TfL have released a press release confirming that Route 24 (Hampstead Heath – Pimlico) will be the first London bus route to be fully served by the New Bus for London. Although actual timings are yet to be clarified, it is intended that the route be fully converted by the end of summer 2013. It will not be the first time that a hybrid has graced the route, as the 24 was used to trial Enviro 400H hybrids back in … Continued

Transport news, like London buses, often seems to come in clumps. With the various recent announcements it would thus be easy to miss that TfL have published their draft Business Plan for the next decade. Due to the amount of information the Plan contains, several LR authors found themselves casting their eyes upon it, and thus we have decided to combine our efforts below. Setting the Scene Pedantic of Purley: Before we look at the details it probably makes sense … Continued

With the Olympics and Paralympics over, September brings something of a return to normal for London’s Transport network. On the Underground, this means the unfortunate (but sadly necessary) return to weekend closures. In the corporate offices of TfL, however, it means it is time for a Board Meeting – along with the Commissioner’s Report and its accompanying appendices, which are always well worth digging into. This September’s Board Meeting was no different, with the Commissioner’s Report itself providing some interesting … Continued

Wrightbus’ “New Bus for London” mockup has been delivered to the Tranport Museum’s Acton depot. The model is intended to allow stakeholder feedback to be captured and the design tweaked, with the first working prototype due to be delivered by Wrightbus towards the end of next year. A full press release on the model’s arrival can be found here, coinciding with a visit to the depot by the Mayor earlier today in order to unveil the model. The photos below … Continued

Today saw the unveiling of the new “Bus For London.” As yet, details beyond the basic are not yet available – today’s coverage seems very much aimed at encouraging comparisons with the Routemaster and emphasising “hop on, hop off” as an option that will be available. Mwmbwls recent piece on the Routemaster Legacy is worth a read for discussion of what a “new” Routemaster should entail. A good breakdown of the cost increase so far can be found on Boriswatch. … Continued

Listen carefully. The sound you can hear is the Whiplash Lawyers Association rubbing their hands together as they drool over TfL keeping them in the manner to which they have become so accustomed. In April 2010, Michael Cockerill, in his excellent programme for BBC on the Great Offices of State, found out that in the Treasury a repetition of mistakes in policy occurred with alarming regularity as soon as the last senior person in the department who had been scorched … Continued

Saturday’s Times reported that the first of Boris Johnson’s new Routemaster buses will cost £1.6 million each, with five of the hybrid vehicles to be built under the £7.8 million contract awarded to Northern Ireland’s Wrightbus back in December 2009. Venturing beyond the headlines reveals that the contract is for the design, prototyping and testing of the new vehicles, with further orders capped at a less sensational £300,000 per bus. The Mayor’s Office and TfL’s Peter Hendy point out that … Continued

A Roads Policy for London: Challenges and opportunities for maintaining and improving road transport operations in London: The RAC Foundation As Arriva’s bus and coach sales division consider offering double club points on their latest stock, the RAC Foundation has this week published a report that asks serious questions of the Mayor’s Road Transport Policies that should have London AM Caroline Pidgeon choking over her cornflakes. If nothing else, the next meeting of the Mayor and the London Assembly Transport … Continued

I’ve been largely steering away from the current Borismaster talk due to the lack of concrete information at this stage, but felt this was probably worth a mention. In an interview on BBC Radio London this morning, the Mayor appeared to imply that Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) might be considered more practical staffing for the new bus solution than Conductors. To quote from the Guardian’s current coverage of the interview: “What we are not going to do is have … Continued