The Anonymous Widower

Boris Gets Everywhere

Boris Johnson is to open a new Wrightbus factory to make chassis for the New Bus for London. This is a paragraph in the report.

Each bus costs around £354,500 and has an estimated lifespan of 14 years.

I don’t have any doubts on the cost, as that is probably an official or contractual figure.

It’s the fourteen years, that I think is wrong. Just look at some of the trains we have in this country. Take the Class 455 that works out of Waterloo to the south west of London. They were built in the early 1980s and Wikipedia has this paragraph about a recent refurbishment. Included is this sentence.

This refurbishment was so comprehensive that many passengers thought the refurbished units were new trains.

Who’s to say that in five years time or so, that New Buses for London will be refurbished and will continue to serve for many more years. London Underground used to do this type of operation with old-style Routemasters at Aldenham Works.

If you look at the design of the New Bus for London, it is very much a series of modules and components bolted together with a small diesel and the other motive power components distributed around the bus. For example, the battery is under front staircase and the electric motors in the rear wheel hubs. All of this makes continuous refurbishment and improvement a realisable prospect. In fact, I read somewhere recently, that LT1, the first New Bus for London, is off the road at the moment, as it is being upgraded to production standard.  I must admit, I haven’t seen it lately, but I only note the numbers, when I pass one and I generally only do that a couple of times a day at a maximum.

I wouldn’t be surprised if these buses outlive me.

May 10, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Boris Johnson, Buses, New Bus for London, Technology