Published: 6 February, 2014
by ALICE HUTTON

VINTAGE Routemasters have been running along a bus route in Camden Town as transport chiefs try to cope with London's tube strike.

Nine of the vehicles were hired from the London Bus Company by Transport for London (TfL) at an average cost of nearly £6,000 a day. They were running along the 29 bus route as industrial acton by underground staff continued through today (Thursday).

The red RT3062 model was introduced in 1950 and withdrawn from service in 1981, and the green RT3238 was withdrawn from service in 1972. Other models on the roads today come from the 1960s.

Our pictures show them photographed this afternoon in Camden Road.

A spokeswoman for the London Bus Company confirmed that TfL hired the buses out yesterday (Wednesday) and today (Thursday) to deal with the strikes. She added that the average cost of the hire of a bus for four hours for a wedding was £625 but “there are different deals on for different things and they wouldn't pay what we would charge for a wedding for the whole day”.

The strike was called by Royal and Maritime and Transport (RMT) and Transport Salaried Staff Association unions in protest over the closure of ticket offices and the loss of 750 jobs. It began at 9pm on Tuesday, with hundreds of people cramming on to station platforms and queuing at bus stops, and is due to end this evening.

RMT claimed that 70 per cent of the system has ground to a halt.

Other vintage routemasters in service included a 1968 RML902 and a 1950s RT3062, an RML893, RML897, RM298- 1960s, RML899 and RML2331.

Here's another corker running on the 29 bus route today. Camden Town is like an outdoor transport museum right now. pic.twitter.com/HdoSHGb61M

— Camden New Journal (@NewJournal) February 6, 2014