Routemaster of all it surveys
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A reliable workhorse A reliable workhorse
makes sense; that's why London's bus managers are hanging on to 500 Routemaster buses into the next century.
And to celebrate one of the capital's most venerable transport institutions, BBC2 is screening Perpetual Motion, The Routemaster Bus, narrated by Warren Clarke on 23 January.
"This old baby was designed to work London," says Gary Thorogood, engineering manager at Stockwell Bus Garage. "It's done that for 30 years and it'll last another 30."
Passenger Faith Lawson from Tooting enthuses; "It looks so friendly when it comes towards you and when you get on you go through a sort of lobby into the sitting room. Its like being at home — reassuring."
The Hawk looks forward to wallowing in some justified nostalgia for a bus that was designed before 1950 and is still in service worldwide.