The return of the Routemaster?

Anybody who grew up or lived in London from the 1950s onwards will be familiar with the red Routemaster buses which soon after their introduction became one of the symbols synonymous with London for visitors or people thinking of travelling here.

Ken Livingstone the current London Mayor pulled the plug on the Routemaster in 2005 and among the replacement vehicles are the unpopular and unwieldy extended Bendy Buses. The reason given for scrapping them was the thing that made the Routemaster so appealing in the first place, the open platform at the back of the bus that allowed passengers to jump on and off without waiting for the bus to reach a stop and the doors to open.

The Mayor cites health and safety laws and the lack of accessability for wheelchairs but it probably has a lot to do with saving money by getting rid of the bus conductors that crewed the Routemasters.

Now though Autocar magazine has come up with a proposal for a new Routemaster. They asked bus design company Capoco to come up with a modern redesign for the Routemaster and the result is an emission free hydrogen powered bus that carries 76 passengers, and because on the new design there’s no mechanical connection between the engine at the front and the rear wheels there’s a lot more floor space on the lower deck of the bus, enough for a ramp and wheelchair access at the front with the open platform at the back.

The Mayor’s already blown off the idea but mayoral candidate Boris Johnson is behind it. I sure if you polled most bus users in London they’d be a massive yes to a new Routemaster, having to wait on a bus that’s crawling through traffic until it reaches a stop is a pain and jumping on and off the open platforms (especially when the bus is moving) puts a little excitement into travelling by public transport.