Moir Lockhead, Routemasters and the bendy bus
Paul Corfield wrote:
Very unlikely as none of them are owned by the big groups so they won't
cascade via that route. They are all leased and may end up almost
anywhere but given the three door layout it's most probable they'll end
up doing airport transfers or similar. If they can be converted to two
door then they may have more utility for other UK operators.
Hmm, good point. The leasing companies will presumably expect to be
compensated if you want to hand them back early, unless they've been
remiss with the contracts (particularly given that right-hand-drive
Citaro Gs aren't in huge demand, so finding an alternative user is
problematic). Therefore you have the possibility of a Mayor elected on
a platform of better financial control spending money to return a leased
bus fleet early and then spending more money replacing it with more
labour-intensive hardware that costs more to run, purely because of his
personal antipathy to the design.
Have I missed anything? Obviously it would be nice to know who's signed
up to what (TfL presumably signed something saying we'll have x number
of buses for y years at z pounds/year but the details may be important)
but I doubt anyone will tell us.
Tom
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