Boris's Bus: A Continuing Story

I didn't quite catch who asked Mayor Johnson about progress with his promised new model Routemaster at yesterday's press conference but I'm glad he did, not least because the reply answered question 8 on my little list. I think it worth quoting in full:

"Let me tell you that the work is going on the whole time on the bendy bus and the Routemaster. There are plenty of people who are coming up with some very, very good solutions for this. You will see an announcement in due course. There are two elements to this, of course: phasing out the artic - the bendy bus - over time and then we're going to be launching a competition to design a new generation Routemaster bus. We are not, repeat, not bringing back the old Routemaster. You can't bring back the old Routemasters because quite a few of them are, frankly, being used to grow potted plants [in] in California or wherever; they are not roadworthy any more. And we will be bringing forward a new generation model which will retain that feature of an open access at the back of the bus."

That's all quite hazy, but you can't expect much else at this stage in the game. On a key point, though, The Blond was definite: that there will be "open access" at the back of his new bus. Let's remind ourselves of significance of that pledge by recalling what the Standard says it heard from his new transport director, Kulveer Ranger:

"Mr Ranger said: 'It's almost a fact to say Londoners are not happy with bendy buses. We want to develop a bus that is safe, reliable and has that extra bit of style and panache. The Routemaster was, and indeed still is, an icon and we need something that has the same iconic status.' But in a departure from Mr Johnson's policies, Mr Ranger said the new design would not necessarily be 'hop on, hop off' with a conductor, as on the old Routemasters. He said: 'Whether or not we have a conductor depends on the design of the bus. We want people to be creative. Our brief is very flexible.'"

But definitely not flexible enough, it seems, for "open access" and the "hop on, hop off" principle to be abandoned. The saga continues.