Borisbus

[JamieLei]

The Guardian thinks it's a load of balls:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/1 ... -cacophony

Me too.

Your comments?

[noofnoof]

those swirls, those lights, I liked it, it's overcooked.

[Griff]

The idiot who designed that monstrosity needs to be hung, drawn and quartered

[Hyronymus]

The staircase looks like a 1930's design. I wonder how long those details will survive in real life.

The design on the sides is fair but the front, especially the lights, is a disaster.

[Kevo00]

The asymmetry of the whole thing just makes it ugly. I know the old Routemaster was asymmetrical, but this looks daft, and potentially even more lumbering than the bendybus its supposed to eliminate. And surely two staircases will take up a lot of space?

As I've said on here before, the whole project is a waste of money, and looks likely to be a bus shaped Concorde. Government sponsored R&D with no chance of export orders and hence a very high cost per bus compared to the present off the shelf fleet, which London can afford to replace every 5 years. All this from a Tory too, whose friends in government have cancelled other industrial projects that might have actually made the country money...

[61653]

much as it feels weird to support anything by Hooray Boris, I kinda like it... though the 2-staircases seems a bit excessive.

[Ameecher]

I quite like it too, so long as the production model has a slightly less art-deco interior. Certainly gives London an iconic bus again, whether that is worth the funds though, I don't know...

[teccuk]

The asymmetry of the whole thing just makes it ugly. I know the old Routemaster was asymmetrical, but this looks daft, and potentially even more lumbering than the bendybus its supposed to eliminate. And surely two staircases will take up a lot of space?

Its not about space, its about embarkation speed.

You miserable misers. I reckon the look will mature and it will be held as a style icon in decades to come. Like LDN taxi and post boxes. it's good news for Wright coachworks too.

[JamieLei]

The asymmetry of the whole thing just makes it ugly. I know the old Routemaster was asymmetrical, but this looks daft, and potentially even more lumbering than the bendybus its supposed to eliminate. And surely two staircases will take up a lot of space?

Its not about space, its about embarkation speed.

You miserable misers. I reckon the look will mature and it will be held as a style icon in decades to come. Like LDN taxi and post boxes. it's good news for Wright coachworks too.

But in terms of embarkation speed, nothing beats the Bendy-buses...

[teccuk]

But no one in London likes bendy buses. You guys still seem to be under the strange impression that transport policy is based upon reason, research and data. It's not.

[JamieLei]

But no one in London likes bendy buses. You guys still seem to be under the strange impression that transport policy is based upon reason, research and data. It's not.

I dunno - what did Kevin think of them?

[Kevo00]

But no one in London likes bendy buses. You guys still seem to be under the strange impression that transport policy is based upon reason, research and data. It's not.

I dunno - what did Kevin think of them?

I like them, but like everything else they tend to get dumped on routes that are too busy in the first instance, because passengers that can't afford the tube or other rail based transport often only have one bus route that suits them. I would concede that there is a problem with fare collection on bendy buses, but this could be very easily discouraged with a few extra inspectors, and is likely to remain a problem on the BorisBus.

Some routes work very well with bendys - the route 521 from London Bridge to Waterloo via Holborn Viaduct was run very successfully every 4 minutes, and was extremely reliable with fast on and offloading. There is also a route from Kennington-Paddington (forget the number) which seems to work very well with bendies. Route 25, from Centrepoint to Ilford via Holborn and Mile End Road tended to be less so, often being very busy, dirty and often with scary/dangerous co-passengers, but that is probably not the fault of the bus design itself, and more the fact that the 25 probably has to serve around 500,000 passengers on its own that can't afford to use the District Line (or won't because it breaks down so much). In any case the bendies cope relatively well with the hyper-busy conditions of Whitechapel/Mile End Road, which is probably the closest London comes to a developing world boom city like Cairo or Mexico City. The backdoors allow a lot more people on/off more quickly than on a double decker, and its easier to see where you are than when you are downstairs on a busy double decker. It also tends to be easier to take shopping bags or luggage on a bendy, even if its somewhat busy.

I honestly fail to see how the BorisBus will improve the situation on the 25, when it will be slower to load/unload and looks potentially more unwieldy on the road. Mathematically you'll need more buses to carry the same amount of passengers and you'll be doing so more slowly. Fares collection and the problem of social undesirables on buses might be improved, but I have my doubts that the policy of 'one conductor per bus' will be sustained in the long run, particularly at quiet times, and in any case a conductor on a bus when its busy is just another body getting in the way. Often it'll be so dense on the lower deck the conductor won't be able to get through, and free riders will be able to jump off at the lights before he gets to them.

If I were Boris I'd look at the routes, not the buses - open up new routes on secondary roads using off the shelf buses, as other cities tend to, and pick up passengers nearer their homes, reducing the number of passengers taking the present spine network. But of course, I wouldn't expect Boris to do anything that would benefit the unfashionable parts of town, such as Inner East and South London, because most of his voters are in the west end or suburbanites, people who probably never use the bus.

[JamieLei]

Aye - part of me also thinks that the other main group to benefit from the Bendybuses were those who commuted into major London terminals and used the bus for the short hop to the office a mile or two away. Several times I've gotten the train into London Bridge, walked outside, had the 179(?) pull up, load 100 passengers in 20 seconds and be on its way. Same with Victoria or Euston with the 73. But of course, many of those commuters live outside of the M25 and thus didn't participate in the election.

While it would be nice to see a distinctive London bus, the priorities should lie with those using them. There's nothing pretty about Japanese buses or trains, I've come to realise. Every station in Japan feels like a hybrid of City Thameslink and Birmingham New Street (the Keihan terminus at Demachiyanagi is pictured):



but nonetheless the stations work, the trains are ugly but run on time, and you don't see anyone taking photos outside a Japanese subway station (like happens with tourists in London) but people use them.

[teccuk]

Well that's the British transport network for you, its' nothing if not esoteric. From pathetic motorways to c road hunts, architectural gems of stations that are hardly ever busy, half started plans, and unfinished ring roads ... the ghost trains radio show was a classic example. I couldn't see that happening elsewhere... maybe it does. I hear France has a lot of rural railway lines that are basically permanent bus replacements.

At the same time as annoying the hell out of me, because we don't seem to take it seriously, and we're only just a first world country in transport, its kind of ... nice... to go on things like 40 yr old HSTs with doors you have to open yourself by opening a window. Its eccentric.

[/rant]

[dasy2k1]

I like the bus design itself,

but i agree with the journlist, the moquette is far too swirly

[Ploes]

I wonder if they are going to let any other towns use the same design? or is it just for London?
Wouldn't cities like Birmingham benefit from the same style of bus?

[61653]

I wonder if they are going to let any other towns use the same design? or is it just for London?
Wouldn't cities like Birmingham benefit from the same style of bus?

It certainly looks better than what other cities currently manage with...

sorry for such a big hideous pic!

[John]

The Borisbus ran out of diesel on the M1

Now I could understand why a prototype could breakdown, and that it would make the news because it is high profile and deemed news worthy.

But I fail to believe that buses running out of diesel is a regular occurrence, or that this one doesn't have a fuel gauge.

It also seems odd, why does the thing needs its batteries recharging at the side of the road when on long journeys?

An alternator coupled to a diesel engine isn't exactly new technology....

[Railwaymodeler]

For what it's worth, the NABI 35-LFW buses that Pace runs up this way, do not have fuel gauges either. They fill them when they are at the garage every day.

The 1993 Orion I buses still here do have fuel gauges, but they don't work. Seem to rapidly oscillate between empty and full.

[Pilot]

I wonder if they are going to let any other towns use the same design? or is it just for London?
Wouldn't cities like Birmingham benefit from the same style of bus?

It certainly looks better than what other cities currently manage with...

The ones of those in Leeds that do the 4 (?) keep on breaking down. I remember once I ended up waiting an hour for one. It didn't turn up so we got a Taxi instead.