My First Ride In A Refurbished New Routemaster
When I went to see the Queen’s flowers, that I wrote about in The Queen’s Flowers In Green Park, the 38 bus, I rode to Green Park, was a refurbished New Routemaster.
Note.
- It appears to have scrubbed up well.
- There is a new fabric and all the gold metal parts have been re-anodised.
- The priority seats for those with limited mobility are now labelled.
- As they are now up to eleven years old, will they now be good for at least another ten?
This article on Key Buses is entitled New Routemaster Refurbishment Underway, where this is said.
Despite coming under threat as a result of Tf L’s funding crisis the first New Routemasters have now returned from refurbishment. These include buses in the Abellio London, Metroline and London United fleets. The latter now carry RATPDev Transit London fleetnames. The first 200 vehicles are expected to be refurbished by March 31, 2023.
With 200 buses, I should get a lot of chances to add some more pictures.
In Could London’s New Routemaster Buses Be Converted To Hydrogen Power?, I came to this conclusion.
I believe from my knowledge of Cummins and the way they work, that they will come up with a hydrogen-based solution, that will replace the Cummins diesel in these buses with a zero-carbon engine.
If Cummins don’t then someone else will.
Whoever solves the problem of converting London’s new Routemasters to hydrogen will have one of the best adverts for their product, there has ever been.
After converting London’s thousand Routemasters, the engineers could move on to anything powered by a Cummins engine.
Since then I’ve written Werner Enterprises Signs Letter Of Intent Planning To Secure 500 X15H Engines From Cummins, which describes the application of Cummins technology to convert heavy trucks to hydrogen power.
The Anonymous Widower 
The seats seem to have far more generous padding than the infamous ironing boards on Thameslink’s ‘Backbreaker’ units. Considering the average journey times on a Borismaster and a Backbreaker, you have to wonder why the London bus passenger is treated so much better than the long-distance train commuter.
Comment by Stephen Spark | September 20, 2022 |
The Thameslink train contract was supposedly cut to the bone by the Treasury., whereas the buses were a TfL project when Boris was Mayor.
It is interesting to go from Moorgate to Barking Riverside by taking a Class 717 train to Highbury & Islington, a Victoria Line train to Blackhorse Road and then a Class 710 train to Barking Riverside.
The 717 train has the same seats as the Class 700 trains and it is much worse than the two other Bombardier-built trains, that were specified by TfL.
Abellio when they ordered their new Class 720 and Class 745/755 trains made a big play about not fitting ironing boards and asked passengers to try the new seats at Cambridge station.
There was also a story about the Queen not liking the Class 700 seats on her trips by train to King’s Lynn. So when she on the train Great Northern made sure the train was a Class 387 or a Class 365 train.
Let’s face it, she probably knew a good seat, when she sat in one, given the horses she’d ridden.
Comment by AnonW | September 20, 2022 |
Yes, indeed – I’d much prefer to spend two hours in the saddle than the same time on a 700! Unless all the roads were closed to traffic, I’m not sure I’d be keen to ride through central London on a horse, though.
Comment by Stephen Spark | September 20, 2022
[…] The observant amongst you will notice, it has a refurbished interior, as I wrote about in My First Ride In A Refurbished New Routemaster. […]
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