Stars of route 9

Our long serving and outstanding Staff Manager at Westbourne Park Monoleto Hutchinson celebrated the end of 40 years' service by conducting a Routemaster on route 9 driven by the Commissioner for Transport in London Peter Hendy.

'Hutch', as he was universally known, was of course already in residence at X when Peter ran this business, originally for London Buses and later when CentreWest London Buses was the first of the LBL companies to be privatised.

When I first came to CentreWest Hutch was already an institution. He knew all of the staff personally, managed their time, granted favours, or applied a form of discipline by the careful use of his ascerbic wit. He nearly always referred to drivers and conductors as "Mr..." - a tradition from the olden days which he carefully retained.

He was never ruffled and took the annual Notting Hill Carnival in his stride despite the enormous disruption it causes to this garage (the Carnival passes the door!).

He belongs to a tradition of busmen we won't see the likes of again and we wish him well in his very well earned retirement.

(Hutch and Peter Hendy before taking to the streets of route 9)

...