End of the 19

Friday the 1st of April 2005.

Today is the last day that passengers will be boarding Routemasters on route 19 (Finsbury Park Station - Battersea Bridge). So I decided on doing the route as many times as I could.

I start late at around midday. The first 19 I get to Battersea is run by enthusiasts and their not collecting fares, only donations for charity. I sit at the front surrounded by obvious bus enthusiasts. As soon as we get to Highbury Barn I see the first of many bearded and bespectacled men photographing the bus as it goes past.

The passengers are a mixture of enthusiasts, curious tourists and people on their way to work or shopping or whatever. Siting next to me is a man with his son, they are watching buses coming the opposite way and noting down registration plates.
I try to strike up a conversation. He soon makes it obvious that conversation will not be taking place. He looks at his son and they laugh.
I won't hold this against him. He's probably suffered enough at school to recognise the danger of "conversation".
Unknowingly he has really pissed me off. That'll be my own stuff about not being heard or ignored.

Breath........................and let go.

Through the famous sights of the West End. Many buses have passed us in many different colours and different ages, all put on especially for the last day of the 19. Every bus is numbered and destinationed as a 19. Quite a moving sight. Round Hyde Park Corner, crossing the paths of the last few Routemaster routes, the 14,22 and 38.

I'd like to take some pictures but my Digital Camera is not enjoying the alkaline batteries I have furnished it with.

Hurtling along Sloane Street past the exclusive Boutiques, a world away from Finsbury Park. This route surely demonstrates the nature of Public Transport. Rich or poor the we all travel on the same seats and in the same direction.

The 19 was like a faithful companion since my earliest years. I travelled to school everyday, fell off the open platform more than once. Everything about the bus was familiar, other bus designs came and went, the routemasters just carried on regardless. I shall miss the roar of the engine, the friendly conductors, I'll even miss the unfriendly ones, standing on the platform and feeling the wind in my hair. My children will be deprived of all this.

The number 19 will no longer be special to me, just another generic/corporate bus. Many times I have got the 19 to the West End knowing the tube could get me there in a quarter of the time.

Well past midnight I watched the last two Routesmasters leave Finsbury Park on this route. Very moving and a sight I will remember for years to come. I have had a strange sense of grief since this last day and crossing Blackstock Road gave me pangs of sadness today when I saw a new 19 at my usual stop.

I enjoyed the last day of the 19 and feel good that I managed to do the route a fair few times giving a good farewell.

By September Routemasters may have left Londons streets for good. So farewell to the 19 and its kin.