MAYBE FOLLOW-UP FOR THE LONDON ROUTEMASTER
The famous London Routemaster double-decker, dominating the public transport in the British capital for some fifty years, may get a successor, the British daily “The Times” stated recently in an article. The iconic Routemaster open-platform bus that allowed passengers to hop on and off without waiting for the driver to release the doors, would in it’s new version also 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dubbed, strongly resembles the original, which is still one of the capital’s best-recognised symbols, despite being withdrawn in December 2005.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, working among others for Optare, has produced detailed plans for a Routemaster replacement that could enter service within three years. Big difference with the original is that It would burn hydrogen rather than diesel, meaning the only emission would be water vapour.
The design has already 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.
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 has these provisions, and besides would have four more seats than an original 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.
