It’s wrong to think of new bus as a Routemaster

Published: 3 June, 2010

• THE letter (Still a long way to go on Routemaster, May 27) from a “forum” for the disabled about what is wrongly referred to as a new “Routemaster”.

Let me clarify one thing everybody has wrong. 

This project has acquired this epithet from someone who knows nothing about buses. As one who spent a career in the business, I think I do! “Routemaster” is a registered trademark belonging, if I’m not mistaken, to Alexander Dennis who, interestingly, are not being given the job to create this “wonder bus” in which dear Boris Johnson places so much importance. 

So you may be treading dangerous ground by following all the know-it-alls, who glibly use the popular name for anything with an open platform.

Do I not recall Brussels being instrumental in the real Routemaster coming off the road for this very reason?  

They were designed by a master, not someone that creates the monstrosities that pass for buildings today.

A child with a lump of plasticine could come up with something of much more aesthetic appeal.

And why three doors and two staircases or indeed windows down them? 

These features all add to a design that no operator is prepared to buy, for it has everything they strive to avoid, excess size, causing manoeuvrability problems, unwanted and excessively costly features, such as a curved  glass sweep down the rear offside corner, a nightmare to make, maintain and replace.

This is going to be an extremely expensive exercise.

The Routemaster wasn’t cheap, but it had some 50 years of development, evolving from the “Old Bill” open-toppers of World War I, through various types, all drawing on experience gained in operation in London’s arduous conditions. 

It didn’t occur like some overnight pipe-dream.

It proved it was worth every penny it cost and its designer is much revered for his ingenuity. 

One can only be grateful I suppose, that the idea is at least removing the articulated monstrosities from the roads. And not a moment too soon!

Their worst feature being how they make it impossible to cross the road as a pedestrian, especially if their “concertina middle”, stops in front of you. Try that if you’re disabled!

However, what eventually hits the streets won’t be any form of Routemaster, if it conforms to the current ideas.

It could be more appropriately called “Boris’s Blunderbus”.

But, we can’t entirely blame the London mayor. The rot started with a certain minister of transport, one Barbara Castle, who told London that in future, they had to buy “off-the-peg” vehicles, and not make their own.

Then came Margaret Thatcher, who put the final nail in the coffin, by privatising the outfit. 

The result?

It’s all in foreign hands – well most of it! And now, we have another politician pulling strings.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED, EC2