Tonight:
3°c
Here comes the eco-friendly Routemaster
Dick Murray, Transport Editor19.12.07
An eco-friendly version of the Routemaster bus has been unveiled.
The design for a new generation double-decker is emission-free and has a hydrogen engine - as well as an open platform and conductors.
The scheme has already won the backing of Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate in next year's mayoral elections.
The eco-bus is the brainchild of Autocar magazine, which asked bus designer Capoco to create a 21st-century Routemaster. Its blueprint incorporates electric motors powered by battery packs, which are charged by a hydrogen-fuelled generator.
The bus would carry 48 people on the upper deck and 28 on the lower. Conductors would be reinstated and there would be a ramp at the front of the bus for pushchair and wheelchair access.
The vehicle would be built from lightweight materials and its designers claim it would be cleaner and quieter than London's ultra-long bendy buses that partly replaced the Routemaster.
But Transport for London rejected the plan and said it failed to "answer the fundamental problems around safety, accessibility and capacity that led us to phase out the original Routemaster".
Reader views (21)
Hydrogen comes from solar energy. Maybe...
- Brad, London
Transport for London are numpties. there real and only concern is having to pay the saleries of conductors. This is at the expence of bustop congestion, cycle killing bendy buses and passenger compartment safety. the bean counters bekleive they are being 'efficient' and 'prudent' but their lowly imaginations cannot add to their equations the all vital poeple factor that the original design concept of routemaster satisfies with its pleasing aesthetics and london symphathetic characteristics. the routemaster is not only a design icon but was and hopefully will be an important cog in the life of the capital and it transport infrastructure
- Boris The Spider, London
London has its own distinctive taxis and very good they are too. It should have its own distinctive buses too. We will have a chance to vote Livingstone out of office next year. We now have an added reason to do so!
- Bill, London
Has anyone asked where the hydrogen comes from (and how green its sourcing is)?
- Jo, London
...and of course there won't be mass outrage at the increase in bus fares to pay for conductors and new vehicles? A 'modern' Routemaster would inherently cost more than the vehicles currently used in London, by virtue of the fact that the vehicles currently used are sold all over the world (therefore you gain from better economies of scale), whereas I doubt the market for these vehicles would be especially wide outside of London.
I also wonder how many people were injured / killed as a result of falling off the back of a Routemaster, or by trying to get on / off whilst moving. I can't help but wonder if it's more than the so-called "death trap" bendy buses.
Give me a bus with three doors rather than one any day. People get on and off more quickly, and so your journey's quicker. Don't want the driver to spend time selling tickets? Most people are on Oyster now anyway, and those that aren't have to buy before they board at ticket machines at most inner-London stops anyway.
- Mark, London
My belief is that one or more bus companies might have lobbied the EU (potentially in "typical" EU fashion) to pass legislation to outlaw Routemasters on Health and Safety rules.
London has small streets and high congestion - single decker bendy buses are completely impractical other than the route under Aldwych, taking up too much road footprint.
Perhaps Ken (only an idiot would scrap the Routemaster) Livingstone will do another U-turn?!
- Stuart W, London
What's the problem with the bendy buses? I use the 521 and 25 regularly and I love them: they're quick! No chugging away at a bus stop while everyone filed in through the front door. If you get a seat in the front they're quiet too...of course they're not perfect. A packed 25 is no joke, but nor was standing on the top deck of the old one man operated double deckers which no one seems to remember had replaced most Routemasters over the last 20 years anyway. Yes conductors are good: let's pay for them then! I'm up for it.
- Jonathan, London
Bring back the Routemaster! The reason it was scrapped may have been due to the simple fact someone wanted to off-load some new fangled buses such as the bendy buses. I can't think of any other reason to scrap the RM in the first place. Why fix something that ain't broken?
The RM has open ventilation at the back. Most people have their winter coats, hats etc on and they get too hot and stuffy in closed up buses. When air is allowed to circulate you do not get flu germs trapped inside a bubble. We need the conductors for 2 good reasons: bus moves on faster as the driver is relieved of the ticketing job. Secondly, there is someone to monitor passengers. They will be a deterrent for hooligansim and theft on the bus. So with the improved version of the RM including wheelchair access, there is no excuse left to exclude them from the streets of London.
- Suki Lau, London
Do NuLabour MPs and their pet politicos use the buses? If so, could a way be found to make them eco-friendly by running them on hot air?
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
The proposed new Routemaster is the bus of the future. Unlike the bendy buses which have few seats, cause traffic jams and are dangerous to other road users.
Bring on these new buses that give passengers what they need - seats, conductors and real accessibility.
- Mike Constable, London UK
Couldn't the disabled ride in a trailer towed behind the bus?
- John H. Evans, London, UK.
Apart from being "quaint", and a London icon, the RM was a smelly, smoky and dangerous bus, and had poor capacity.
And if you had the temerity to be disabled- tough!
I'm all for a new version that is built for a London of the modern era- not the 1950s.
I used them every school day and used to love jumping off them as they went round corners, and I miss the sight of them, but you can't blame Ken and TfL for phasing them out in favour of less polluting and more efficient mass transportation, after all, if it was so marvellous, which other major city in the world ever opted for a Routemaster bus as its main bus solution?
Boris, I'm sure you are a frequent public transport user, maybe we could see your Oyster Card records to see how often our prospective mayor frequents our city's facilities?
I'm sure that Boris' credentials as a daily user of London's trains, trams and buses are impecable- when he's not tending to his adoring constituents in Oxfordshire.
- Luis, UK
I saw my first RM in 1959 when an 11 year old "bus spotter" and have been enchanted with its design ever since. I even converted my late father to its beguiling features and common sense hop on, hop off design. London is a Routemaster City, nothing comes close to the majesty of that bus, accept no substitute!
- Jon, London
Excellent, but how about proper opening windows and comfy seat cushions rather than those awful individual seats when have to put up with?
- Kyle, London
TFL - Transport Failing London.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
Brilliant - let's have it.
- Rob, London
Here's your chance Boris. Promised to bring back the Routemasters and see the votes roll in! Removing these wonderful buses was Red Ken's worst ever decision and we will not forgive him for his deceit. Oxford Street is gridlocked with buses and customers are trapped on board through endless phases of light changes. Travelling on a bus now is a nightmare. Bring back the Routemaster!
- Diane, Paddington, London, UK
Let's get rid of TFL and that Livingstone. His ideas and present policies are with out sense or logic. Just like the system.
People come to London for the sites and quaintness of London otherwise they might as well stay at home. Remember the song lyrics 'London Swings'. The Routemaster's lovely hop on hop off system is part of London.
- A.Winsor, Hants. England
Gerry has got it in one - or is that two? The main problem with transport in London is Transport for London. Merry Christmas, all!
- Mark Potter, London UK
Sad that TFL are so negative. Let's just carry on with the dangerous Bendy buses on which the majority don't pay fares - that's just what London needs!
- Mm, London
So!, all we have to do is:
A) Get rid of the dogma spouting TfL boses.
B) Get rid of Uncle Ken (oops! I should have said
Livingston) from city hall.
Then we can all have a real bus back.
- Gerry, Chatham Kent UK
