tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39019688758046344082024-03-16T11:52:40.696+00:00Leon DanielsLeon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.comBlogger258125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-13765647774094545332015-07-08T00:01:00.002+01:002015-07-08T00:03:13.951+01:007th July 2005
Today was the anniversary of the London bombings - three on the Underground and one on a route 30 bus.
This anniversary is recognised annually but on this tenth occasion there were simultaneous marks of respect at each of the sites, as well as at the permanent memorial in Hyde Park and a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Survivors, families, colleagues and friends were Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com108tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-73489454122237251872015-06-14T23:17:00.003+01:002015-06-20T23:04:53.964+01:00Donald Allmey
Former London coach operator Don Allmey, who founded and ran Allmey Coaches of Eastcote, died on 6th June aged 78.
Don was more than just a family coach operator which were typical in London and elsewhere in the post-war years. Both Don and his wife Jean were well-known to their loyal customers for very many years and their fleet a familiar sight.
Don and his late brother Allan, had a specialLeon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-10795573956038664082014-11-02T23:14:00.000+00:002014-11-03T16:28:32.278+00:00"Take a number 11...."
Our Year of the Bus celebration is coming to a close. After an extraordinary year we are undertaking the last few events.
A couple of weeks ago the Bus Sculptures were unveiled across London and today nearly 20 heritage RT family buses from the 1940s and 50s joined together in a celebration operation along route 11.Retracing its route of the time, the buses ran from Liverpool Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-52901173841054443142014-09-29T00:20:00.001+01:002014-09-29T07:54:54.962+01:00Tube train returns to Ongar branch after 20 years
Twenty
years ago London Transport ‘pulled the plug’ on the Epping-Ongar branch of the
Central line.
The
story however started in 1865 when the Great Eastern Railway reached the Essex
outpost of Epping. In 1950, driven by post-war housing demands, it became a
fully-fledged part of the Underground.
London Transport
became part of the Greater London Council during the political changes Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-10802375338612115662014-07-06T23:50:00.001+01:002014-07-06T23:56:30.436+01:00London Pride
Last Saturday we were celebrating Pride London with many thousands marching through the West End. Nothing was going to dampen spirits, not even the rain.The first march took place 40 years ago, and over the decades it has become more of a carnival and less of a protest. For many years, the festival at the end of the march was held on Clapham Common or Finsbury Park. Nowadays it finishes in Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-27603568199606794692014-06-30T23:03:00.000+01:002014-06-30T23:21:21.495+01:00Looking back down Regent Street
A week on from last Sunday’s Regent Street Bus Cavalcade and we are still receiving enthusiastic tributes on the hugely successful day.We have had the most amazing reaction. It seems some 400,000 people attended, which is more than double that predicted. Across the world, social media has reported the wonderful, family atmosphere as people wandered around and through the buses. Allowing Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-8094684635938915012014-06-24T00:33:00.000+01:002014-06-24T00:50:12.680+01:00Year of the Bus Cavalcade
Photo thanks to Peter Zabek
Wasn't Sunday's Bus Cavalcade in London's Regent Street amazing! It was attended by tens of thousands of people in glorious sunny weather. Not just bus enthusiasts, as I heard one person comment, but many members of the public especially families - many taken by delighted surprise when they found vehicles and cabs were open for exploration. Queues built up for Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-49016237109096540322014-06-13T07:09:00.001+01:002014-06-13T22:46:48.566+01:00Battle bus
On Thursday morning I was delighted to launch our 'newest' bus. But unlike the fleet of New Routemasters currently joining the fleet, this 'new' bus is 100 years old.In 1914, more than 1000 London buses carried soldiers to the Western front, some returning with the injured. Painted khaki and with the windows boarded up, their civilian drivers bravely drove them no faster than their top speed Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-52937903545210156342014-04-21T09:24:00.000+01:002014-04-21T09:51:06.971+01:00Year of the Bus underway
The modern cars and cabs give away that this is not the 1950s!
Our 2014 Year of the Bus is well underway and we have enjoyed several special bus events so far including the old and the new. Last Saturday, Londoners and visitors alike were treated to a feast of 1950s nostalgia. Celebrating 75 years since the RT-type bus entered service on route 22, a whole fleet of them joined into that Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-28883279072601811792014-03-22T20:11:00.000+00:002014-03-22T20:30:03.519+00:00Elizabeth's Legacy of Hope
Sarah Hope (left) with her sister Victoria and Mayor Boris Johnson
Photo: Paul Grover for Daily Telegraph
In 2007 Sarah Hope and her family were involved in a tragic accident involving a bus in South West London. Sarah’s mother was killed, Sarah herself was injured and her daughter, Pollyanna who was 2 years old at the time, lost a leg.I have met and spoken with Sarah and her husband Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-58762850869703603652014-02-03T06:26:00.000+00:002014-02-03T06:26:27.876+00:00Going cashless
Today we are announcing that London’s buses will stop accepting cash fares later this summer.99% of our passengers use some form of pass. The number of people paying cash is so small, yet it costs £24m a year. That is a lot of money which could be reinvested in the transport system.Who uses cash? During our consultation, respondents expressed concern on behalf of the following groups:Older Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-51205056992810330202014-01-29T00:20:00.000+00:002014-01-29T07:45:06.076+00:00Year of the Bus
Thanks to Peter Zabek for photo
This week we formally launched 2014 as “Year of the Bus”.Year of the Bus will be centred around four themes - contribution to the economy, heritage, people and innovation of London.We can look forward to celebrations across London throughout the year kicking off on 4th February with radio’s Robert Elms interviewing me at the London Transport Museum. (See Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-34281313502312308972014-01-23T10:34:00.001+00:002014-01-23T17:29:07.786+00:00
All good things, as they say, come to an end and I am afraid I have to announce that traditional Routemasters will be withdrawn from route 9 this July.The last route to use Routemasters was route 159, disappearing from London’s streets in December 2005. Since then some have operated on parts of route 9 and 15 as a tourist attraction.Originally they operated daily between Aldwych and Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-73909973086977845062013-12-11T20:47:00.000+00:002013-12-11T23:12:39.359+00:00Vincent McKenna 1951-2013
I am very sad to report the death of my old friend Vin McKenna, who died aged 62 on Tuesday of a heart attack.
For anyone in the bus industry, McKenna is an instantly recognisable name - that of producers of destination blinds, a business which Vin and his brother Paul set up in 1978.
From small beginnings, their business benefitted from a bus industry rapidly outsourcing. Today, their Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-60231207915263520332013-12-08T21:37:00.000+00:002013-12-08T21:49:52.786+00:00The conclusion of my 2009 Christmas Eve story
Regular readers will
remember the story from four years ago, the one about the old London bus we found
in France - of all places.
To recap go to
http://leondaniels.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/story-of-rtw335-tale-for-christmas.html
Originally brought home
in 2004, it was despatched for restoration. It was a huge job! As I had previously
described – the interior, the hole in the floor,Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-15963966665507973812013-10-20T09:08:00.002+01:002013-10-20T09:08:36.294+01:00One country, two systems
In a short week the Mayor Boris Johnson has led a posse of business leaders through China and to Hong Kong drumming up investment for London and championing our capital as THE place to be for business, culture, education and growth.
Surrounded by a mass of eager press, Boris spoke at countless lunches and dinners, ran daily back-to-back meetings as well as obliging the media with quotesLeon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-20936875811588209462013-10-01T23:26:00.000+01:002013-10-01T23:28:31.864+01:00Boris in Manchester
On Monday Mayor Boris Johnson, en route to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, called in to see McKenna Brothers – the main manufacturers of destination blinds for buses in London and around the world.At their HQ in Middleton, Boris saw first hand this amazing family-owned business which makes nearly all of our printed destination blinds, as well as signage for numerous Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-39579276819315359512013-09-28T09:15:00.001+01:002013-09-29T11:04:24.003+01:00What goes around....
We were very pleased with our new buses whenthey came in 1989:
Metrobuses for 165 and 365 and Olympians for the 252
________________________________________________________________
Friday 27th September was the end of an interesting chapter of London’s bus history, and for me personally.
In 1988, when working at Ensign Bus Services Ltd, I won four bus routes in Romford – 165Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-26683640488040318792013-09-21T07:21:00.000+01:002013-09-21T21:46:19.491+01:00Route 11 conversion started on Friday night
Ready for departure at Liverpool Street Station
The first New Bus for London on route 11 entered service Friday night. LT59 left Liverpool Street Station at 1821 for Victoria.
This is the start of a progressive conversion of the route which will be complete in the next 10 days adding a further 27 or so vehicles to the existing fleet.Surprised passengers were again delighted to hop on & Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-133926182401414872013-09-04T23:26:00.001+01:002013-09-05T00:23:08.650+01:00Heavy Goods Vehicle safety
Boris Johnson in the cab of our HGV
Today’s long-planned Heavy Goods Vehicle safety event was promoting further steps to try and reduce the risk to cyclists from large lorries. Sadly the event was marred by the death of another cyclist – the seventh this year and the fifth in collision with an HGV. My sympathies go out to the family. At the ‘Exchanging Places’ event opposite the Houses of Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-63615500457759896862013-08-05T23:56:00.000+01:002013-08-06T14:59:25.264+01:00More New Buses for London<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-66796541961211511762013-07-21T23:56:00.003+01:002013-07-24T23:26:12.524+01:00Tottenham centenary
In August 2011, Tottenham was in the headlines when armed police fatally shot Mark Duggan in Ferry Lane, thus sparking what became a series of riots across suburban London. That night – 7/8th August – the London Fire Brigade reported over 2000 emergency calls. When an uneasy calm returned, Tottenham showed the physical and social scars of the previous few days. During the last two years, Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-47875703253145925812013-07-10T07:41:00.001+01:002013-07-10T07:43:08.833+01:00A lesson from history<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-40565109469328986322013-06-28T23:31:00.001+01:002013-06-28T23:44:55.352+01:00Fifty years on...
You might have been expecting a New Bus for London story last weekend but there was more than enough on-line for everyone at the time. Better I thought to reflect on the introduction of the new fleet one week on. Older readers will know that in the mass conversion programmes of the 1960s and 1970s, overnight changes were normal. More recently we have generally made progressive Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901968875804634408.post-84621861280998819272013-06-23T16:24:00.001+01:002013-06-23T16:30:09.170+01:00Longest day
The start of the longest day of the year found me at Victoria Coach Station for the unveiling of the coveted ‘Red Wheel’ of the Transport Trust. Launched in April 2009, the Trust launched its nationwide programme marking sites of historical interest with Red Wheel plaques. This is a brilliant initiative to commemorate Britain’s rich and globally important transport legacy and its development Leon Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12204869899460566340noreply@blogger.com0