The Anonymous Widower

Are The Hackney Flyers The World’s First Bus-Trams?

With the publication of Boris Johnson’s vision of transport in London in 2050 , it would seem that we have the vision of transport sorted. The report’s plans for rail are detailed here in Modern Railways. Here’s a flavour.

The draft includes plans to maximise capacity of and extend Tube services, and approve Crossrail 2. ‘Further Crossrail projects may be required’ – an east-west alignment is mentioned, but with no specific proposals at this stage. Working with Network Rail, there is also huge opportunity to double capacity on the capital’s rail network, says the plan, and upgrades to main radial routes are outlined.

But all the reports and commentators seem to miss, the quiet revolution that is taking place in Hackney and several other places in London.

The most common journey I do, is get a bus from just round the corner from my house to the Angel or perhaps further. I have a choice of three buses to the Angel; the 30, 38 or 56.

When I moved here four years ago, the service wasn’t bad, but I often had to wait what seemed to be a few minutes.

A few months ago, the route 38 was converted to brand-new Routemasters and now everybody seems to choose one of these Thomas Heatherwick-designed buses if you have a choice, if say a 56 and a 38 arrive together.

Perhaps it’s because they get to the Angel faster, which they seem to do. Not that I’ve measured it! It may be just a perception. But they are definitely more comfortable and better if you’ve got shopping or parcels with you.

All buses have improved further since buses went cashless, as no longer does the driver wait whilst he sorts out passengers with cash.

The Transport Plan does mention buses, but only briefly.

However, after the experience here in Hackney, is London doing enough to use the humble bus to ease London’s transport problems?

I believe for instance, that if say you were thinking of running a tram between say Kings Cross and Elephant and Castle, you could create a dedicated bus lane and run a squadron of two-man operatord Routemasters on the route!

It would be more affordable than the tram and if say you got the route slightly wrong, all you’d need to do would be to move a few kerbs and white lines and tell the drivers about the new route. There would of course, be no construction chaos, like they had in Edinburgh.

If say you replace the route with an Underground line, the buses just get redeployed and you remove the road markings.

So did Thomas Heatherwick design the Hackney Flyer or the world’s first bus-tram?

August 2, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Buses, Design, London Transport Plan 2050, Trams