There can be no greater icon for the British bus industry than the legendary London Routemaster. Can’t there? Or is it a little overdone?
So celebrated is the RM, in fact, that it has a special place on the Competition Commission’s bus market inquiry webpage.
There it is, in all its splendour. No matter that it:
- Was first manufactured in 1956.
- Played virtually no part in provincial English bus operations, save perhaps under Northern General.
- Was used in the provinces only sporadically over the last 20 or so years, as a fleeting counter- or competitive tool.
- Was withdrawn by TfL in 2005, as unacceptably inaccessible.
- Was confined to London, where the Competition Commission isn’t even looking.
May be, too, the Competition Commission has chosen the RM wisely as something completely unidentifiable with any English region or operator. It just shows that the RM continues to be part of our collective culture. Either that, or the PR people at the Competition Commission need to reconsider the source of their stock photos.
4 comments:
Just goes to show that icons should be iconic! (-:
The first Routemaster was built in 1954.
When looking back at the use of symbols the sign for a speed camera had a concertina lens and level crossing had a steam engine long after both were gone. Maybe we can recognise things because they are in our subconscious. A half cab/open platform decker pictogram is often used as people understand that to be a bus more readily than a square box.
Why a red London bus...because nobody uses buses outside the capital do they ?
Hold on...small,compact,fuel-efficient,robust,long-lived...hey,the new London bus of the future..simples.
Perhaps it shows that the Competition Commission wouldn't recognise a modern bus if it ran them over. It is rather pathetic that a more up to date image of the industry could not be found.
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