SUNRISE, SUNSET

Britain Retires 1950's Double-Decker Buses (Jill Lawless, Globe and Mail, December 9th, 2005)

After half a century, London's red Routemaster buses are rattling into retirement.

Thousands of fans said farewell to the hop-on, hop-off buses yesterday, the last full day of regular service for the icon that has been the subject of thousands of tourists' photographs and postcards.

Transport authorities are withdrawing the blunt-nosed double-decker from its last route -- the 159 from Marble Arch to Streatham Hill -- today. The final Routemaster was to leave central London just after noon, bound south of the Thames to a bus garage in Brixton.

"My experience of London is diminished by their passing," said Travis Elborough, author of the Routemaster book The Bus We Loved.

The next thing you know, they’ll be enclosing the commons.