Blimey! Say it ain't so!

I am deeply distressed over this. The double-decker busses were part of London's charm; moving architecture if you will. They will be sadly missed.

LONDON (AP) - After half a century, London's red Routemaster buses are rattling into retirement.

Thousands of fans said farewell to the hop-on, hop-off buses Thursday, the last full day of regular service for the icon that has been the subject of thousands of tourists' photographs and postcards.
Transport authorities are withdrawing the blunt-nosed double-decker from its last route - the 159 from Marble Arch to Streatham Hill - on Friday. The final Routemaster was leaving central London just after noon, bound south of the river to a bus garage in Brixton.
"My experience of London is diminished by their passing," said Travis Elborough, author of the Routemaster book The Bus We Loved.
Many Londoners agree. In a poll last month for the city's Evening Standard newspaper, 81 per cent opposed scrapping the Routemaster.