A London Routemaster Bus, 2004
Routemasters are a fantastic icon of London and I will miss them when they are gone. Yesterday, as I sat explaining their value to a group of visiting Americans, I watched as the crowds on Piccadilly boarded them anywhere on the street. Smart and efficient. Then I watched a bendy-bus block most of Piccadilly Circus. Somebody thinks it’s progress. [Routematser Bye Bye]
2002: Saturday
Anybody reading this site will know that I seem to have lots of opinions on urban transportation. One of my favourite visits of recent weeks was to the London Transport Museum which is housed in an old flower market at Covent Garden. I thought the place was great but then I read about the New York Transit Museum which is actually housed in a historic 1936 subway station in Brooklyn Heights, New York. How cool is that?
This weekend I was visiting my parents in Shropshire and we went to Llangollen in North Wales for the day. I couldn’t get anybody to agree to ride the Llangollen Railway – which is part of the British rail network from Ruabon to Barmouth in North Wales which was closed on 1st April 1968. It would have been a good way to spend a Saturday so, perhaps, I will next time I visit.
My parents live in Shrewsbury which, this year, has been a little protected from the winter flooding by some new flood defences. There seems some dispute about the effectiveness of the defences. If you look at some of these pictures on BBC Shropshire’s site you would have thought that nothing had changed. I am not always glad to be living away from the river but at this time of year I certainly am.
2004: Every Little Helps You Spend
2004: I Had No Idea That So Many People I The World Were So Gullible