An Oral History Documentary of London Bus Workers Check out the Fares Please! Podcasts: digital-works.co.uk/podcasts.html www.faresplease.org.uk www.digital-works.co.uk
I started on the buses as a driver at Kingston in late 1970 on route 71 (RTs) having worked in a bank from age 15 until I was 26. I knew Jill Viner (at 07:08) when she was a conductor and was there when she became LT's first woman driver. In early 1971 I went onto the OMO routes (216 and 218/9) at Kingston. When all the OMO routes were transferred to Norbiton garage (about ½ mile away) in 1984 I went there. I was at Norbiton throughout the industrial action of the late 1980s when LT tried to cut wages by 20% and was eventually offered (in 1988) a transfer to Fulwell garage at existing wages. In 1992, wage cuts raised their ugly head again and I was offered (and took) severance. That wasn't my end of work on public transport as, in 1999 I became one of the first half-dozen drivers on Croydon Tramlink where I was involved in the initialization and testing of the system before it opened, and then joined the training team as new recruits came on board, helping get them up to standard before the opening in May 2000. I was with Tramlink until retirement age, in 2009. During my time on the buses I drove RTs - RMs - RFs - BLs - LSs - DMS - Metros.
Well. What an absolute gem. Full marks to all involved. How I wish mainstream TV would stick to this formula: letting people tell their stories, and no mind-numbing music track or tricksy editing - just a bit of judicious cutting and pasting to lend coherence to the whole. Thank you so much.
My Grandad was a Bus conductor for Crosville in Chester in the North West of England. He did that job from when he got Demobbed after the War until he retired in the mid 70s and I am very proud of him.
True, you could say that for most western cities. Ie.overpriced real estate, congestion, lack of jobs, too much immigration ( immigrants is not bad thing per se, but too much of it doesn’t work).
London is a dump and dangerous place to be, we had a bus driving around London advertising that the FBI wanted to question Andrew, who has been protected and enabled Andrew for years by the queen, who has no respect for the people she vowed to serve.
@@SR-xk8cd I agree about the immigration, I get the impression people are frightened to regulate it. In so many things you can have too much of a good thing!
I have no idea how he got away with it, but a bus driver friend of our family back in the 50s used to stop his double decker right outside my Grandparents house in between stops and let my Grandma off so she didn't have to walk home from the bus stop :-)
The day London got those buses with the closing doors was a shame . You could just hop on and off a bus if it was at the traffic lights . In fact I just miss old London
iconic - I too used to buy a 3 bob Red Rover with school mates, spending whole Saturdays collecting bus numbers, getting chased out of many a garage. Proper bus service. Green Line buses too. Well structured and run.
@@lawrencesimmons5093 This is how they use to break up old buses. *Busted the absolute crap* out of them with a sledgehammer. Then burned the frames and cut the chassis with gas torches. Brilliant scrapping action. Check out video below. czcams.com/video/drE3lgaTgTA/video.html
Hounslows Run-in park was like a knocking shop on some evenings, The top deck seats were getting a pounding in the dark! LOL Bus Groupies were a welcome distraction, especially in the evenings when it was quiet!
I just found this vid and it was so good to watch. My dad was a bus driver and it was like hearing his stories over again. Telling me about the Chiswick bus test and the buses being spun on two wheels. He worked at Ponders End and then Clapton (now called Hackney Central) and then Ash Grove in Hackney at the end of his bus career. Really good watch. X
Great to see the contributions of my old friend Steve Cushion - I drove Routemasters (as did Steve) out of Leyton garage, 1982-86. His final comment, about privatisation, is spot on. Steve was the garage union rep.; the bit about 'punching up' made me smile as I recall driving into town on a 38 going down Rosebery Avenue and seeing Steve toiling up the hill driving a fully-loaded 38 coming the other way with 6 (yes, six!) near-empty 38s following tightly behind him, clearly having no intention of overtaking!. I regard that period as one of the happiest of my life, and only left because I feared being forced to go OPO, which I'd tried before on Eastern National and absolutely hated. Finally, nice to see a pic. of Alan Payling from Stamford Hill garage near the end - Alan got forced out of the job because of his union activities.
This is a wonderfully done documentary. Nice mix of personal recollections laid over really good quality old footage. No jittery editing and best of all...no distracting soundtrack blaring away the whole time. It assumes the viewer actually has an attention span. It almost feels like I'm sitting in on a very interesting conversation. Terrific job, this.
In the seventies, we'd get our bus fare from Mum and then off to school on the 279 Route Master. The aim was to try and bunk the fare so that you could buy sweets at the sweet shop. The Conductors were so good at their jobs it was hard to dodge the fare. The rush hour buses would be jam packed, upstairs in a cloud of fog from the Smokers but they still knew who hadn't paid their fare yet. Different fares for different journey lengths on the same route, they really needed to be on their game to catch us fare dodging Urchins. Just when you thought you'd managed to outwit the Conductor and your mind was set on the bag of Black Jacks, Fruit Salads and Mojos you'd be munching on with your ill gotten gains you'd here those dreaded two words from behind you...'Tickets please' ... Oh no, it's Blakey the Ticket Inspector. Busted again!
Nobby Norberto Those conductors had eyes in the back of their head. I can count on one hand the amount of free rides I got on a bus. More often than not, it was an empty bus you got a free ride on, as you'd go upstairs and the conductor simply couldn't be bothered to go up there.
Absolutely loved watching this. I started on London Buses as a driver back in 1986, and I'm still doing it now, though the job has changed, and not for the better. A couple of people in this video I have worked with over the years.
You are a hero. Working through the Covid Murders, low pay for what is an intensely difficult and complex job. Workers like you should be on bankers wages.
When I was young I rode up top. Would literally run down the stairs, and jump off before bus came to a full stop in order to catch mysecond bus to work. All while in high heels.
Are you kidding me? This film was made by Year 6 primary school children (10 and 11 year olds) !!!! It was of the best, most professional, fascinating documentaries I've seen in years! Well done to all involved. I'm a primary school teacher myself (Year 5 though!) and I would love to do something like this with the children. I bet they got so much out of it.
It was so refreshing to hear a primary school teacher engaged with their children as you are. It’s amazing given the way your profession is mistreated that you still have the care and enthusiasm to even make this comment. Well done.
As a current bus driver I can relate to what some of the drivers were saying about the schoolkids and 'the twerlies'! But gimme those days anytime over todays standards!
I used to pay 2p to go to school and the bus conductor would always keep an eye open for us young teenagers( we were very different to kids today) I miss the old buses with conductors happy days
@@scat1a Agreed. I did buses/coaches '89 - '94. Thatcher ruined a lot of it for us. We had our subsidised canteen taken away. Driving hours doubled, kerb side meal breaks. We were also taken over by another bus company and then again after I left. I still have my PSV badge at least. On the late shift stop off at the chippy for a fish n chips late supper. Great days.
@@Keepingitrespectfulmostly. Similar tale for us PO staff. The Thatcher years were seismic for us-before her, we union reps were respected and could get promotions-as her power increased, though, we became a dirty word. However, I never forget she was voted in by millions of other _workers,_ scared off by Militant, Momentum, etc., (as reported in the Tory-owned press anyway). British voters always pull the country back to the centre if Labour seems to be flirting with the far left.
Fascinating and what a bonus to know that it was made by school kids. They obviously soaked up the stories and made for the perfect audience. There never has been a beneficial privatisation, in my opinion.
I passed my driving test in a 'London Bus' in Manchester back in 1979 at the age of 20. From a provisional licence to driving a bus full of passengers in service, within four weeks. Seems like madness today. We called those buses PD1's but actually drove a slightly different style, the PD2 with an automatically opened door at the front. No powered steering. No airbrakes. No synchromesh gears, so you had to double the clutch to change gears. My legs would ache after a full shift. An empty bus was relatively easy to drive, but fully laden with passengers, the steering was so heavy. First day in service, I nearly drove straight over the grass on the first roundabout I came to. I left after 7 years and went to Uni. Aged 65 now, I havent driven a bus for almost 40 years, but I still occasionally dream I'm driving a bus to this day. I never know the route or how much the fares are! I never dream about any of the many other jobs I've had.
I can remember as a child in London buying a Red Rover ticket with friends in the school holidays. We took packed lunches with us and spent a whole days sight seeing and exploring the city and the outer suburbs. Your ticket allowed you to hop on and off a bus with complete freedom which was great fun and educational. Overall, having a conductor with a driver meant the buses moved faster and there was someone to help older or less able people on the bus, also parents with small children and buggies. Bus conductors could often be very sociable and on some routes real comedians. The work of a single bus operator must be less enjoyable and more stressful.
My husband often reminisces about trips with his mates using a Red Rover - apparently they always ended up at Heathrow as in their 15yr old imaginations there might be some willing stewardesses! Boys!
This video brought back such good memories of my driving days at West Ham. I’m privileged to have worked for London Transport before it all went private. Great video 👍🏻
I'm not from London but think that this marvelous film reflects this countries buses, drivers, conductors, and passengers, in different towns and cities alike from a fantastic bygone era the 1960s. As a young kid back then and going into town with my parent on the bus it was so exciting and I always sat upstairs ( the top deck) on the very front seat if available, with the window directly facing and pretending ( obviously lol ) to drive the bus. Good memories. Ding Ding fares please 😁
The older lady mentioned about the exhaust fumes. My father was a bus driver for most of his life. He passed away age 63, 10 years ago from lung cancer. He had been ' a dawn man' for many years (1 of a group of drivers who drove the first buses of the morning) which meant they were in the depot when all the buses were starting up = excess exhaust fumes Before he passed he wondered if it had a bearing on developing lung ca. I later discovered there was increased incidences of lung ca in bus drivers.
Looked like London Transport was a fantastic company to work for. They seemed to really look after their employees; you had the canteen, then the social clubs. Nowadays companies are more concerned about the profit and satisfying the shareholders.
I've been making documentaries for 40 years and I take my hat off to the kids (look at the end credits, they're primary school kids) who made this informative and interesting program. Well done to all involved and the people who re-lived a piece of history for all of us. As a kid growing up in Stevenage I'd buy a "Green Rover" and have a days adventure on the green buses, all around the west of London (never into red bus areas) down to Windsor, or the film studios of Pinewood and Elstree. As a 12 to 14 year old, the crews always seemed to look out for me on my travels and I always felt safe. Not to sure about today!
As a kid here in Doncaster with South Yorkshire Transport I'd buy a scratch card called an Out and About for £1 , I could catch any bus or train after 9:30am within South Yorkshire , the good ole days.
I used to do it the other way round. With a Golden Rover (green buses and Green Line Coaches) from Biggin Hill through London and out to Stevenage for the day.
Amazing - I was watching without realising who made it! You were lucky - as a kid I only managed to travel on LT RT's when visiting relatives in Blackheath. Would love it's musical sounds travelling up Shooter's Hill Road, always driven smoothly by a true professional - and well remember the friendly and often humorous conductors - they were great assets. What a wonderful organisation London Transport was at that time. When no one's listening I still attempt to imitate that musical transmission!
I was once a conductor on route 73 bus and I had a wonderful life working on the buses unfortunately those days are long gone what I missed most was the cameraderie between the drivers and the conductors. It was your family away from home.
Absolutely fascinating. My Grandfather came out of the first war and drove London buses, my Father was a conductor after the second war. I now use my bus pass all the time and am still in awe of bus drivers.
Absolutely brilliant..really enjoyed this ..took me back to my childhood as my mum and my brother and myself used buses a lot.. we had the green double deckers..I used to love to sit up the front or sometimes we'd sit upstairs..when I was very young in the early 1960's I remember the 1st time I got on a single decker bus with the automatic door I'd got upset because I couldn't make out how we were going to get off the bus..once the doors had shut my very young mind must have thought that we were stuck on there.. lovely memories of our Surrey buses..🚌🚍
It's lovely to see how these people really loved their jobs and took pride in working on the buses. I grew up in London and have lovely memories of riding on the old red buses as a young child in the 60s and 70s.
Wonderful documentary.....very true. I caught the last 10yrs on LT buses, trained at Chiswick. It was a great job back then. Tory privatisation in 1994 was an act of vandalism on a grand scale. Bus drivers today on poor pay and conditions, they deserve better. Well done to the makers of this film.
I remember in the fifties taking the No 101 RT from Wanstead Flats to North Woolwich to catch the free ferry to visit my grandparents in Plumpstead. The alternative was the 661 from Leytonstone to The Woolwich ferry. Those were the days.
I passed my test in 1998! I was one of 2 women in the whole depot and even then the old school guys would say “what are you here for? This ain’t no place for a lady” gradually started to fit in and drove buses around Hertfordshire for 16 years and then changed over to coach driving. The job is not the same. Miss the old days but make the best of the job each day
As a pre-teen I found myself living in the UK because of my fathers work, & whilst living on the edge of London I would with friends get a red rover ticket and go to all the mainline stations and their loco sheds, such as Nine Elms & Old Oak Common, happy days and yeah, a girl can like the railway scene! Other times we'd get the Green-line and head out into the countryside, .
I always loved the old London Routemaster buses. I used to see old ones at festivals that people had converted into homes and I thought it looked like a cool way to live. Having grown up watching 'The Double Deckers' it definitely appealed to me.
You're a person after my own heart ... I too absolutely Adore the Routmaster beyond any words I can begin to try to describe, and I also used to love "The Double Deckers" , both make my heart feel so warm . xx ( I used to get the no.7 Routmaster bus to and from secondary school every day in the '70's, in west London ).
Great video. Took me back to the 60's and 70''s. I used to love hopping on and off the buses. There should be more videos like this. Well done to all who contributed, behind and in front of the camera. Ding-ding!
Very truthful and honest account of London transport.which was a part of my growing up in London and very much part of my employment history.Memories 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾💖
I followed my dad on the buses in 1960 as a conductor at muswell hill till 68 and I loved it. good mates made the job enjoyable. London transport was the best employer in the whole of London till Thatcher cattle trucked it. in 1993 I started back as a driver at barking garage and loved it till I retired I have very happy memories of the job. Dickie wessen
I have fond memories of living in London in the 1990's and using various routes for school, college and later my first jobs. My favorite central London route was the 38 that used to take me to Covent Garden from Victoria. My daily bus routes were the 68 to Croydon, then the 54 or 366 between Beckenham and Croydon, the 227 to Bromley and finally the 176 that took me all the way from Penge to Oxford Street. This was a great little documentary. Thank you and greetings from Copenhagen where buses are yellow and pretty boring.
A time when you could find a job, a friend, a laugh, a love and a life - all at the same time. Todays workplace is just a days miserable grind, followed by another... ad nauseum.
I rode on the Routemaster buses often as a school kid. You weren't cool unless you stepped off the bus while it was still moving. I recall seeing a middle aged man regularly who'd sit there reading poems to everyone on every trip. Nobody took any notice, we all pretended not to hear him. Those were the days!
A wonderful piece of nostalgia. A very well made documentary. It certainly brought back memories. I used to buy my Red Rover tickets, from Hornchurch Bus Garage & we would travel all the way in to central London & the West End, for a day out. As kids/youngsters, there was always a mad rush to grab the up stairs back seat, that cosy bucketseat. Otherwise, second best were the upstairs front seats. So interesting. Thx
A heart-warming documentary - that everyone should watch in these troubled times. How overwhelming to see at the end it was produced by Year 6 Students! You are amazing! All credit to your teachers too for supporting you! Lovely to see a very brief shot of London Transport Country Bus heading for Gadebridge in Hemel Hempstead; which was my home growing up. Fond memories of London Transport in the Country bus area. Thank you so much for an incredibly informative and moving documentary! Love and blessings!
What a great documentary and interesting too. LT certainly looked after its employees back then. I think they should have been a role model for other businesses at that time. It seems all the staff interviewed enjoyed their jobs and made friendships for life.
A smashing bit of social history & BBC quality . . .very good. Well done kids. Here's hoping some go onto professional film making and go on, in some small part, to revive the tradition where lots of public service companies had film making units. And well done Unite for sponsoring Remember as a kid, no school holiday in the 1960s was complete without at least one day ranging all over London with a Train and Bus Rover - They started off @ 2shillings and 3pence (11 pence in today's money) in the mid 60's and by 1969 were 5 shillings (25 pence) for a day of virtually unrestricted travel on Tube and bus (From memory, the ticket only excluded travel on what is now the extreme outer zone tube, Met line past Rickmansworth and the furthest extent of the central line in the East and some Heathrow express buses and Night buses). Such days always started-off with the intention to go and see something specific thing, e.g. the Science Museum, but after a whistle stop tour of all points there, then usually degenerated into a random tour of London, jumping on one bus or train and then off onto another to see where it would take us. I don't think parents would be comfortable allowing 12-15 year olds that sort of freedom today. But then, dual operation, driver/conductor, driver/guard did offer a small margin of extra safety then and London then was more subdued and less busy than it is today - the overhang from the war, both economic, social and psychological still prevailed.
This is just great! Makes we yearn for the London of my youth when it was sixpence to go from Oxford Street to Prince Albert Road, just past St. John's Wood roundabout, on the 74/74B.
Good to see the 108b. Used to get it every morning in Sydenham High Street to Crystal Palace on my way to school in Streatham. That was the 137 from Palace to Streatham.
Beautifully done! Thank you. I used to go to school on these buses in Northern Ireland in the late fifties. I forwarded this to my brother who is an avid bus fan. I'm sure he will enjoy it.
I was born n raised in Belfast and still here 👋. My father (r.i.p.) drove the buses for most of his life. Started with The Belfast Corporation in his '20s , then Citybus and finally Translink. I grew up listening to them (my parents) talk of 'the old trolley buses' . I have a vague memory from childhood (I'm 51 ) of being on a bus that had the open door at the back.. to hop on and off.
This has been popping up in my CZcams suggestions for a couple of weeks now - probably because I'm subscribed to Vicki Pipe & her name pops up in the credits. So today I finally found the time to watch it - and very glad I am to have done so. A fascinating oral history that was well edited. I liked that the bit where Terry Grant talked about a woman going under his bus and you could see that it was still difficult for him to talk about it and the scene cut away rather than seeing him struggling - well done. Then to discover that this was a project where primary school children interviewed drivers, conductors and cleaners and let them tell their own stories. I have now discovered that the faresplease website has the full interviews with each person in the film (and a few more), so looks like another 18 hours of listening pleasure.
Wow! Great memories, I drove from Elmers End garage from 1973-78 RT-RM-SMS-DMS routes12-12a-54-194-194b Great times happy days, many thanks for this footage.
I loved riding the platform around Marble Arch and jumping off at the first stop on Edgware rd. The stop was near the bend and there was a fence /guardrail so timing was essential
Was always a thrill to come down from Coven Heath in the midlands to visit granddad in Herne Hill and ride the RTs and Routemasters round London in the 1950s when I was a kid. This brought back some happy memories. Many thanks to all those people who worked for LT.
So many memories brought back to me by this documentary. 13’s 26’s 17’s and 82’s out of Nth Finchley in late 80’s. Best job I ever had. Canteen ladies at Tally Ho canteen kept me well fed too😀
I remember a conductor on the no.8 bus in '78 who would have us passengers in tears with some crackin' banter from Oxford circus, where I'd get on,to willesden garage. Also I was guilty of pulling the wire twice if a conductor got off, to say, buy a newspaper. Sorry!! Route master, best ever, blindin'. Great memories, 😊 thanks ❤❤
11:12 that was my favourite seat on the bus as a wee boy. Never sat on it much. I knelt on it for this veiw ‘til my mum told me “c’moan wir gittin’ aff noo”.
Excellent. Brilliant choice of interviewees, excellent and informed editing too! The sheer scope of this documentary is amazing. I recall vividly myself many of the aspects talked about on screen from when I was a kid travelling, as young as 8 years old traveling alone and safely on a 3/- Red Rover from Romford to Heathrow Airport and back many times!
Absolutely amazing and interesting history for something that I've taken for granted when I've visited London. I agree with others that the current bus system tends to be impersonal and lacks the personality these drivers and workers show. I wish I could have experienced it in person when they were the drivers.
Fantastic- but also tinged with sadness to see how workers rights, benefits and social perks have been completely destroyed by privatisation and unreliable heartless modern technology. Society has gone backwards and replaced with modern day slavery and disrespect for the modern day working class
Kudos to all London’s bus drivers. Your skills never cease to amaze me, every day negotiating London’s crazy roads, drivers, pedestrians and bikers/cyclists, all the while getting hundreds of passengers safely to their destinations. Thank you!
The London I knew . Decent people . Great place to live and be brought up . I truly miss that time and those good people
I started on the buses as a driver at Kingston in late 1970 on route 71 (RTs) having worked in a bank from age 15 until I was 26. I knew Jill Viner (at 07:08) when she was a conductor and was there when she became LT's first woman driver. In early 1971 I went onto the OMO routes (216 and 218/9) at Kingston. When all the OMO routes were transferred to Norbiton garage (about ½ mile away) in 1984 I went there. I was at Norbiton throughout the industrial action of the late 1980s when LT tried to cut wages by 20% and was eventually offered (in 1988) a transfer to Fulwell garage at existing wages. In 1992, wage cuts raised their ugly head again and I was offered (and took) severance. That wasn't my end of work on public transport as, in 1999 I became one of the first half-dozen drivers on Croydon Tramlink where I was involved in the initialization and testing of the system before it opened, and then joined the training team as new recruits came on board, helping get them up to standard before the opening in May 2000. I was with Tramlink until retirement age, in 2009. During my time on the buses I drove RTs - RMs - RFs - BLs - LSs - DMS - Metros.
Well. What an absolute gem. Full marks to all involved. How I wish mainstream TV would stick to this formula: letting people tell their stories, and no mind-numbing music track or tricksy editing - just a bit of judicious cutting and pasting to lend coherence to the whole. Thank you so much.
Have to say, I agree with you - and I'm a musician !
Couldn't agree more. What a superb piece of work.
Makes you warm seeing a time when working was still seen as a respectable thing to do
Some conductors wore steel capped shoes because passengers kept treading on their feet. Bad day when the clippies were axed.
I remember those buses, the leather seats in the hot weather would stick to your legs. You go to jump up to get off the bus, didn't half sting.😂😂😂
My Grandad was a Bus conductor for Crosville in Chester in the North West of England.
He did that job from when he got Demobbed after the War until he retired in the mid 70s
and I am very proud of him.
I once worked as a bus conductor in Morocco and when I said Fares Please!, everyone took off their hats !
😂😂 fez plz.
Great film, really interesting. Sadly London has gone down the pan now.
True, you could say that for most western cities. Ie.overpriced real estate, congestion, lack of jobs, too much immigration ( immigrants is not bad thing per se, but too much of it doesn’t work).
@@SR-xk8cd apart.... from that i agree with everything else you say.
London is a dump and dangerous place to be, we had a bus driving around London advertising that the FBI wanted to question Andrew, who has been protected and enabled Andrew for years by the queen, who has no respect for the people she vowed to serve.
@@SR-xk8cd I agree about the immigration, I get the impression people are frightened to regulate it. In so many things you can have too much of a good thing!
@@patriciatreslove4449 Andrew should be extradited to face questions by the FBI, the Queen has no say in it.
Every London schoolboy learned the art of jumpin on/off moving buses without harming themselves.
Is Colin dead🤷♂️
One lad I knew he liked to swing out and round the pole, then one day whacked a lamppost hehe He never did that again lol
Yea, corners were the place.
i jumped off at 20 mph once and ended running beside the bus for 20 yards before i could slow down. yes i learned the hard way
And they say kids of today are stupid
great memories worked on the buses from 1964- 2010 .
best times were when it was London transport.
absolutely
A thoroughly interesting and poignant look at the golden years on the buses!...Blakey would be proud!!
I have no idea how he got away with it, but a bus driver friend of our family back in the 50s used to stop his double decker right outside my Grandparents house in between stops and let my Grandma off so she didn't have to walk home from the bus stop :-)
Every London schoolboy learned the knack of safely leaping on/off moving buses.
The day London got those buses with the closing doors was a shame . You could just hop on and off a bus if it was at the traffic lights . In fact I just miss old London
i've had drivers shut the doors on me, one second longer and i'd be on the bus? the open door would have solved that?
I miss old everything!
Using the seating fabric as a backdrop was a clever touch.
I thought that!
The buses parked side by side in the garage look as smart as guardsmen on parade.
iconic - I too used to buy a 3 bob Red Rover with school mates, spending whole Saturdays collecting bus numbers, getting chased out of many a garage. Proper bus service. Green Line buses too. Well structured and run.
@@lawrencesimmons5093 This is how they use to break up old buses.
*Busted the absolute crap* out of them with a sledgehammer. Then burned the frames and cut the chassis with gas torches.
Brilliant scrapping action. Check out video below.
czcams.com/video/drE3lgaTgTA/video.html
Hounslows Run-in park was like a knocking shop on some evenings, The top deck seats were getting a pounding in the dark! LOL Bus Groupies were a welcome distraction, especially in the evenings when it was quiet!
I just found this vid and it was so good to watch. My dad was a bus driver and it was like hearing his stories over again. Telling me about the Chiswick bus test and the buses being spun on two wheels. He worked at Ponders End and then Clapton (now called Hackney Central) and then Ash Grove in Hackney at the end of his bus career. Really good watch. X
I love the way you had good canteens and sports clubs. It helps employees bond
Great to see the contributions of my old friend Steve Cushion - I drove Routemasters (as did Steve) out of Leyton garage, 1982-86. His final comment, about privatisation, is spot on. Steve was the garage union rep.; the bit about 'punching up' made me smile as I recall driving into town on a 38 going down Rosebery Avenue and seeing Steve toiling up the hill driving a fully-loaded 38 coming the other way with 6 (yes, six!) near-empty 38s following tightly behind him, clearly having no intention of overtaking!. I regard that period as one of the happiest of my life, and only left because I feared being forced to go OPO, which I'd tried before on Eastern National and absolutely hated. Finally, nice to see a pic. of Alan Payling from Stamford Hill garage near the end - Alan got forced out of the job because of his union activities.
This is a wonderfully done documentary. Nice mix of personal recollections laid over really good quality old footage. No jittery editing and best of all...no distracting soundtrack blaring away the whole time. It assumes the viewer actually has an attention span. It almost feels like I'm sitting in on a very interesting conversation. Terrific job, this.
Yes agree, very sensitively handled, no irritating presenter interrupting these very interesting, dedicated drivers and clippies.
In the seventies, we'd get our bus fare from Mum and then off to school on the 279 Route Master. The aim was to try and bunk the fare so that you could buy sweets at the sweet shop. The Conductors were so good at their jobs it was hard to dodge the fare. The rush hour buses would be jam packed, upstairs in a cloud of fog from the Smokers but they still knew who hadn't paid their fare yet. Different fares for different journey lengths on the same route, they really needed to be on their game to catch us fare dodging Urchins. Just when you thought you'd managed to outwit the Conductor and your mind was set on the bag of Black Jacks, Fruit Salads and Mojos you'd be munching on with your ill gotten gains you'd here those dreaded two words from behind you...'Tickets please' ... Oh no, it's Blakey the Ticket Inspector. Busted again!
Nobby Norberto
Those conductors had eyes in the back of their head. I can count on one hand the amount of free rides I got on a bus. More often than not, it was an empty bus you got a free ride on, as you'd go upstairs and the conductor simply couldn't be bothered to go up there.
Absolutely loved watching this. I started on London Buses as a driver back in 1986, and I'm still doing it now, though the job has changed, and not for the better. A couple of people in this video I have worked with over the years.
Ah Peter, even up to the 90s it was all good
You are a hero. Working through the Covid Murders, low pay for what is an intensely difficult and complex job. Workers like you should be on bankers wages.
Those were the days..
When I was young I rode up top. Would literally run down the stairs, and jump off before bus came to a full stop in order to catch mysecond bus to work. All while in high heels.
Are you kidding me? This film was made by Year 6 primary school children (10 and 11 year olds) !!!! It was of the best, most professional, fascinating documentaries I've seen in years! Well done to all involved. I'm a primary school teacher myself (Year 5 though!) and I would love to do something like this with the children. I bet they got so much out of it.
I think the interviewees really opened up to them because they were children.
It was so refreshing to hear a primary school teacher engaged with their children as you are. It’s amazing given the way your profession is mistreated that you still have the care and enthusiasm to even make this comment. Well done.
How things have changed and not for better those were the days sadly gone forever
Phil was fixing Buses the day I popped into the world. Good old British people with heart and soul. Good luck to you all!
As a current bus driver I can relate to what some of the drivers were saying about the schoolkids and 'the twerlies'! But gimme those days anytime over todays standards!
Agree . I too was a bus driver in the 80s and 90s . Saw the decline.
@@scat1a
Cam on Butler get that bus aht!
Alright Blakey keep ya wig on.
I'll 'ave you, I 'ates you Butler, 'ates ya!
I used to pay 2p to go to school and the bus conductor would always keep an eye open for us young teenagers( we were very different to kids today) I miss the old buses with conductors happy days
@@scat1a Agreed. I did buses/coaches '89 - '94. Thatcher ruined a lot of it for us. We had our subsidised canteen taken away. Driving hours doubled, kerb side meal breaks. We were also taken over by another bus company and then again after I left. I still have my PSV badge at least. On the late shift stop off at the chippy for a fish n chips late supper. Great days.
@@Keepingitrespectfulmostly. Similar tale for us PO staff. The Thatcher years were seismic for us-before her, we union reps were respected and could get promotions-as her power increased, though, we became a dirty word. However, I never forget she was voted in by millions of other _workers,_ scared off by Militant, Momentum, etc., (as reported in the Tory-owned press anyway). British voters always pull the country back to the centre if Labour seems to be flirting with the far left.
Fascinating and what a bonus to know that it was made by school kids. They obviously soaked up the stories and made for the perfect audience. There never has been a beneficial privatisation, in my opinion.
The bus drivers of that era were superb, really well taught & total professionals.
What are you on about? It's just driving a bus
@@monkeytennis8861 that’s what I’m on about… and you?
I passed my driving test in a 'London Bus' in Manchester back in 1979 at the age of 20. From a provisional licence to driving a bus full of passengers in service, within four weeks. Seems like madness today. We called those buses PD1's but actually drove a slightly different style, the PD2 with an automatically opened door at the front. No powered steering. No airbrakes. No synchromesh gears, so you had to double the clutch to change gears. My legs would ache after a full shift. An empty bus was relatively easy to drive, but fully laden with passengers, the steering was so heavy. First day in service, I nearly drove straight over the grass on the first roundabout I came to. I left after 7 years and went to Uni. Aged 65 now, I havent driven a bus for almost 40 years, but I still occasionally dream I'm driving a bus to this day. I never know the route or how much the fares are! I never dream about any of the many other jobs I've had.
33 brilliant years on the buses and worked with some brilliant people. Chiswick was the place everyone went to before 1986.
What happened to Chiswick, Aldenham, Park Royal ¿?
I can remember as a child in London buying a Red Rover ticket with friends in the school holidays. We took packed lunches with us and spent a whole days sight seeing and exploring the city and the outer suburbs. Your ticket allowed you to hop on and off a bus with complete freedom which was great fun and educational. Overall, having a conductor with a driver meant the buses moved faster and there was someone to help older or less able people on the bus, also parents with small children and buggies. Bus conductors could often be very sociable and on some routes real comedians. The work of a single bus operator must be less enjoyable and more stressful.
A great job with a clippy.
AHH, the red bus rover 😀, we did the same as kids, plenty of sandwiches and off we went. We were safe and had a great time.
@@RR-qu2oz Ah! Happy times!
I remember the red rover tickets it used to be ten bob
My husband often reminisces about trips with his mates using a Red Rover - apparently they always ended up at Heathrow as in their 15yr old imaginations there might be some willing stewardesses! Boys!
Great to hear the accounts of the people we take (took) for granted, and a nice variety of them too. Tremendous archive footage as well!
This video brought back such good memories of my driving days at West Ham. I’m privileged to have worked for London Transport before it all went private.
Great video 👍🏻
Incredible that this high quality, fascinating retrospective was produced by primary school students !
I'm not from London but think that this marvelous film reflects this countries buses, drivers, conductors, and passengers, in different towns and cities alike from a fantastic bygone era the 1960s. As a young kid back then and going into town with my parent on the bus it was so exciting and I always sat upstairs ( the top deck) on the very front seat if available, with the window directly facing and pretending ( obviously lol ) to drive the bus.
Good memories. Ding Ding fares please 😁
The older lady mentioned about the exhaust fumes. My father was a bus driver for most of his life. He passed away age 63, 10 years ago from lung cancer. He had been ' a dawn man' for many years (1 of a group of drivers who drove the first buses of the morning) which meant they were in the depot when all the buses were starting up = excess exhaust fumes Before he passed he wondered if it had a bearing on developing lung ca. I later discovered there was increased incidences of lung ca in bus drivers.
Victor Turton you absolute legend. "left a lovely warm Island, to come and work in the cold" - Love it.
Looked like London Transport was a fantastic company to work for. They seemed to really look after their employees; you had the canteen, then the social clubs. Nowadays companies are more concerned about the profit and satisfying the shareholders.
I've been making documentaries for 40 years and I take my hat off to the kids (look at the end credits, they're primary school kids) who made this informative and interesting program. Well done to all involved and the people who re-lived a piece of history for all of us. As a kid growing up in Stevenage I'd buy a "Green Rover" and have a days adventure on the green buses, all around the west of London (never into red bus areas) down to Windsor, or the film studios of Pinewood and Elstree. As a 12 to 14 year old, the crews always seemed to look out for me on my travels and I always felt safe. Not to sure about today!
👍🏻.
As a kid here in Doncaster with South Yorkshire Transport I'd buy a scratch card called an Out and About for £1 , I could catch any bus or train after 9:30am within South Yorkshire , the good ole days.
I used to do it the other way round. With a Golden Rover (green buses and Green Line Coaches) from Biggin Hill through London and out to Stevenage for the day.
Amazing - I was watching without realising who made it! You were lucky - as a kid I only managed to travel on LT RT's when visiting relatives in Blackheath. Would love it's musical sounds travelling up Shooter's Hill Road, always driven smoothly by a true professional - and well remember the friendly and often humorous conductors - they were great assets. What a wonderful organisation London Transport was at that time. When no one's listening I still attempt to imitate that musical transmission!
I don't know if you're gonna see this comment or not but I have a really good idea for a documentary I'd like to run past you.
I was once a conductor on route 73 bus and I had a wonderful life working on the buses unfortunately those days are long gone what I missed most was the cameraderie between the drivers and the conductors. It was your family away from home.
Went to school in the 1960s on a bus like this. Cold draughty and uncomfortable and we never missed a day during the '63 winter!
Absolutely fascinating. My Grandfather came out of the first war and drove London buses, my Father was a conductor after the second war. I now use my bus pass all the time and am still in awe of bus drivers.
Absolutely brilliant..really enjoyed this ..took me back to my childhood as my mum and my brother and myself used buses a lot.. we had the green double deckers..I used to love to sit up the front or sometimes we'd sit upstairs..when I was very young in the early 1960's I remember the 1st time I got on a single decker bus with the automatic door I'd got upset because I couldn't make out how we were going to get off the bus..once the doors had shut my very young mind must have thought that we were stuck on there.. lovely memories of our Surrey buses..🚌🚍
Excellent video, The good old days.good job with a very good social aspect.👍👍👏👏
How impressive the production created by students, thoroughly loved this warming, humourous and importantly diverse documentary, Thank you.
It's lovely to see how these people really loved their jobs and took pride in working on the buses. I grew up in London and have lovely memories of riding on the old red buses as a young child in the 60s and 70s.
Wonderful documentary.....very true. I caught the last 10yrs on LT buses, trained at Chiswick. It was a great job back then. Tory privatisation in 1994 was an act of vandalism on a grand scale. Bus drivers today on poor pay and conditions, they deserve better. Well done to the makers of this film.
I remember in the fifties taking the No 101 RT from Wanstead Flats to North Woolwich to catch the free ferry to visit my grandparents in Plumpstead. The alternative was the 661 from Leytonstone to The Woolwich ferry. Those were the days.
Wanstead flats.👍⚒️
When they showed the skid patch i imagined Blakey sliding out of back. Errrr i hate you Butler!😂🤣
😂😅👍
😂
ahahahaha! that scene was hilarious!
Oooooow that olive tho. Stan!
😁😁😁😁
RIP Bob Grant (Jack Harper) and Reg Varney (Stan Butler).
Whenever I see old buses I think of you both laughing.
Thank you.
Look 'ere Butler, get tha't bus aaaaaaattttt ...... says Blakey ?
I 'ate you, Butler!
"Come on chalkie mate, get awt of it."
You stupid great nit!
Source: Michael Robbins aka (Arthur) circa 1972
I passed my test in 1998! I was one of 2 women in the whole depot and even then the old school guys would say “what are you here for? This ain’t no place for a lady” gradually started to fit in and drove buses around Hertfordshire for 16 years and then changed over to coach driving. The job is not the same. Miss the old days but make the best of the job each day
As a pre-teen I found myself living in the UK because of my fathers work, & whilst living on the edge of London I would with friends get a red rover ticket and go to all the mainline stations and their loco sheds, such as Nine Elms & Old Oak Common, happy days and yeah, a girl can like the railway scene! Other times we'd get the Green-line and head out into the countryside,
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I always loved the old London Routemaster buses. I used to see old ones at festivals that people had converted into homes and I thought it looked like a cool way to live. Having grown up watching 'The Double Deckers' it definitely appealed to me.
You're a person after my own heart ... I too absolutely Adore the Routmaster beyond any words I can begin to try to describe, and I also used to love "The Double Deckers" , both make my heart feel so warm . xx ( I used to get the no.7 Routmaster bus to and from secondary school every day in the '70's, in west London ).
I absolutely loved this. That the production was staffed mainly by school children made it all the more magic.
Excellent independent oral documentary, a lot of the changes in LT were reflected in the changes I experienced working for the GPO in the late 1960's.
Great video. Took me back to the 60's and 70''s. I used to love hopping on and off the buses. There should be more videos like this. Well done to all who contributed, behind and in front of the camera. Ding-ding!
Such characters... Wonderful memories for me of my London life as a kid at school, work and final trip to Heathrow
What a wonderful documentary and so professional.
Very truthful and honest account of London transport.which was a part of my growing up in London and very much part of my employment history.Memories 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾💖
I followed my dad on the buses in 1960 as a conductor at muswell hill till 68 and I loved it. good mates made the job enjoyable. London transport was the best employer in the whole of London till Thatcher cattle trucked it. in 1993 I started back as a driver at barking garage and loved it till I retired I have very happy memories of the job. Dickie wessen
Love these old nostalgia productions.
I have fond memories of living in London in the 1990's and using various routes for school, college and later my first jobs. My favorite central London route was the 38 that used to take me to Covent Garden from Victoria. My daily bus routes were the 68 to Croydon, then the 54 or 366 between Beckenham and Croydon, the 227 to Bromley and finally the 176 that took me all the way from Penge to Oxford Street. This was a great little documentary. Thank you and greetings from Copenhagen where buses are yellow and pretty boring.
Before the "Great" in Britain was removed by Privatisation. Great video thanks for the upload.
Very interesting. There was an obvious comradeship between members of the old school, sadly missed, no doubt. Brit in Arizona!
The UK is completely losing any sort of comradeship, what's it like in Arizona?
Keep chasing down your dreams friend. Keep calm and carry on. You's British you know. 😉
Good video from the "good, old days"
A time when you could find a job, a friend, a laugh, a love and a life - all at the same time. Todays workplace is just a days miserable grind, followed by another... ad nauseum.
An excellent documentary, with great photos and film footage. Thanks to all who made this gem possible.
I rode on the Routemaster buses often as a school kid. You weren't cool unless you stepped off the bus while it was still moving. I recall seeing a middle aged man regularly who'd sit there reading poems to everyone on every trip. Nobody took any notice, we all pretended not to hear him. Those were the days!
This brings back so much memories when I was 3 years old in 1966 while living in Brockley. 36a.. 141.. 171. 122. True Memories!!!
Wonderful memories, a beautifully crafted video, well done. Why did life always seem better then? I think it's called nostalgia.
I think it's called "life WAS better then." And richer and fuller, and I don't mean the ale.
Bruce it WAS better then ,much less violence,much less traffic and pollution. And our English culture still intact.
I was on Manchester buses, from 1974 until 1987 , & the banter , tricks we got up to were the same . Good times .
A wonderful piece of nostalgia. A very well made documentary. It certainly brought back memories. I used to buy my Red Rover tickets, from Hornchurch Bus Garage & we would travel all the way in to central London & the West End, for a day out. As kids/youngsters, there was always a mad rush to grab the up stairs back seat, that cosy bucketseat. Otherwise, second best were the upstairs front seats.
So interesting. Thx
A heart-warming documentary - that everyone should watch in these troubled times. How overwhelming to see at the end it was produced by Year 6 Students! You are amazing! All credit to your teachers too for supporting you! Lovely to see a very brief shot of London Transport Country Bus heading for Gadebridge in Hemel Hempstead; which was my home growing up. Fond memories of London Transport in the Country bus area. Thank you so much for an incredibly informative and moving documentary! Love and blessings!
troubled times?🤣
@titteryenot1136 he wrote his comment during the global pandemic, so yeah they were troubled times.
What a great documentary and interesting too. LT certainly looked after its employees back then. I think they should have been a role model for other businesses at that time. It seems all the staff interviewed enjoyed their jobs and made friendships for life.
I remember going to the Cinema on the 'Green Line' bus,happy days how life has changed now !
A smashing bit of social history & BBC quality . . .very good. Well done kids. Here's hoping some go onto professional film making and go on, in some small part, to revive the tradition where lots of public service companies had film making units.
And well done Unite for sponsoring
Remember as a kid, no school holiday in the 1960s was complete without at least one day ranging all over London with a Train and Bus Rover - They started off @ 2shillings and 3pence (11 pence in today's money) in the mid 60's and by 1969 were 5 shillings (25 pence) for a day of virtually unrestricted travel on Tube and bus (From memory, the ticket only excluded travel on what is now the extreme outer zone tube, Met line past Rickmansworth and the furthest extent of the central line in the East and some Heathrow express buses and Night buses).
Such days always started-off with the intention to go and see something specific thing, e.g. the Science Museum, but after a whistle stop tour of all points there, then usually degenerated into a random tour of London, jumping on one bus or train and then off onto another to see where it would take us.
I don't think parents would be comfortable allowing 12-15 year olds that sort of freedom today.
But then, dual operation, driver/conductor, driver/guard did offer a small margin of extra safety then and London then was more subdued and less busy than it is today - the overhang from the war, both economic, social and psychological still prevailed.
I enjoyed this film. Very well made and very informative. Well done to all involved
agreed...gem of a film
Rangers football
This brings back memory’s as dear old grandad was a clipper in the good old days so thank you for the vidoe
This is just great! Makes we yearn for the London of my youth when it was sixpence to go from Oxford Street to Prince Albert Road, just past St. John's Wood roundabout, on the 74/74B.
Good to see the 108b. Used to get it every morning in Sydenham High Street to Crystal Palace on my way to school in Streatham. That was the 137 from Palace to Streatham.
Beautifully done! Thank you. I used to go to school on these buses in Northern Ireland in the late fifties. I forwarded this to my brother who is an avid bus fan. I'm sure he will enjoy it.
I was born n raised in Belfast and still here 👋. My father (r.i.p.) drove the buses for most of his life. Started with The Belfast Corporation in his '20s , then Citybus and finally Translink. I grew up listening to them (my parents) talk of 'the old trolley buses' . I have a vague memory from childhood (I'm 51 ) of being on a bus that had the open door at the back.. to hop on and off.
This has been popping up in my CZcams suggestions for a couple of weeks now - probably because I'm subscribed to Vicki Pipe & her name pops up in the credits. So today I finally found the time to watch it - and very glad I am to have done so. A fascinating oral history that was well edited. I liked that the bit where Terry Grant talked about a woman going under his bus and you could see that it was still difficult for him to talk about it and the scene cut away rather than seeing him struggling - well done.
Then to discover that this was a project where primary school children interviewed drivers, conductors and cleaners and let them tell their own stories.
I have now discovered that the faresplease website has the full interviews with each person in the film (and a few more), so looks like another 18 hours of listening pleasure.
Haha I'm subbed to her too! You must be correct.
Bro I remember as a schoolboy chasing them buses and hopping on when you missed that bus at the stop
Wow! Great memories, I drove from Elmers End garage from 1973-78 RT-RM-SMS-DMS routes12-12a-54-194-194b Great times happy days, many thanks for this footage.
Magic, I was only ever a pass, crabbing all the numbers, but loved LT as it was...........
I loved riding the platform around Marble Arch and jumping off at the first stop on Edgware rd. The stop was near the bend and there was a fence /guardrail so timing was essential
Was always a thrill to come down from Coven Heath in the midlands to visit granddad in Herne Hill and ride the RTs and Routemasters round London in the 1950s when I was a kid. This brought back some happy memories. Many thanks to all those people who worked for LT.
Yes and Indeed !
So many memories brought back to me by this documentary.
13’s 26’s 17’s and 82’s out of Nth Finchley in late 80’s. Best job I ever had. Canteen ladies at Tally Ho canteen kept me well fed too😀
I remember a conductor on the no.8 bus in '78 who would have us passengers in tears with some crackin' banter from Oxford circus, where I'd get on,to willesden garage. Also I was guilty of pulling the wire twice if a conductor got off, to say, buy a newspaper. Sorry!! Route master, best ever, blindin'.
Great memories, 😊 thanks ❤❤
I remember Vic from when he was a Conductor and Driver, a lovely chap as were all the crews at Plumstead at the time. I was at his wedding.
11:12 that was my favourite seat on the bus as a wee boy. Never sat on it much. I knelt on it for this veiw ‘til my mum told me “c’moan wir gittin’ aff noo”.
Excellent. Brilliant choice of interviewees, excellent and informed editing too! The sheer scope of this documentary is amazing. I recall vividly myself many of the aspects talked about on screen from when I was a kid travelling, as young as 8 years old traveling alone and safely on a 3/- Red Rover from Romford to Heathrow Airport and back many times!
Thanks for posting! Brought back a lot of London childhood memories.
What a surprise at the end to see it was made by school children! Well done, what a great documentary.
Absolutely amazing and interesting history for something that I've taken for granted when I've visited London. I agree with others that the current bus system tends to be impersonal and lacks the personality these drivers and workers show. I wish I could have experienced it in person when they were the drivers.
Loved those days and miss the clippies.
Fantastic- but also tinged with sadness to see how workers rights, benefits and social perks have been completely destroyed by privatisation and unreliable heartless modern technology. Society has gone backwards and replaced with modern day slavery and disrespect for the modern day working class
Kudos to all London’s bus drivers. Your skills never cease to amaze me, every day negotiating London’s crazy roads, drivers, pedestrians and bikers/cyclists, all the while getting hundreds of passengers safely to their destinations. Thank you!
AeroJ KUDOS??? You fkn loser!!