Friday 7 February 2014

CLASSIC BUSES COVER FOR TUBE STRIKE - DAY 2

Another day and another set of images from the rather precipitous streets of London

Day 2 of the strike by staff on the London Underground, but above ground the wheels of commerce continued to turn, as a splendid array of buses old and new provided "EXTRAS" on selected routes throughout the capital.

First up a selection of the vintage buses in route order













And now a more modern selection 




















As can be seen there was quite a variety of operators involved. Their liveries probably reminded some of those earlier days of tendered bus services in London, whereby the assigned operator ran their contracted route/s in the company livery of the time, during the 1980s and 90s. That was before the edict came down from 'on high', that all buses in London would be operated in red, as they are today, irrespective of the operator assigned.

Weather conditions during the two days of this week's operations were mixed and at times quite appalling, causing photography to be something of a challenge. But the transport 'paparazzi' rose to that challenge and have come up trumps despite those conditions, and the Focus Transport team are grateful to efforts provided by Brian Bell, Gerard Butler, Malcolm Conway, Rick Godfrey and Terry Wong Min. Anyone who would like further details of the images provided such as the 'culprit', vehicle detail or location, then do please contact the website and we shall do our best to provide such as required. 

Another 48-hour strike is scheduled for next week on Wednesday and Thursday 12/13th February, and unless there is any negotiation between the respective parties, this will go ahead and the "EXTRA" buses will be back on the streets again. 

Should you wish a more fuller narrative of the fine detail of these passed two days, you can probably do no better than join the London Omnibus Traction Society, where the detail will be published in the February edition of their newsletter. The following link will get you to their website http://www.lots.org.uk/