The Londons New Routemaster Free

Looks like The Londons New Routemaster article is a bit old. Be aware that information may have changed since it was published. Earlier this year, as he was stepping off the back of a New Routemaster, a friend of mine had his knee twatted by a door mechanism that was channeling the till from Open All Hours. Reeling from the pain, he wondered whether it was the The Londons New Routemaster or the bus that was to blame. Actually, it was Boris Johnson's fault. According to a promise Johnson had made to Londoners, that door was never going to be there in the first place. In his former guise as Mayor of London back inJohnson had pledged — as a flagship part of his manifesto, mind — that every New Routemaster would have a 'hop on, hop off' option, each vehicle manned by a conductor. It was going to be just like in the good old days. If that sounded too good financially reckless to be true, it was. Bythe open platform, and accompanying The Londons New Routemaster, were consigned The Londons New Routemaster the scrapheap. The conductors' job, by the way, had never been to sell tickets, which they couldn't. It was, presumably, to ensure that the mayor's encouragement for Londoners to leap at moving vehicles with Flynn-esque derring-do, didn't end up in a flurry of law suits. This was just one of a litany of smashed promises and U-turns that have come to characterise the New Routemaster. And the parallels between these lumbering four-wheeled elephants, and the man who's since used his mayoralty as a step-ladder to PM, pretty much write themselves. As the New Routemasters were rolled out onto London's streets in Februarythe then-mayor of London hailed them as "the most high tech piece of motoring technology I've ever seen". Clearly tech guru Jennifer Arcuri hadn't given him a heads-up about Google's self-driving Toyotas — also a thing back then. This was Johnson's 'Make London Great Again' moment; a calculated throwback to the post-war London of s — one where every day is another Festival of Britain, with spotted dick and lashings of custard for afters. The buses were good, honest, hard-working British buses too. Of course, tweaks would have to be made to the original, beloved AEC Routemaster design. The new guard of Routemaster would have The Londons New Routemaster tick the eco-friendly box, The Londons New Routemaster in with Johnson's promise to make London a greener city. A diesel-hybrid engine meant that the New Routemasters were the "cleanest, greenest" buses in town. Admirable stuff. This is the same Johnson, of course, who insists that he frets dearly about the climate crisis, but was recently replaced with a melting ice sculpture after failing to show up for The Londons New Routemaster TV debate on the matter. Inhe also watched on as an unlawful ban on Extinction Rebellion protests took place in the capital. The New Routemasters had a climate issue all of their own, too. Anyone who's boarded the number 12 on a hot July afternoon will know all too well the stifling heat, accompanied by an ever- present eau de micturition. Maybe you can't blame Johnson directly for this, but you can The Londons New Routemaster as hell imagine him poo- pooing the need for the windows in the first place. Another fine mess that Johnson got his successor, Sadiq Khan, into. Maybe sleeker too. But better? Despite Johnson's behind-the-curtains Poindexter Thomas Heatherwick, in this case, rather than Dominic Cummings dreaming up one handsome-looking machine, with Ziggy Stardust- like streaks of black-tinted glassthe Routemasters were never practical. Heat aside, the legroom is stingy. The handrail on the stairs is too low. I think I've mentioned those lethal back doors. In The Londons New Routemaster, these buses were designed for Londoners about as much as Johnson's calamitous Garden Bridge was designed for Londoners: they weren't. Like the Garden Bridge, these mobile vanity slabs — which came to be known, with sickly predictability, as 'Boris Buses' — racked up way more cost for the taxpayer than initially promised. The New Routemaster was an unabashed dissertation in narcissism for one man. Since then, Johnson's stepped it up a gear; his latest The Londons New Routemaster project is winning a majority to become one of the The Londons New Routemaster powerful men The Londons New Routemaster the world. Johnson is the kind of a man who promises three doors, and winds up giving you one. Rotund, red and jolly good fun on the outside, the reality of the New Routemasters tells a vastly different story. Shambling, retro-fitted Frankenstein's monsters, they no longer know what they stand for. They are lies on wheels. They sold themselves to Londoners as one thing, and unravelled as a stinking coil of unpleasant surprises. The British company that made them has since gone to rack and ruin British rack and ruin, mind. And although plenty of Londoners retain a fondness for these buses — or the way they appear on the surface at least — TfL is through with them. It won't be buying any more. It'll be glad to The Londons New Routemaster the curvaceous back of them. It won't be long before the New Routemasters are put out to pasture, to work on the transportation version of the after-dinner circuit; heritage open days. Making people laugh and revel in their silly rambunctiousness. But not actually playing an actual daily part in their lives. The Londons New Routemaster not that. Around the same The Londons New Routemaster the New Routemaster's conductors were given the heave-ho, Johnson was making more bus- related promises. What the legacy of London's New Routemaster spells out — in massive Pantone C lettering — is that we should think twice before believing any of the fumes emitted from the current prime minister. The best things to do in London. The must-read London articles. The coolest London events from our partners. By Will Noble Last edited 10 months ago. Original images: Shutterstock Earlier this year, as he was stepping off the back of a New Routemaster, a friend of mine had his The Londons New Routemaster twatted by a door mechanism that was channeling the till from Open All Hours. Report a problem with this article. By Laura Reynolds. X close. The Londons New Routemaster in your inbox Plan your day ahead or read the day's London headlines with our daily emails. Get Londonist in your inbox The best things to do in London. I would also like to receive the Best Of Londonist weekly email, sent Sunday morning I would also like to receive Things To Do in London: The Daily Guide weekday picks sent every day at 4pm for the next day Thank you, your preferences have been saved. Follow Londonist Londonist. Follow londonist. Report a problem Something wrong with this article? Let us know here. Thank you, your feedback has been noted. New Routemaster - Wikipedia

It is, though, an opportunity to reflect on a The Londons New Routemaster policy of the former Mayor and what judgement London history might make of it. This was rectified in later batches of the bus by The Londons New Routemaster windows that open to let in a balmy breeze. That is an impossibility. The battery is charged in transit by a small diesel engine. That engine switches on only when the battery needs topping up. What happened was that cells in some of batteries wore out faster than they should havemeaning those batteries needed charging more often and, therefore, The Londons New Routemaster diesel engines in some cases being in use more than they should have been. The faulty battery cells were replaced under warranty and the extra diesel fuel burned was minimal. And although the New Routemaster set new environmental standards at the time, these would soon be matched by off-the-peg buses available for less money. Was the extra expenditure justified? That is partly a matter of taste. But these features began to disappear soon after the bus went into regular service. There were also hopes that other cities would want their versions of the bespoke new London bus and pay TfL for the rights to its Thomas Heatherwick design, but none have The Londons New Routemaster forthcoming. However, that very same feature was ingeniously incorporated into the Wrightbus creation. Two months before Johnson stepped down as Mayor, in FebruaryTfL ordered a further New Routemasters from manufacturer Wrightbus, bringing the total purchased up to The price per bus was a little lower than for previous batches, but the election of Khan The Londons New Routemaster May that year ensured that they would, nonetheless, be the last the city purchased. At the end of last year, route became the most recent to converted to the New Routemaster and also the final one. The Londons New Routemaster have, therefore, reached peak Boris Bus. The Londons New Routemaster we be happy or sad? Whatever your opinion, it will The Londons New Routemaster a long time before they start to disappear. The typical lifespan of a London bus is 14 years. The Londons New Routemaster lines: 1. I am not a fan of the NB4L. They are excessively hot and smelly and make me ill — unlike any other bus. There are other factors which need to be considered in any analysis. Firstly they seem to be disproportionately unreliable — some routes never manage a full roll out of the vehicles. There are still electrical failures which immobilise the vehicles completely. I have also heard informed comments that the buses are expensive to run. An example where operational risk now sits with TfL and not The Londons New Routemaster operator. Obviously other buses also break down but operators manage to cope with this within normal spare vehicle parameters. The seating layout is, to be frank, appalling especially downstairs. No other bus is as bad as this. The original TfL business case The Londons New Routemaster, released to the Assembly Budget Sub Committee, The Londons New Routemaster that TfL never planned to have more than buses in service with customer assistants. Assuming he read TfL papers or was briefed on their contents then he knew this from day one. Finally I fear that there will be plenty more NB4L conversions as poor souls in the suburbs will have these monstrosities foisted on them as TfL cascade the buses off central London routes. Big cuts are due to several NB4L routes which will release significant numbers of the buses in the next months. The Boris Bus was a failure from the moment the bus operating companies like Go Ahead and Stagecoach declined to buy them leaving TfL to step in. A true political foray into senseless dogma at the expense of the tax payer Time for a league table of manifesto promises and their real cost to be distributed at each husting. Even with the little sliding windows on the upper deck, it still feels like a sauna during a heatwave. After years of having these buses, why does this continue to be a problem? It reminds me of driving old Series 2 and Series 3 Land Rovers. Why did the designer of the air-con system neglect the possibility of warm weather? Buses operating in tropical climates cope well with severe heat, all around the world. I would love to disagree with all of the above comments but to be honest, these remarks are concise and to the point. I would like to mention some of the attributes of the much maligned bendy bus. Number of drivers 2 opposed to 3, overall length 36 metres compared to the NBfl roughly the same. The bendy bus did exactly what it was brought to do, hoover up passengers getting them on and off with minimal delay. Other misnomers about the bendy bus include they are cycle rider killers and that they keep catching fire. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Categories: AnalysisCulture. The BoJo Boggler is a monster, a monument to egotism. ASLEF shrugged says:. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Five years of the New Routemaster. How has Boris Johnson's hallmark policy fared? - OnLondon

On a mid-December day inLondon mayor Boris Johnson posed for photographs in Trafalgar Square standing triumphantly aboard the policy result that symbolises most completely the thinking that has guided his seven years at City Hall. Two features of the new bus sought to revive its distinctive character. One was the The Londons New Routemaster doorway that could be left open while the bus was in transit, enabling passengers to board or exit between stops — to hop on or hop off at will. The original Routemaster, in fact, had no door at the back at all, meaning the platform was open permanently. A floor-to-ceiling pole, which people could hold on to to avoid falling off, was installed in the new bus too. The other feature of the new bus was to be a second crew member, accompanying the driver. Never mind that in the age of the Oyster smart card, diminishing numbers of paper tickets were being sold. The Londons New Routemaster expressed no doubts that London voters would be enthused by his new bus and all it stood for. He stuck by the project throughout the campaign, despite being repeatedly unable to answer questions about how much it would cost. Far longer than other buses, bendies were unpopular with cyclists and motorists and susceptible to fare-dodging. But with their three doors and high passenger capacities they were efficient at The Londons New Routemaster people around speedily. Disabled people and parents pushing buggies found them particularly congenial. For Johnson, though, they were an alien contamination, more suited to wide foreign boulevards than narrow London streets. Thus, the London bus became what political strategists call a wedge issue, splitting and mobilising opinion. And for Johnson The Londons New Routemaster, the meaning of the new bus ran still deeper. He would later portray the new bus as a metaphor for freedom, independence and enterprise; as quite literally a vehicle for his entire political The Londons New Routemaster. Yes, the banks made grotesque errors, largely because they could not understand the risks they were taking. But unless we allow businesses and banks to take reasonable risks, they will never hit the jackpot at all. At first, the new bus project motored merrily. Like the new mayor himself, it beguiled with its upbeat novelty. A competition was held to produce ideas for the new bus, with the results announced by Johnson just before his first Christmas as mayor. But critics were already circling. So who would pay for the realisation of his new bus vision? In December, Wrightbus secured the contract. TfL promised that the company would deliver something innovative and ingenious as well as nostalgic. There was also an attempt to build into the new bus the great strength of the bendy - the ease and speed with which people could board it or disembark. Like the bendy, the new bus would have three doors. It would also have two staircases, another measure to reduce dwell times at stops. Johnson congratulated Londoners on their stoic patience while waiting for the bus he assured them they were longing for. They could be confident that it would arrive in time for the Olympic Games, he said. This promise was duly kept, though not before the cost to TfL had risen sharply. Meanwhile, in Ballymena, Wrightbus got stuck into their task. In Novemberjournalists flew out to see the first working prototype to come off the production line. Heatherwick had installed grooved staircase flooring, swirl-patterned seat moquette and moody interior lighting all referencing the Routemasters of yore. The general reception, though, was friendly. Questions were still being asked about money. They defended the outlay, partly by saying that the new bus would in future earn money from sales to other cities. Northern Ireland secretary Owen Patterson was on hand at the Wrightbus The Londons New Routemaster. In earlyas promised, the very first Boris Bus to carry passengers emerged from a garage in east London. By then, the purging of the bendies had long begun — the new buses did not replace them directly. As the packed bus made its way through Dalston and on to Islington, its passengers, a mixture of journalists, bus buffs and a few slightly bemused regular passengers, compared notes. Were the seats too close together? Were the pairs facing each other on the lower deck an improvement on the usual forward-facing ranks? How about the atmospheric decor? Upstairs, Dean Nicholas from the website Londonist expressed concerns, drawing attention to the steamed-up windows which, unlike on other buses, could not be opened. It was a foretaste The Londons New Routemaster trouble to come. In September the TfL board authorised the The Londons New Routemaster of of the new buses over a period of The Londons New Routemaster years. Unusually, TfL itself would meet the cost, The Londons New Routemaster than the various bus operating companies it contracts. This too was to be met by TfL. Then came the biggest day yet in The Londons New Routemaster Boris Bus story, the full conversion of an entire London route. That honour was bestowed on Route 24, which takes a glamorous path between Hampstead and Pimlico via Trafalgar Square. Peter Hendy drove the first one out of the The Londons New Routemaster. They had reckoned without his deep passion for buses. Hendy actually owns a retired Routemaster. Not everyone agreed. Were these people Boris-bashers? Some, undoubtedly. One sunny lunchtime the Guardian ran an experiment on route 38, riding from Hackney to Holborn on a conventional double decker and returning on a Boris Bus, armed with a cheap thermometer. This found temperatures on the Boris Bus to be only slightly higher, but the key difference was ventilation. With all its top deck windows open and a breeze blowing through, the ordinary bus felt pleasantly balmy. The Boris bus, by contrast was stuffy. The air-cooling system was noisy. Leg stretching was less easy, adding to the discomfort of the ride. Further routes converted: the 11, 9, and more. The summer of brought more outcry against hot conditions on the new bus. That October, TfL said it would be ordering more. But the continuity was not seamless. The board papers also contained a small bombshell: the next batch The Londons New Routemaster buses would be entirely one person operated. In other words, none would have conductors at any time. No conductors already meant no open rear platform between stops. The reason? Health and safety. TfL confirmed that Wrightbus is to radically modify the rear door. To remain open between stops, it has been made in such a way that it folds inwards. But on the newest models, it will fold outwards, like regular bus doors. This means the rear door will have to be kept The Londons New Routemaster when the bus is in motion. In other words, the hop-on, hop-off option is to be designed out of the very structure of the bus. Where does this leave the transport initiative, which, even more than his cycle hire scheme, has been the signature Boris Johnson policy? The name New Routemaster is The Londons New Routemaster officially applied, with plaques affixed to rear staircases to prove it. Yet with no hop on, hop off facility, what has The Londons New Routemaster bus still in common with its famous near namesake from the past? Only being a bespoke London bus, it seems. And a London bus is what it has remained. Hopes of export orders have come to nothing. As Johnson sees out his final year at City Hall, not one other city, either in Britain or abroad, wants to buy the vehicular expression of his strongest political beliefs. Potential successors are plotting its demise. Caroline Pidgeon, likely to become the Lib Dem candidate, would take the same zero-emission path. The Greens have been sceptics from the start. Has it? TfL has reported favourable customer feedback, but little detail has been made available. Anecdotal evidence suggests a range of The Londons New Routemaster. For some, The Londons New Routemaster furnishings palette and mood lights The Londons New Routemaster too dingy, for others they conjure luxury, even romance. That The Londons New Routemaster depend on how you feel about the mayor. How the New Routemaster came full circle: back to a regular old London bus. Boris Johnson takes a ride on a New Routemaster bus in December Dave Hill. Mon 3 Aug The last days of London - in pictures. Read more.