Heritage tours to save buses from axe

Two bus companies have drawn up plans for heritage tours of central London using the Routemaster.

Stagecoach and Go-Ahead are planning a full-scale tourist service around the city's landmarks using the iconic double-decker which has served the capital since the days of Harold Macmillan.

They were to be scrapped under plans by Ken Livingstone's Transport for London to replace them with the problematic "bendy buses".

But after an Evening Standard campaign won support for the old bus, Stagecoach and Go-Ahead decided there was a market for them on tourist routes. These will also employ dozens of bus conductors whose jobs were to go when the old service was axed.

Paul Owens, commercial manager of Stagecoach London, said: "There will be a strong demand because the Routemasters are so popular."

Chris Moyes, of Go-Ahead, said: "We have to think about safety aspects, because we get a proportionately high number of claims after incidents in which people fall off the platforms of Routemasters."

Peter Hendy, TfL's director of surface transport, said: "I'm not ruling out a subsidy but we want to see what ideas the companies come up with."

Meanwhile, Arriva has been hit with a ?1million bill for bigger garages after the new bendy buses were too long to fit in existing depots.