM 1005 waited patiently in Hammersmith Bus Station prior to the specific journey that took it nearby to the Cenotaph at 11.00am. Here the rear aspect is shown alongside an all-Polish Scania on route 10 and a New Bus for London on route 9. This provides an interesting comparison of backs ends of a bus. It also illustrates the specially produced blinds on the Routemaster for the events. The 211 route is normally operated by a mixture of standard diesel powered ADL Enviro400 and hybrid versions. It should also be noted that volunteer unpaid drivers and conductors crewed the two Routemasters throughout the day (Graham Smith)
