BMMO buses were of course superior to the Routemaster. But for the bus freaks amongst you the buses that predated the Routemaster were sheer class.

Trouble with bendybuses is that the Luftwaffe failed to do what allied and other bombers did in Germany, ie destroy whole cities so that they could be rebuilt with wide roads and ring roads that could accomodate such articulated vehicles, whilst at the same time still having space for proper separate cycle paths.

Whilst I blame the Victorians for not having the foresight to build a propertly integrated London rail network (damn that unregulated speculative free market) (I had a letter from Thameslink along these lines years ago explaining why London Bridge was such a bottleneck), I similarly blame those in the first few centuries of the last millenium for not designing central London roads to accommodate long buses. I am pretty sure that they were responsible for the Peckham one way system, Rye Lane and pedestrianised area. Really, my good readers, see how poorly the number 12 copes with those roads.