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£25,000 prize to design the new Routemaster
David Williams and Pippa Crerar04.07.08
A top prize of £25,000 was on offer today for whoever designs the best new Routemaster bus.
Mayor Boris Johnson also announced two "runner up" prizes of £10,000 each as part of his quest to find London an "iconic" successor to the famous red bus killed off by his predecessor.
Mr Johnson, who wants to rid streets of bendy buses, told the Standard he was looking for a "21st century version" of the Routemaster.
Designs must include an open platform to let passengers board and alight "quickly and easily" just like the old one's. The winning design must also show "good use of interior space", include green technology and have a conductor.
Prizes will be awarded in October. Mr Johnson said: "London deserves a bus fit for the 21st century. Whether you're a professional designer or someone who uses buses and has one great idea, we want to hear from you."
Peter Hendy, London's Transport Commissioner, said: "This provides a fantastic opportunity to play a part in designing a new icon for London."
Entrants must submit a design to one of two categories. Category A - "design a bus for London"' - invites people to submit a design for a specific part of the bus, or for an entire vehicle.
Designs must be detailed and accompanied by a number of drawings as well as written documents providing "reasoning and more detailed descriptions".
Category B asks designers to " imagine a bus for London". Entrants can design an entire bus or individual features. Judges here will look for the best ideas rather than detailed designs and entries will be judged in four age groups - under 11, 11-15, 16-18 and over 18. The rules specify a "stylish, imaginative design which will have a big impact on the streets".
The closing date for entries is noon on 19 September. The cash prizes are for "whole vehicle" entries to Category A. Merit prizes will be available for the best ideas for parts of the bus.
•Only two passengers suffered accidents requiring medical treatment on London's two remaining Routemaster bus routes, the No 9 and No 15, between the start of 2005 and the end of March.
Reader views (7)
London has around 8000 buses of which about just under 400 are artics. Artics work on the busies routes and can carry up to 30 million passengers on a single route. So what makes Boris think that Routemaster type buses with an open platform cope with these volumes of passengers.
We then have the dangers associated with open platforms re accidents or crime (eg bag dipping etc) that open platforms allow an easy escape route.
This bus type also has dangers for elderly and disabled passengers. (e.g people with epilepsy face the danger of falling off the bus if a seizure happens when they are on the platform waiting for the bus to stop.)
Boris is using this issue as he seems to have no proper vision of how London's transport should develop in the 21st century.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Bendy buses are not adapted to London streets and are even dangerous when turning at crossroads. I'm thinking in particular at the Holborn/Kingsway crossroad where route 521 turns left from Holborn into kingsway and put the life of pedestrians waiting for the traffic light at risk by sweeping them off the pavement.
- Jacques, Cannes - France
Has Boris actually consulted the paying public on this hair brained scheme? I remember the days of waiting for over an hour, along with dozens of others, for one of these smoke filled tubs. Your eyes would be streaming with the exhaust fumes they were emitting, not to mention the ignorant and aggressive conductors. the bendy bus moves large volumes of people quickly and safely in a clean and friendly environment. Talk to the people that are paying your wages, Boris!
- Mark, london,uk
Some of our present-day buses in London are both smart and perfect for the job. But bendy-buses take up too much room on the streets, at corners and at bus stops.
Quietness and low emissions probably have the edge on the routemasters as we knew them and you can get off today's buses more quickly by the extra door. I do appreciate the red livery stipulation in Central London.
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Muildenhall, Suffolk
RE: Design a new "Routemaster" bus for London.
I work for a very large coach and bus builder in Scarborough N.Yorkshire called Plaxton, this company celebrated it's 100 birthday only last year. We are now owned by our parent company Alexander Dennis of Scotland and we build a wide range of vehicles for private and public operators.
All our vehicles comply with standards set by Parliaments and also have cleaner lean burn engines. Our Enviro product is today working in the Capital in single deck and double deck types. We at the moment have big contracts from all operators from Stagecoach to London United and Arriva. Today vehicles have to comply with "health and safety standards" and be disabled friendly and welcome families with young children and buggies.
It will be a tall order to design a new "ICON" bus for London,and if the Mayor of London wants to visit our factory in Scarborough to see for himself what goes into making a public service vehicle we would make him most welcome and no doubt he would be taken a back to see the advances since the making of the old routemaster to the bus and coach of today.
Finally , the reason for Ken Livingstone the last Mayor of London killed off the old routemaster bus was three fold,
1, emissions from diesel,2, too old 3, The health and safety brigade needing flat platforms and had to be disabled friendly, we at Plaxton meet all those requirements, even the old due to years of coach and bus body-building.
- John.L, Scarborough N Yorkshire.
What a waste of money, when we have perfectly good buses already!
- Sean Kirwin, London
Can somebody tell me what was so wonderful about routemasters I have never seen them anywhere else? Can Boris not go back to the original design and expand it a bit?
- Jim, Edinburgh
