From Albuquerque! "Find Love on the Luminaria Tour! It Happens More Than You Think!" (City of Albuquerque >Transit > News)

This story originally appeared on the City of Albuquerque > Transit > News website at this address: http://www.cabq.gov/transit/news/find-love-on-the-luminaria-tour-it-happens-more-than-you-think/. This link now requires a logon name and password. A copy of the original story appears below.


Sometimes (with apologies to Sigmund Freud), a Luminaria Tour is just a Luminaria Tour. But very often, the charm of the lights and the warm Holiday feelings can turn the Tour into quite a romantic setting. That’s why ABQ RIDE is touting this year’s event as “Love on the Luminaria Tour, 2012.”

Just ask the thousands of couples who have bought tickets to the Luminaria Tour every year since the 1960s. Better yet, just ask one of ABQ RIDE’s own employees how the Luminaria Tour actually rekindled a romance that led to marriage.

On Christmas Eve 2005, Research Specialist Jonathan Blaich took the Luminaria Tour with his family. He was then working at another job in Albuquerque; a graduate of UNM and contemplating an advanced degree at Arizona State. While in line, he ran into Meg Radigan, who’d been his Junior Prom date at La Cueva High School eight years before. They had known each other from church, but had lost touch when Meg moved to Michigan to attend tiny Hillsdale College. 

While on the tour the two got reacquainted; exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. Jonathan even asked Meg out for New Year’s Eve, but a schedule conflict kept that from happening. Even after Meg left for Costa Rica for a stint at teaching English for the British Institute, Jonathan persistently emailed her. When she came back to Albuquerque, the two began dating. In 2009, they completed what the Luminaria Tour had started; they got married. 

Jonathan admits had it not been for the Luminaria Tour, his life would probably be very different. “I’ve often thought about the role the Luminaria Tour played in my life,“ said Jonathan. “I can say it certainly brings people together in the best sort of way.”

To best enjoy the Tour, riders are encouraged to arrive 20 minutes prior to their scheduled departure time. They can park for free at the Convention Center’s eastside parking structure at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Broadway. Free parking will also be available for disabled and special needs individuals at the parking lot on the northwest corner of 3rd Street and Marquette. The tour works its holiday and some say romantic magic for about an hour as it goes through Old Town, the Country Club and Los Altos neighborhoods.

“We’re proud that we can bring some of the magic of Albuquerque’s Christmas season to our riders every year,” said Bruce Rizzieri, Director of ABQ RIDE. “If that magic should translate into romance for some of our couples, all the better.”

From Chapel Hill,North Carolina: "Angel Grad Student Delivers Woman's Baby at Bus Stop," By Valerie Isakova for Yahoo Shine

They say that every woman's birth story is unique, but having a baby at a bus stop, assisted only by an English Literature grad student with a cellphone and a shoelace is more unusual than most. (Read more here.)

From Denver: "Route 66," by tabdeans

It’s hard to believe it’s actually December, as I waited for the 66 bus this morning, clad in jeans and a sweatshirt, watching the sun rise with temperatures in the 50′s. The stop for the 66 is at the corner of the field where the No Drama Llama lives, actually four llama live there, but this llama spends all of his time alone in the corner. I’ve taken the bus several days in a row, and the No Drama Llama is starting to like me. (Read more here.)

From San Francisco: "Bus Report #721," by Rachel

I dragged myself out of bed this morning, tired and trying not to think about how little sleep I  got, just back from a quick trip east for Thanksgiving. (Read more here.)

From Australia: Pregnant Lady on A Bus (video via YouTube)

From NYC: "Beauty on the Bus" [ a Top Ten Bus Stories nominee] by Susan Heath for The New York Times

Dear Diary:

A few mornings ago, our 86-year-old neighbor, elegantly dressed and perfectly made up as usual, knocked on our apartment door. “This is for your wedding anniversary,” Ruth said, and gave me one of her wonderful light-up-the-day smiles, an enchanting orchid plant and a big kiss. (My partner and I got married a year ago after 23 years of living together, and that day Ruth gave us a bamboo plant in an elephant pot, signifying long-lasting happiness.)

We chatted for a minute and then, her bright blue eyes twinkling, she said: “May I tell you something? I’m just a bit embarrassed about this, but I have to tell someone.”

It had happened that weekend. Ruth was on the M104, going up Broadway, sitting in one of those front seats they keep for old people. (Read more here.)

From NYC: "Bus Story: The Man in Black," by Minnette Coleman via Speak Without Interruption

He was dressed in black from head to toe. Even his back pack and the duffle bag he carried were all without color. Tall but bent over slightly, you could tell age was creeping up on him quickly and he reserved his energy for things other than running for the bus. He walked and the driver waited perhaps out of respect. I’d like to think it was because of the hat. (Read more here.)

From Minneapolis-St. Paul: "Bussing – The Other Way of Getting to Where You Want to Be," by Mary Treacy

“With a smile and a profile!” – That’s how my bus driver greeted passengers at the start of his mid-day shift. Our ebullient leader assured us that his goal on the trip was “to extinguish the problem before the problem exists.’  Shoppers loaded with Target totes, moms with toddlers, students headed for class, even the suits on board relaxed just a bit. We were in good hands. (Read more here.)

From Seattle: "Woman says son's stinky diaper got them kicked off Metro bus," by Jamie Lynn for KOMO News

A local mother claims a dispute over a stinky diaper got her kicked off of a Metro bus. (Read more here.)

From the UK via Chicago’s Third Coast International Audio Festival: "The Red, White and Blue Bus," by Luke Eldridge (audio)

The Red, White and Blue Bus

From NYC: "Response to a Cranky Bus Passenger," by David Schaum for The New York Times

Dear Diary:

On a sunny weekday afternoon, I found myself on an uptown-bound M104. It was filled to the brim with the usual suspects for that time of day — seniors, nannies and freelancers.

Around 72nd Street, a grandmother with grandson in hand boarded our vehicle. As he seemed intimidated by the crowd, she softly encouraged the little boy to walk to the back of the bus, offering sweet words in Russian. Together, they spotted an open seat next to a graying, sour-looking woman wearing a long pink dress accessorized with an array of plastic costume jewelry. (Read more here.)

From Winnipeg, Canada: "Winnipeg bus driver gives his shoes to man in need" (CBC News)

A Winnipeg Transit bus driver is being hailed a Good Samaritan after stunned passengers watched him give the shoes off his feet to a man who was walking barefoot on the sidewalk. (Read more here.)

From Region Midtjylland, Denmark: "Midttrafik commercial: The Bus (UK version) [official]" (video via YouTube)

From Edinburgh, Scotland: "A nation of 'fash-ists' " (Not Reading On the Bus)

A woman tried to use a lottery ticket to get on the bus yesterday, which you might say re-defines the whole concept of luck.  I thought the bus driver was brave to enter into debate with her (with commendable delicacy) as she looked as if she might be monumental--at the very least-- in her displeasure (and she did have a tattoo on the back of her neck saying:  ‘get tae f..k’). (Read more here.)

From (possibly) Chapel Hill, North Carolina: "Novel Ideas [3]: A Backpack, A Bus Pass, and a Coffee Mug," by Miss Anderson

I think I’m in love with public transportation.

One of the concerns I had with moving back to the university life was that living off campus would be a pain in the butt. As an undergrad living on campus, I was rarely more than a fifteen minute walk from anywhere I wanted to go. For my master’s, I took night classes at a smaller school with free parking after 5pm. But my campus now is notorious for lack of parking. Instead of my old, easy “hop in the car and go” commute, I’m faced with some crazy options involving multiple modes of transportation in a single trip. (Read more here.)

From Edinburgh, Scotland: "Civilisation for beginners" [a Top Ten Bus Stories nominee]. (Not Reading On the Bus)

Late August in Edinburgh, when the frenetic madness of the past few weeks is touched by the slightest whiff of melancholy as the nights begin to perceptibly draw in and here and there trees show the first hints of bronze and russet pink.  Rowan berries glow preternaturally red in the soft evening light and there is a sense  of febrile exhaustion—of an entire city feeling tired and emotional, but determined to have a good time until the party is well and truly over.  In this overcharged atmosphere everything seems exaggerated—the crowds, the rain—and responses are often disproportionate.  We are all subject to this end of an epoch mood.

Riding the bus is different in August as well. (Read more here.)

From NYC: "A Bus Driver Whistles While He Works," By Judy Langan for The New York Times

Dear Diary:

New York City has a public relations treasure in the M4 bus driver taking us down Fifth Avenue on a recent lazy Saturday from the Metropolitan Museum. (Read more here.)

From Singapore: "Up and down bus," by Jude and Serene

You would have thought I had brought her on the most amazing carnival ride ever, or that we were sitting in a fancy space shuttle ready to take off on some fantastic journey. And to a three year old who until a week ago, had never seen a double-decker bus, sitting right in front on the upper deck probably elicits the same level of thrill and excitement :) (Read more here.)

From San Francisco: "Bus Report #705," by Rachel

Last night I ran for the 38, after a lovely evening catching up with J. over tea at Samovar, Yerba Buena Center.
I caught the bus just as it was about to leave the stop. I was still trying to find my Clipper card as I walked up the stairs, and when I went to tag my card I came face to face with the Alien Donut Man. (Read more here.)

From Paignton, Devon, England: "Chair rage: police hunt for man who chewed bus seat," by Steven Morris for The Guardian

Police in Devon are asking for help in finding a bus passenger who caused £200 worth of damage by eating his seat – or at least a chunk of it. (Read more here.)

From San Francisco: "24 Hours on Muni Part 2," by JDH

7:03pm T Platform 3rd/Paul  13 lines ridden, 14 rides.  “Whoa, no brakes!”... (Read more here.)

From San Francisco: "24 Hours on Muni Part 1," by JDH

On Friday, June 8th, I left my house with the goal of riding Muni for 24 hours straight.  I wanted to get lost at home, to find hidden pockets of the City, and to take my mind off the daily drudge. Before leaving, I laid out some goals and guidelines: (Read more here.)

From Brassall, Queensland, Australia: "Tom's on board for catching bus" by Kieran Banks for the Queensland Times

Every day Brassall resident Tom Spowart walks to the bus stop and waits for the 502 service to arrive and take him into town.

This may seem like a mundane everyday task for most people, but for the 103-year-old Mr Spowart it is the only way he can keep up his active lifestyle. (Read more here.)

From Edinburgh, Scotland: "Fools rush in" [a Top Ten Bus Stories nominee]. (Not Reading On the Bus)

On one of the miracle days of summer this week (there have only been two), I found myself in a bus shelter next to a woman who smelled distinctly of bog myrtle.  At first I could not understand where the scent was coming from, as bog myrtle isn’t exactly what you expect to smell in the middle of a city.  I looked around, but there were no plants or trees anywhere nearby the scent could have come from.  Yet there it was, utterly distinctive and unmistakably coming from the only other person in the bus shelter. (Read more here.)

From NYC (2010): "NYC subway breakbusker" by Rev. Xanatos Satanicos...(video via Flickr)

NYC subway breakbusker

From Boston: "The Day the MBTA Saved a Bunny and a Little Girl’s Heart," by Casey Carey-Brown

Each day before school, Roozle chooses a friend to go to school with her. Lately, she has been choosing Nummy, her very first stuffed animal bunny. Nummy is the first stuffed animal she ever had sleep in her crib with her. The first toy she named. A very good friend. Today, Nummy had a great day at school and just before the train arrived to pick us up at Stony Brook, Roozle told us that Nummy was a little scared of the train and she needed to tell her it was okay, trains aren’t scary. (Read more here.)

From Vancouver: "Bus passengers pass the hat to help woman see dying mom on Vancouver Island," by Jane Seyd for the North Shore News

This story originally appeared on the Vancouver Sun website at this address:  http://www.vancouversun.com/passengers+pass+help+woman+dying+Vancouver+Island/6660185/story.html. This link no longer exists. A copy of the original story appears below.


A West Vancouver bus driver and passengers on an express bus to Horseshoe Bay are being hailed as Good Samaritans after they stepped up to get a woman to Nanaimo to see her dying mother on Mother's Day.

The bus was heading from downtown Vancouver to the Horseshoe Bay ferry last Sunday morning when an accident on the Lions Gate Bridge closed the bridge to traffic.

The driver had just announced to passengers that the bus would be rerouted over the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing when he was approached by a woman asking if the bus would still make it in time for the 12:30 p.m. ferry to Nanaimo.

When the bus driver said he didn't think so, the woman "broke down in tears," said Gareth Rowlands, manager of the West Vancouver Blue Bus transit system. She told the driver she'd got a phone call saying her mother - who was in hospital in Nanaimo - likely only had a few hours to live. The woman told him she only had enough money to travel by ferry. Hearing that, another woman on the bus took up a collection from fellow passengers and managed to come up with enough money for the approximately $90 floatplane fare from Vancouver to Nanaimo.

The bus driver, an employee with 16 years' experience, then drove the bus to drop the woman off near to the floatplane base in Vancouver Harbour before continuing on to the Second Narrows.

Rowlands said he first heard about the incident when he heard bus drivers talking about it. The driver of the express bus gave the passengers full credit, he said.

"He said anybody else would have done the same thing. He was just glad that the lady stepped in to help," said Rowlands.

From Portland, Oregon: "The Newbie" [a Top Ten Bus Stories nominee] by Bill Reagan via Trimet Diaries

The #4 is a different ride completely. Whenever I board, I’m shocked by the vibrancy and volume – bold conversations, often across multiple rows of passengers, with random interjections from other riders as if the talkers are crowdsourcing answers for the day’s dilemmas. It’s a raucous and lively experience, and many riders seem happy to perpetuate that. I always feel like an interloper on the #4. A very quiet interloper.

So I sympathized with the woman who apparently boarded the wrong bus, bringing her #4-style personality into the quiet confines of the #35.

(Read the whole story here.)

From Seattle: A "Quick" Ride on Community Transit Route 413 (punkrawker4783 via YouTube)

From somewhere in central Mexico: "Opera On The Bus," by Gary Donaldson

There is a certain serenity one feels from time to time when the universe opens itself up to you and shows you all of its possibilities. There are minute cracks in the seemingly perfect order of things. God and the universe are perpetual and harmonious bodies in motion, and occasionally they pause ever so briefly and allow us a glimpse into the stillness and vast, endless realms of opportunities to accomplish and construct nothing. These brief interludes serve to remind us that we should, and must allow peace and humor into our lives. It is not necessary to analyze it, nor find anything other than the willingness to accept the imperfections of all things and persons as perfection. (Read more here.)

From Long Beach, California: " 'That Boy Can Drive': Behind the Wheel at the 2012 International Bus Roadeo," by Nate Berg for The Atlantic

Excitement is in the air, like the heat rising up from the asphalt of this hotel parking lot where a couple hundred men and women have gathered, traveling from all over North America, to compete in what is likely the most vaunted event in all of public transportation: the 2012 International Bus Roadeo – or more colloquially, the bus olympics. (Read more here.)

From Victoria, British Columbia: "Thoughtful Driver," by Bill Cox via the Transit Hero series by BC Transport

I was on the 3 Beacon Hill at the front of the bus on one of the disabled seats. An older gentlemen seated beside me got up early before his stop. With cane in hand he held onto the pole to steady himself. (Read more here.)

From Minneapolis: "Dinner, my treat," by Cynthia via Bus Tales

This evening, as I was taking the 17 bus home from downtown into Uptown, the ride was uneventful until we got to the stop at the bridge over the freeway on Nicollet Ave.

A boisterous woman got on the bus, and told the driver, “I’m the one with the handcap. I’ve been on your bus before, I have a plate in my foot, don’t start the bus til I’m sitting down.” (Read more here.)

From Portland, Oregon: "SCAM ARTIST RIPS OFF INNOCENT CITIZEN" [a Top Ten Bus Stories nominee], by nickareeno

Somebody tell me if you've been played like this. (Read more here.)

From London: "Forget the horse-drawn carriage! Bride takes the BUS to get to church (and no one even offered her a seat)," by Maysa Rawi for the Daily Mail

A bride in her wedding gown hopped on a BUS to exchange her vows. (Read more here.)

From New York, between Sarasota Springs and Albany: "Novel idea blooms during bus run," by Paul Grondahl for the Times-Union

Will Martin is a novelist of the Northway. Without resorting to illegal texting while driving, Martin managed to finish his first book while on the road, traveling at highway speeds between Exits 1 and 12 of Interstate 87. (Read more here.)

From the "Los Angeles" of April Fool's Day: "Buses Add Car Racks to Ease L.A. Drivers' Uneasy Transition to Transit" (Planetizen)

Rising gas prices have pushed many in L.A. to ditch their cars in favor of public transit. But the switch has been tough for some car-tethered Angelenos, so the MTA has added car racks to its buses for those not ready to leave their cars behind. (Read, and see, more here.)

From NYC: "Unauthorized sleeper trains set up in subway cars," by Barry Paddock for the New York DailyNews

No, you’re not dreaming.

Pajama-clad pranksters recently converted a subway train into a sleeping car full of comfy cots for crashing commuters. (Read more here.)

From somewhere between Korat and Khon Kaen, Thailand: "Thai Efficiency..A Bus Story," by Ryan

This story originally appeared on Adventure Thailand.  This website no longer exists.  A copy of the original story appears below.


On was on my way from Korat to Khon Kaen, two cities located in Esan, not too far away in distance, but in Thai public transportation, round 6 hours from my village in Kalasin. I boarded the bus, a typical air conditioned Baw-kaw-saw bus built around the time when Peace Corps Volunteers were first coming to Thailand. I sat myself in the rear of the bus where a couple of monks and Thai soldiers sat. As the bus got going I noticed a peculiar rumbling sound on top of the constant blast of karaoke music. It was a very loud clanking, a sound that would have worried me, but because of the obvious mileage on this bus I assumed this was just a normal well used bus sound.

The bus took off and like all baw-kaw-saw public transportation buses we stopped for every person on the side of the highway and at every bus stop to pick up even more people. The buses felt like a busy cafeteria during a lunch rush; constantly filling up to the brink and quickly emptying. As more people came onto the bus the ticket man squeezed by passengers, sometimes climbing over seats to get collect everyone’s bus fare. This continued for the first 45 minutes of the ride, eventually leveling off to an equal person to seat ratio.

The clanking noise continued the whole way. Suddenly, as I was deep entranced into a novel that I was reading, the clanking came to a sudden burst of squeaks, groans, and thumps and then a sudden BOOM! I thought it was a tire that had burst at first. The once smooth, but noisy ride became rather silent, but bumpy and then came to immediate halt. The driver barley made it to the shoulder of the road when the bus had stopped. People sat contently at first, not really knowing what to do, or if this was going to be a long ordeal, or a quick fix. A few people stood up to the windows to get a look at what was going on outside, but the majority of the passengers remained in their seats as I did. It didn’t take long before everyone became restless. The driver turned off the engine and it was only a matter of a few minutes before the rather cool bus turned into a sweltering sauna. The driver boarded the bus and told everyone to gather their belonging and get off. I was a bit surprised at this. I just figured they would replace the tire and we would be on our way.

When everyone was off the bus the driver instructed us to wait on the side of the road, behind the bus, as another bus would come to pick us up. At this time I became very curious to why this wasn’t a quick fix. When the driver walked by me I asked what he problem was. He gave a big smile and described something that had broken. We squatted down together near the middle of the bus and he pointed his finger at the obvious source of the problem. I immediately saw the axle that had completely broke in half. After seeing the axle I was amazed that the driver hadn’t lost control of the bus and ran it off the road. It was in serious disrepair.

As we waited for a bus to come pick us up I was imagining how long it might take. Since things here usually take much longer than ‘normal’, but then again I am often amazed how fast some things here do happen. Not more than 10 minutes passed bye before another, almost identical bus from the same bus company came to a screaming halt just in front of our broken down heap. The two drivers talked for a few minutes. I assumed that they were discussing what to do and how to get all these passengers on our way. The bus that had stopped was as full as our bus that we had been on, with probably more people standing in the aisles. Soon the drivers waived us to the bus and told us to get on board. I waited to be the last on board, watching in amazement as everyone squeeze into the narrow aisle of the already full bus. I wasn’t too excited to be stuck in the thick of it. In under a minute the bus once again was packed to complete capacity. I was shocked that we could merge two over crowded busses into one. Only in Thailand, or Africa, or Burma…well, anywhere outside of Europe or America would this ever happen. Safety matters aside and personal space tossed to the curb, the bus sped away in that type of Thai efficiency that I have become blindly accustomed to over the past two years.

From the U.S.A.: "It’s time to love the bus," by Will Doig for Salon

America needs to accept the fact that its most despised form of transport is also its hope for the future. (Read more here.)

From Dorset, England: "Fare Dodger? No, I've got a bus puss." (The Daily Express)

When the owners of this ginger cat called him Dodger, maybe they should have named him Fare Dodger...

The 15-year-old tom boards buses for up to 10 miles, sits on passengers’ laps and gets off without paying. Drivers even know his home bus stop. (Read more here.)

From Yorkshire, England: "Is this Britain's best driver? How To Get Up Saltburn Bank!" (video)

Is this Britain's best driver? How To Get Up Saltburn Bank!

From San Francisco: "Bus Report #668," by Rachel

It was spectacularly foggy this morning - grey and thick, the kind of fog that feels like a blanket set down over the city.

I waited by myself down on Fillmore and Geary and watched the sky turn from grey to moss green.

Right on schedule, my favorite driver, dark glasses and white teeth and sharp cap, drove up and stopped right in front of me. I climbed on board.

(Read more here.)

From Springfiled, Massachusetts: "Valentine's Day story of love at first sight," by Tom Shea for The Republican on MassLive.com

It was springtime, 1980, the afternoon hinting at the coming summer vacation. An overcrowded school bus from Springfield’s former Technical High School took a right off State Street to Main and pulled up in front of what back then was called the Civic Center.



Orlando Santiago was on the bus, standing, squished, bumping into the guy in front of him every time the vehicle accelerated, and the guy behind him when the bus braked.


Out of habit, he checked the bus stop sprawl. 

“People everywhere,” Orlando recalls. “No chance anyone getting on our bus.” Then Orlando saw her. She was inching her way toward the bus.

(Read more here.)

From the former U.S.S.R.: "Soviet Roadside Bus Stops." Photos by Christopher Herwig.

Soviet Roadside Bus Stops

From Frederick, Maryland: "Driving Miss Mary," by Nancy Luse for the Frederick News Post

This story appeared in a blog by Mary Luse called Another One Rides The Bus. The blog was published on the website for the Frederick News Post. It used to be among the featured bus blogs featured on the sidebar for Bus Stories under the heading "Elsewhere." Sadly, that blog no longer exists. Below is a copy of Ms. Luse's story, "Driving Miss Mary."


Miss Mary and her walker didn’t make it across TJ Drive in time to catch the #80 and so she stood under a roof on the porch of a medical building waiting for the #60, her default choice.

I had just finished a doctor’s appointment and one last procedure had pushed me past my window of opportunity to catch the peak bus and so I stood at the stop, huddled against a brisk, cold wind, also waiting for the #60.



Miss Mary mauevered herself and the walker down to where I was standing and she fussed about the weather and then excused herself when she uttered the word, “hell.”  It was clear this was a take-charge woman when she motioned to a driver pulling out of the parking lot, asking where he was going and could he give her a lift. He just stared at her.



“Maybe he doesn’t speak English,” she surmised.



The wind was picking up and the darkening clouds didn’t present a pretty picture. It felt like snow.



A woman in a car rolled down her window. “Do you all need a ride somewhere?”



“Oh, no,” I said. “I’m waiting for the bus.”



“I do. Taney apartments, the high rise for assisted living,” Miss Mary said, hustling her walker into the backseat then sitting up front like a queen.

From Austin, Texas: "Couple create cozy home aboard bus," By Nancy Flores for the Austin American-Statesman

Like most newlyweds, Mike and Natalie Young are navigating their new life together as a couple — figuring out details like how to agree on decorating styles and making sure piles of clothes don't end up everywhere. But unlike most newlyweds, they are learning how to do all this living in a roughly 300-square-foot school bus. (Read more here.)

From Birmingham, Alabama: "Another Role for Buses in Civil Rights History," by Kim Severson for The New York Times

Get people talking about civil rights-era buses and it’s all Rosa Parks all the time.

Museums are dedicated to her role in the boycott in the mid-1950s that forced Montgomery to stop banishing African-Americans to the back of city buses. Schools and stamps bear her name. There is a Rosa Parks cookie jar and a Rosa Parks app.

But no one talks much about Worcy Crawford, who died in July at age 90, leaving a graveyard of decaying buses behind his house on the outskirts of Birmingham.

(Read more here.)

From NYC: "Inside the City's Ghost Subway System," by Jim O'Grady for the WNYC News Blog

The New York City subway system has 842 miles of track, making it the largest in North America. And there's even more to it than riders see: dozens of tunnels and platforms that were either abandoned or were built but never used. They form a kind of ghost system that reveals how the city's transit ambitions have been both realized and thwarted. (Read more here.)

From London: My #bendyendy video diary - my last London bendy-bus ride, route 207, 9 December 2011, by bitospud (YouTube) (last of 4)

From London: "Bendy buses were a godsend to us strugglers," by Peter Preston for The Guardian (3rd of 4)

The end of the bendy bus in London is a blow to the lame, arthritic downstairs lot. Does Boris Johnson think about us? (Read more here.)

From London: "A new bus for London" (Transport for London) (2nd of 4)

The New Bus for London is inspired by the much-loved Routemaster and will use the latest green technology when it launches in 2012. (Read more here.)

From London: "London's bendy bus bids farewell ahead of 2012's hybrid Routemaster," by Mark Brown for Wired (1st of 4)

London's last bendy bus will awkwardly snake through the capital's traffic today, on 9 December, as Transport for London is to discontinue the accordion-bellied vehicle at midnight. (Read more here.)