BUS passengers often feel like they are at the end of life’s queue, but yesterday they rode triumphantly into London as if on chariots.

They spared no pity for the motorists — who used to splatter them at bus stops — now facing a congestion charge, or for the users of the overcrowded Tube who used to beat them to the post. “This is our day,” Angela Blackmore, a healthcare assistant on the No 12 from Peckham, said. “Bus passengers have got the worst of everything in the past, now this congestion charge is all about getting better buses; it’s all about us.”

At that moment, the driver,used to crawling through Elephant and Castle roundabout, put his foot down and raced into the congestion zone as if he were auditioning for the London sequel to Speed. Passengers enjoyed the novel necessity of having to grip seatbacks on the bends. The video display inside the speed machine carried a personal message from Ken Livingstone: “What will the congestion charge be spent on? Better buses.”

The mayor is trying nothing less than to make buses sexy, fast, and modern — an attempt to disprove Margaret Thatcher’s comment that a man who finds himself on a bus after the age of 30 can count himself a failure in life.

Peter Morris, 42, does not count himself a failure, but was dismayed to find himself travelling on a bus brought out of a museum rather than one of the new fleet of red buses promised by Mr Livingstone. Mr Morris, with dozens of passengers waiting ten minutes for the No 15 at Paddington, was greeted with a “Green Line” 1950s double-decker. The bus had not seen active service for 30 years, and the conductor told them it was one of their finest showpieces. “We’ve had to bring it on to the road because of the congestion charge and the Tube being down,” he said.

At the end of the 19th century, Lord Bowen made the man on the top of the Clapham Omnibus legal shorthand for a “reasonable” person. On the top of the No 15, Mr Morris was not feeling very reasonable. “I moved out of London six months ago because of the congestion charge, and I can’t wait for the day I can work out of London too,” he said. He travels by train and Tube, but had had to take the bus because of Tube problems.

Others felt proud. “They should have more buses like this, with conductors — that would solve the congestion without the charge,” said David Ball, 60, who has been using London Transport for 49 years. The time may have come when motorists have missed the bus.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• UK regional accents thrive against the odds
• ‘Scarecrow’ wind farms put rare birds to flight
• What an anti-climax: G-spot is a myth