 | Photo © James Fullick. |
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As threatened in February when I published the last Routemaster to appear on this site on a normal service, the 38 has now gone over to articulated buses. In many ways the 38 was the last "proper" Routemaster route, in particular having for some time been the last to have exclusive use of Routemasters, the other Routemaster routes all having one-person operated journeys in the early mornings, evenings or on Sundays.
The higher capacity of a Citaro compared with a Routemaster allowed the peak frequency to be reduced. Fortunately, lessons have been learnt from the earlier conversions, and this time the reduction is more reasonable at 8 buses. The resultant frequency should need no more than 100 passengers per bus to maintain capacity by my calculations, which is far more realistic than earlier plans based on the nominal capacity of 140.
The route is still the most frequent in London with a bus every 3 minutes in the morning peak, and still has the highest peak vehicle requirement in London, albeit, at 42, a distinction shared with routes 25 and 73. It is notable that all three are artic worked (the double deck 23 comes next with 39 buses); this is evidence of the policy to convert the most frequent routes to artic operation.
Here, therefore, is a photograph of MA 111 (BX55 FVM) heading off down New Oxford Street on a short (and presumably therefore late-running) working to Hackney Central Station on the first weekday of artic operation, 31 October. There have been serious congestion problems in the Narroway, a bus-only section of Mare Street in Hackney, which appear to have been exacerbated by the artics, and are probably the cause of the late running.
| Photo © James Fullick. |
The 38 once ran to Chingford via Leyton and present day route 97, while the 38A ran to Loughton straight up the main Woodford road. The combined frequency in 1936 was every 2 minutes – whilst, as is typical, the frequency has dropped considerably in the intervening years, an increase ready for the start of congestion charging in July 2002 brought the peak hour frequency, at least, almost back up to that level!
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