"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk
Like it or loathe it, here is today's London newspaper report of a
full-size "Boris Bus" intended to succeed the Routemaster:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...s-routemaster-
as-boris-bus-rolls-into-london.do , sponsored by London Mayor Boris
Johnson.

I loathe it. Open rear platform! The man's a Neanderthal!

Yes, it was on local TV as well. I suspect it'll be very popular if
enough can be afforded.

Incidentally, this was discussed at great length on uk.t.l when the
design was first unveiled some months ago, and before that, when the
design competition was run. The news this time is that the mock-up is
available for the public to inspect.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:49:09 -0000
"Recliner" wrote:
"Michael Bell" wrote in message
.uk
Like it or loathe it, here is today's London newspaper report of a
full-size "Boris Bus" intended to succeed the Routemaster:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ls-routemaster

as-boris-bus-rolls-into-london.do , sponsored by London Mayor Boris
Johnson.

I loathe it. Open rear platform! The man's a Neanderthal!

Yes, it was on local TV as well. I suspect it'll be very popular if
enough can be afforded.

Looks like a bog standard double decker with a hole in the back. Which because
it still has the other 2 doors will mean even less seating on the ground floor
than the current ones. Genius.

B2003

"Recliner" wrote:

"Michael Bell" wrote:
Like it or loathe it, here is today's London newspaper report of
a full-size "Boris Bus" intended to succeed the Routemaster:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...e-23896801-.do
as-boris-bus-rolls-into-london.do , sponsored by London Mayor
Boris Johnson.

I loathe it. Open rear platform! The man's a Neanderthal!

Yes, it was on local TV as well. I suspect it'll be very popular if
enough can be afforded.

Incidentally, this was discussed at great length on uk.t.l when the design
was first unveiled some months ago, and before that, when the design
competition was run. The news this time is that the mock-up is available
for the public to inspect.

Indeed, we've had many in depth discussions about it all on utl. The cost is
of course a big question, as is just how much use the rear platform would
see in day to day use, and how it would be staffed (which is itself of
course a cost issue).

I noted this paragraph in the piece in the Standard:

---quote---
A mock-up of the "New bus for London" - which the Mayor's aides are happy to
have nicknamed the "Boris bus" - was unveiled in the capital.
---/quote---

So that's alongside 'Boris bikes' too. Meanwhile all Ken got it terms of
transport related nicknamery was for a few people to call the CC the
'Kengestion charge' - though thankfully that was so unutterably lame that it
never took off. Of course all the various transport improvements that
happened or were initiated under Livingstone don't really fit into a neat
catchphrase or two.

'Boris boats'? Well, despite Mr Gilligan's best efforts, I don't think
riverbuses (useful as they can be) are about to become the centrepiece of
the metropolis's transport system - Tom of Boriswatch's take on this can be
read he
http://www.boriswatch.co.uk/2010/03/...xchange-f-off/

'Borisport' - the proposed new London airport out in the Thames estuary...
er, yeah, perhaps prefixing everything with 'Boris' isn't an automatic path
to its fruition.

(To be fair, I'm not sure the Mayor's aides ever used the phrase
'Borisport', plus I kinda invented the 'Boris boats' phrase just now, I
haven't come across it beforehand - though if the GLA ever gets control of
the Royal Parks as has been mooted, then if the pedalos on the Serpentine
need replacing whilst Bozza is still mayor maybe he could come up with some
whizzo new design...)

Re the prototype of this new bus - AFAICS the ES piece doesn't actually say
that the unwashed masses are going to be allowed to see it, just
'stakeholders' and the like. (I think I've got a stake left over from
Halloween fancy dress, so perhaps I too could become a stakeholder?)

wrote in message
...
On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:49:09 -0000
"Recliner" wrote:
"Michael Bell" wrote in message
o.uk
Like it or loathe it, here is today's London newspaper report of a
full-size "Boris Bus" intended to succeed the Routemaster:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ls-routemaster

The prototype hasn't got an engine.

Maybe they can put an electric motor in it, and supply the power from
a couple of wires strung above the streets?

)

On 11/11/2010 16:56, Mizter T wrote:

I noted this paragraph in the piece in the Standard:

---quote---
A mock-up of the "New bus for London" - which the Mayor's aides are
happy to have nicknamed the "Boris bus" - was unveiled in the capital.
---/quote---

So that's alongside 'Boris bikes' too.

Although Boris Bike is perhaps less painful than referring to them by
the official sponsor's name.

Other than people like us, how many people these days know that
[Hore-]Belisha of beacon fame was a politician?
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

"Arthur Figgis" wrote:

On 11/11/2010 16:56, Mizter T wrote:

I noted this paragraph in the piece in the Standard:

---quote---
A mock-up of the "New bus for London" - which the Mayor's aides are
happy to have nicknamed the "Boris bus" - was unveiled in the capital.
---/quote---

So that's alongside 'Boris bikes' too.

Although Boris Bike is perhaps less painful than referring to them by the
official sponsor's name.

Agreed - I came to that conclusion a little while back. Though it's perhaps
worth noting that the scheme's 'official' name isn't 'Barclays Bikes' but
"Barclays Cycle Hire". 'London Cycle Hire Scheme' or LCHS doesn't exatly
roll off the tip of the tongue either!


Other than people like us, how many people these days know that
[Hore-]Belisha of beacon fame was a politician?

Interesting thought - seventy plus years hence will Mr Johnson be long
forgotten but the 'Boris bikes' still going strong (well, presumably not the
same ones)...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/d...bus-for-london

I see they may give it the offical name of "Routemaster".


--
Roger Traviss

Photos of the late GER: -
http://www.highspeedplus.com/~rogertra/

For more photos not in the above album and kitbashes etc..:-
http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...Great_Eastern/

"Roger Traviss" wrote:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/d...bus-for-london

I see they may give it the offical name of "Routemaster".


That's not quite what Dave Hill says in his blog post:
---quote---
Peter Hendy told me the other week that he doubted the New Bus would be
called a Routemaster, but whatever formal name it is eventually given I
think the Mayor wouldn't mind if that bus name of London legend was revived
by the public and applied to the bus just in time for the next election -
either that or his own name. [...]
---/quote---

The following drew allusions in my mind with the designed to be
maintenance-friendly Routemaster:
---quote---
There's a lot of pride in the project at TfL. Hendy drew attention to the
bodywork down the side, sections of which can be easily removed if damaged
and replacements swiftly screwed in place - no point having a
luscious-looking bus if it too easily starts looking knocked about.
---/quote---


Lastly, Dave Hill has written a separate Guardian news article on the new
bus to accompany the blog post, which is available he
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/201...ils-london-bus

In said article I noted the following, which answers one significant
question about the crewing of the new bus:

---quote---
Johnson confirmed that the new bus would also have a conductor on board some
of the time.

Peter Hendy, Transport for London commissioner, said that staff would be
trained and recruited for the task rather than being, for example, police
community support officers, as Johnson once suggested they might be. Hendy
stressed their role would include "doing some of the things people expect of
a person in uniform", such as assisting passengers on and off the rear open
platform and ensuring people have swiped their Oyster cards.

Hendy and Johnson explained that the rear platform could be kept open during
journeys with a second staff member present, enabling passengers to "hop on
and hop off" between stops. However, with only a driver present the rear
platform would be closed off between stops with an automatic door, operated
by the driver.
---/quote---

What it doesn't answer is where and when that conductor will be present -
will it only be peak hours, busy stretches of the route, central London only
etc etc?

Anyhow, it seems as though this whole project might just possibly work out,
though I do remain worried about the bigger picture - essentially the cost
of it all, not just of the buses themselves but of the extra crewing. The
worry being specifically that funding for the majority of the unsexy but
highly useful and well patronised London bus network might get diverted to
support this project - and furthermore, if it is indeed a success amongst
the public at large then there will inevitably be demands that the new buses
come to their local bus route, and that conductors stay on the bus for
longer.

Which, when compared to the sleek look of the prototype, all sounds very
boring - but if the network as a whole loses out (less frequent, worse
service etc), and fares are ratcheted up, and fewer people travel by bus as
a result, that would not be a win. The London bus service over the past
decade is so much better than it was over the preceding ten that it'd be a
great shame if this progress was lost.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:34:14 +0000, Mizter T wrote:

snip
'London Cycle Hire Scheme' or LCHS
doesn't exatly roll off the tip of the tongue either!
snip

Oh, I don't know. I suspect that certain people around here would be
rather pleased by the possibility of travelling through central London on
LHCS every day...

--
Bewdley, Worcs. 90m asl.

"Tim Fenton" wrote:

"Recliner" wrote:

Yes, it was on local TV as well. I suspect it'll be very popular if
enough can be afforded.

Popular where? One hates to mention it, but the original Routemaster only
ever sold fifty vehicles outside London, because you had to have Park
Royal's London spec body whether you liked it or not [1], as well as the
gearbox set up to drive like an automatic, the latter to ease the
transition for Trolleybus drivers.

Other than Northern General (one for Michael Bell land), all other
operators who bought AEC ordered Regent Vs.

And I suspect that operators outside London won't want the BozzaBus
either, when there are more conventional deckers on offer.

Yes, in the UK at least. I can perhaps see there being some sort of world
market for them, but maybe rather more as a novelty rather than as an
integral part of a city's transport system. (Serious question -who/where
might conceivably be interested in buying some for proper, full on
day-to-day use?) Of course there's the obvious RHD/LHD issue - if there was
to be an LHD version, there'd need to be sufficient demand.

You can see my more sceptical thoughts about this in another post on this
thread, but on the positive side of things even if it were never exported
elsewhere (or only in small numbers, as an RHD, as a novelty item), it would
likely assume status as an iconic image of London around the world - or
rather, re-assume that status, taking over from the Routemaster. So from a
tourism point of view, it would enhance 'brand London'. (An obvious point
really I know - oh, and yes, I did type 'iconic' and 'brand London' through
slightly gritted teeth - or sandpapered fingers or whatever the keyboard
equivalent would be!)


What they might have been better doing would have been to cost an RHD
adaptation of vehicles like those in use in cities like Berlin - double
staricase, lots of capacity.

Yes, though the issue with a Berlin style bus in London might well have been
the length - see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Do...achsig_BVG.jpg

Yes, yes, before anyone says it the bendy buses are indeed also longer than
your normal bus, but (without really wanting to stoke yet another bendy bus
debate) pertinently they do, er, bend!