London ? 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 – today. The final Routemaster was leaving central London just after noon.

“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 for the Evening Standard newspaper, 81 percent opposed scrapping the Routemaster.

But city transport bosses say the venerable vehicle cannot accommodate disabled people and must be replaced by more user-friendly buses. Some of the replacements are double-decker, but don’t allow people to get on or off while the bus is moving.

A Routemaster bus passes underneath London's Regent Street's Christmas lights on the eve of being taken out of service. Fans of the double-deckers showed up to take a last ride on the hop-on, hop-off buses. City officials are taking the Routemaster off its last route today.

“We want to provide the most modern, fully accessible, safest buses we can,” Transport for London spokesman Stephen Webb said. “It’s not romantic, but it works.”

The bus is not disappearing completely. Sixteen Routemasters will remain on two “heritage routes” that run through central London.

But its demise as part of everyday London life has triggered an outpouring of nostalgia. The British Broadcasting Corp. is running an evening of TV programs Saturday celebrating the bus.

The snub-nosed, open-backed Routemaster entered service in the mid-1950s to replace electric trolley buses. It was the last bus to be designed specifically for London, by engineers who had worked on World War II bombers.