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From The Times

December 19, 2007

Blueprint for ‘son of Routemaster’

Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

The open-platform bus that allows passengers to hop on and off without waiting for the driver to release the doors could return to London’s streets, only this time it would be able to carry wheelchairs and prams.

The “son of Routemaster”, as the new design has been dubbed, strongly resembles the original, which is still one of the capital’s best-recognised symbols, despite being withdrawn in December 2005.

Capoco, one of the world’s leading bus design companies, which helped to develop the majority of London’s 8,000 buses, has produced detailed plans for a Routemaster replacement that could enter service within three years.

It would burn hydrogen rather than diesel, meaning the only emission would be water vapour.

The design has been welcomed by Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate for the London mayoralty, who has promised to phase out the bendy buses that replaced Routemasters on key routes.

He said: “This design could give us a beautiful successor to the Routemaster, with the freedom of being open to the street. We can think for ourselves and don’t need to be told when it is safe to get on and off.

“Bendy buses are miserable, inhuman and socialistic and should all be pensioned off to a Scandinavian airport.”

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, promised in 2000 to save the Routemaster, which he said “only a ghastly, dehumanised moron would want to get rid of”. But he reversed his position four years later, saying that they were inaccessible to wheelchairs and larger prams.

The new bus would have four more seats than a Routemaster and standing room for 30 people, twice as many as its predecessor.

A hydrogen-powered generator would charge batteries, which in turn would drive electric motors on each rear wheel.

The absence of any mechanical link between the engine at the front and the wheels at the rear means the floor would be much lower than on a Routemaster and there would be no awkward step up from the platform to the lower deck. A set of double doors at the front, equipped with a sliding ramp, would allow level access from the pavement.

It would be made largely of aluminium, and three tonnes lighter than a modern, steel-framed doubledecker. It would cost about £150,000, a third more than a modern bus, but the gap would narrow over time with economies of scale.

Transport for London (TfL) said that the design was still likely to be too expensive because it would have to reintroduce conductors to monitor the open platforms.

But Alan Ponsford, Capoco’s founding director, who was commissioned to produce the design by Autocarmagazine, said that cameras could do the conductor’s job.

Travis Elborough, author of The Bus We Loved – London’s Affair with the Routemaster, said: “People feel trapped on modern buses, on which they are ferried to destinations chosen by someone else rather than being able to hop off in a jam.

“The open platform mirrored the liberty of London. Standing there with the wind in your hair, you felt that the city belonged to you.”

A TfL spokeswoman said that it had no plans to introduce any more bendy buses, but nor was it planning a new version of the Routemaster.

She said that the open platform had contributed to several deaths or serious injuries a year.

She admitted that bendy buses had doubled the pedestrian injury rate and almost tripled the cyclist injury rate of the average London bus. But she said that bendy buses only operated on the busiest routes and, when compared with modern double deckers on similar routes, they had a better safety record.

A 21-year-old man died in October when he fell under a bendy bus in Ilford, East London, and was dragged for more than a mile.

History of the Routemaster

1954 Prototype launched

1956 Entered service. It was designed to replace the trolleybus

1982 Replacement with modern-doubledeckers began

2005 Last Routemaster withdrawn from general service on December 9

2010 New RMXL?

— Sixteen Routemasters are still in service on two heritage routes in Central London – from the Albert Hall to Aldwych and from Trafalgar Square to the Tower of London

— About 2,800 London Routemasters were built. Less than half survive

Sources: Capoco, Autocar, Routemaster Association, Times archives

The RT and the RM were designed specifically for London conditions. RT stands for "Regent Three" by the way.
I share a loathing of the bendy busses FOR LONDON, not specifically of the busses themselves, which I'm sure work well elsewhere. However, London is unique and requires its own solution. I can't believe the routemasters were displaced by modern busses with similar capacity, but longer journey times (due to the increased loading/unloading times), more inconvenience for the passenger (eg being stuck in Oxford Street) and, perhaps most ironically, having twice the footprint - how does that help congestion?

Ian Lynn, Caterham, Surrey

Richard from Calgary is mistaken. The RT was designed before WW2 with about 100 pre-war RT's going into service. The bulk of the RT production of over 4000 vehicles commenced after the war with AEC powered chassis. A relatively small number of RTL (Leyland powered) and RTW (8 feet wide rather the 7'6") complemented the fleet and were primarily used in central London for some reason, always in Red livery. Those of us in our fifties and older will remember the fleets of all three types in Oxford Street stopping nose to tail, too close for pedestrians to be able to cross the road between them.

The Routemaster (RM/RML - L indicating longer wheelbase) was introduced in 1959 as the trolleybus replacement and as
Richard recalls, also eventually was added to the London Country fleet but not before the RCL and RMC variants which were fitted with folding doors to the rear platform and painted in Green Line livery. Very handsome!

RMs did replace RTs eventually before the off-the-peg buses.

Phil Dudderidge, Great Missenden, Bucks. U.K.

Hello,

Re: History of the Routemaster: I grew up in Reigate, H.Q. of London Country and its green buses of the same design as Central London's red. It is my recollection that the Routemaster was new in the 1960s, not the 1950s, and had RM index nos. The buses that started in the fifties had RT index nos. and were called Route Traveller. It was the RTs which, in London, replaced the trolleys.

Re: Platform versus Concertina and other closed-in designs:
I agree that the platform accords better with human dignity. The shut-in buses treat you as the contents of a tin can.

Richard, Calgary, Canada

Richard Barrett, Calgary, Canada

Excellent idea for the following reasons:

1. Like the black cab, the RM was designed ideally for London's web of narrow streets and single file traffic, unique in proportion to the density of population. The bendy buses clearly were not and present a headache to their drivers and other road users, not least the number of fatally injured cyclists last year.
2. Bendy buses have more standing room (so less comfort) and claim to have a bigger passenger capacity. Interestingly one rarely sees a full one however and a greater number of smaller vehicles would be far more passenger friendly.

3. Not being able to alight except at a bus stop is really frustrating, Take for example the 20 minutes spent on Oxford Street during rush hour that could have been walked in 5.

4. All access for special needs passengers should be welcomed. My mother is disabled however and after strokes, scoliosis and polio the first thing she was given was a car and a badge not directions to a bus stop.

Alexis Croucher, London, Great Britain

Oh, how much the picture reminds of those wonderful London trolley buses from the 1950s. They were very quiet, emitted no CO2, and had amazing acceleration from rest. Bring on the new Routemaster!

JohnD, Loule, Portugal

I've never liked Routemaster buses, OK I'm not from London and have been used of decent buses without them being open and cold. I have no problem with bendibuses either.

T Cut, West Midlands,

But what about the interior? The old Routemaster was all about the economical use of space; later buses seem to be all superstructure and limited or awkward spaces for the actual passengers. A return to the old interiors (or an upadted version of them) would be most welcome!

Garry Humphreys, London, England

Using hydrogen fuel cells has got to be the way forward in a city for vehicles of any sort .One can only applaud the approach and hope he gets implemented.
Bendy bus or double decker matters not a jot,however double-decker is indeed a well recognized symbol world over, why not run both.they are both talks are doing a job in both fit different purposes.

Michael Wilkinson, Telford, Shropshire

Great idea. Get rid of the bendy buses as soon as possible. When designing the new buses bring back the old style one piece seats, the ones with the straight backs and seats, and get rid of the current curved seperate seats that are too small to sit in comfortably and cause all sorts of pain when the bus races along the streets, tears round corners and screaches to a halt.

Andy, Romford, UK

If London taxis, buses and commercial vans were to give up their diesel engines St Paulâ€™s, Somerset House and the other newly cleaned stone edifices would remain white longer. Walking about and sitting in pavement coffees would be pleasanter. Whomsoever allowed the construction of the new Paternoster Sq and the return of the Temple Bar deserve the Noble Price.

Peter Kaldor, Woking, U.K.

Most buses are indeed made of aluminium, but only the body. The chassis is made of steel, which is heavy and flexes. This new Routemaster has an alloy chassis, which is more rigid, lighter and doesn't transmit as much noise and vibration

daniel stevens, London,

dan, London,

When i was a kid (about ten) i lived fairly close to Aldenham works in Hertfordshire. I would quite often cycle there with a mate and sit on the kerb outside to write down the numbers of the new shiny machines as the left the depot. We had a little published book each that listed all the types of buses on all the routes in and around London. By the time they were retired most of the RMs had enough miles on them to have been to the moon and back ! Wonderful vehicles.

Eeds and Aiders , St Albans , Herts

British design possibly, but if this comes to pass where will they be built? No need to ask really.

D.L. Stephens, York, England

i think this son of Routemaster design is absolutely brilliant, Capoco, the design company behind it should get it into production as soon as possible. I think Londoners will love it. It looks perfect, it has that indefinable whatever angle you look at it from, there is not a line out of place style. Classic, right first time, out of the box design. This design is deserving of an industry award.

nicholas fell, oxford, oxfordshire uk

Having seen the design if built it would be one of the ugliest and poorly proportioned buses on the roads. It also fails to answer the bus operators main concern which was over the open platform and the rise in legal action from people injuring themselves using them.

The also claim costs will reduce with economies of scale - what economies of scale? London would be unlikely to require more than a few hundred and no one else would purchase a vehicle that requires 2 crew when they struggle to recruit 1. Also no manufacturer could justify the cost of building this given the limited demand for a vehicle that only London would even consider purchasing for only a small proportion of services. The Routemaster was ugly and outdated when it was first built and this appears to keep up that tradition. Also people blame the artic yet most Routemaster routes were replaced by conventional double-deckers not artics.

Andrew, Luton,

There are quite a few errors in this story. Few routes had Routemasters replaced directly by artics (12, 38 and 73 from memory), and nearly all London double-deckers are aluminium and cost around the Â£150,000 mark. I think you'll find health & safety and construction & use requirements will make it impossible to certify an open-platform bus for service now.
If Boris does get in, I hope he'll leave artics on the two Red Arrow routes, on which they are fantastic crowd shifters, far better than any type of bus ever seen in London before. I doubt that Scandinavian airports will want them; indeed the market for 400 righthand drive three-door artics is extremely small! It will be a big waste of around Â£70million investment.

Stephen Morris, Shepperton, UK

There's no conductor on the bendy busses, so why does there need to be one on a revised Routemaster? Also, I'd rather injure myself getting off an open platform bus (where its my responsibility and my fault) than be taken out by a bendy bus as a pedestrian or cyclist (where its not my fault, and I can do nothing about it). But then I have a seemingly old fashioned sense of personal responsibility and do not subscribe to the victim and compensation culture of today.

G, London,

Great idea? Interesting about the CCTV replacing the Conductor! Who monitors the CCTV, the mirrors, the traffic and the other pedestrians around. You guessed it the driver! Have they looked at a risk assessment process?

Pete, London, UK