Linguapress intermediate English resources

BIG RED LONDON BUSES

What is the best-known symbol of London? Big Ben? The statue of Eros in Picadilly Circus? Or could it be something much more ordinary than that? Could it be the big red London double-decker bus?
    It certainly could. Big red buses are recognised - and even found - all over the world, and people recognise them as symbols of London. Visitors climb into London buses to go and see the Niagara Falls. London buses can be seen driving round Europe to advertise big department stores, or British events . They don't need to have the words "London Transport" on the side of them. People recognise them at once!     
     It was over 100 years ago, on October 25th 1911, that the London General Omnibus Company ran their last horse-drawn omnibus through the streets of the capital. Since then the big red motor bus has been London's "king of the road".
Today, every day, thousands of Londoners use the big red buses to move - often slowly - around town. Lots of tourists know that a one-day London bus pass, valid on all regular bus routes, offers a wonderful way to see  Britain's capital city.    
    The idea of the "double decker" is actually much older than the motor bus. It is  a continuation of the system that was used for public transport in the age of horse-drawn vehicles, when some of the passengers sat inside, and the rest travelled on the roof. Too bad if it was raining!
    The earliest horse-drawn double-deckers in London had steps at the back, so that people could climb up onto the roof. The main difference with today's buses was that in those days, there was no protection for the people travelling on top. If it rained, they could pull a sort of oil-cloth cover out of the back of the seat in front of them, and pull it over them; but they still got wet.
    Today the only open-topped buses are the special tourist buses.     It wasn't until the 1930's that all new buses came equipped with roofs over the upper deck! Increasingly powerful engines meant that buses could be bigger and heavier.  Like trams, they could then have roofs.
    The most famous London buses, however, are not those that filled the Capital's streets in the 1930's, but the powerful "Routemasters" which date from the 1950's and 60's. These are the buses that have been taken all over the world, the buses that you can see in the tourist brochures, and the ones which have been sold, in miniature, to millions of visitors and souvenir hunters.
    The Routemaster is an icon in itself! With its open platform at the back end, the Routemaster was the most popular bus in London, because passengers could climb on and off anywhere, even if the bus was moving (though this was not recommended!) These buses were designed specially for London, by people who knew what London needed, and they  served their purpose well, and did so for half a century !
    Things started to go wrong for the London bus in the late 1960's. That was when the Ministry of Transport decided that it would only give financial help to bus companies that bought new buses with doors! Suddenly London Transport found they could no longer buy any more of their favourite Routemasters, that they had designed. They had instead to choose other models. Today, European Union rules also say that new buses for public transport must have doors.
    London, however,  resisted the bureaucrats! Determined to keep the buses that Londoners (and tourists) wanted, London Transport kept the old Routemasters going as long as possible. Five hundred of the solid and popular old buses were extensively renovated, and put back on the road as good as new, if not better! But not even the Routemaster could resist the winds of change. Modern transport systems require one-man buses, not buses with both a driver and a conductor. So in 2005, the old Routemasters were finally taken out of normal service. 

    Still, it's not too late to enjoy travelling on one of these historic buses. Some of the old buses have been preserved, and were used on two "heritage routes" through the centre of London, specially for tourists.  Route 9 went from the Royal Albert Hall to Aldwych, via Piccadilly circus and Trafalgar Square; but the last Routmasters were used on this route in 2014. The only route left is Route 15, which goes from Trafalgar Square to the Tower of London, via St. Paul's Cathedral.  But other old Routemasters are used by the tourist bus companies, which offer trips round the centre of London.

WORDS:   advertise: publicise, promote conductor: on a bus, the man who sells tickets, not the driver. - department stores: big shops with lots of different departments - double decker: with two levels - drawn: to draw, to pull - events: occasions, special presentations - horse-drawn: pulled by horses - hunt: look for- increasingly: more and more - omnibus: bus - pass: an unlimited ticket - serve their purpose: do what they are meant to do  - trams: buses that run on rails - are valid: can be used.

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Student Worksheet

Prepositions

Complete this extract from the text, replacing the missing prepositions:

      at - for - in - in - in - of - of - of - of - on - onto - out - over - over - until - up - with - with



QUESTIONS:

True or false: you may need to reflect carefully to determine the answers to some of these statements:

 

   

Notes for teachers

Text contraction:

Taking the article paragraph by paragraph,summarize this article in less than half its length. To do this, they should first of all write down a short sentence summarizing the essential point(s) of each paragraph, then string these sentences together, adding extra important information when appropriate.




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Revised 2015 . Originally published in Freeway, the Intermediate level English newsmagazine.
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