Now You Can Take A New Bus For London To Romantic Clapton Pond
Since the weekend, some of the New Buses for London on route 38 are now going all the way to romantic Clapton Pond. I rook this picture today.
A New Bus For London To Romantic Clapton Pond
There can’t be many ponds, which are the destination of bus or train routes. Clapton Pond incidentally, isn’t that bad as this post shows.
The Hackney Eight Lose Their Tail-Gunners
The New Buses for London on route 38, or the Hackney 8, are now running without conductors or as I call them tail-gunners.
I came back on one from the Angel tonight, and the driver was opening and closing all three doors. The bus was about half-full and evetybody seemed to be using the bus as they should.
But then those that use the 38 buses, seem on the whole to be a sensible bunch.
Crowds Greet The New Buses For London On Route 24
Yesterday morning, I went to see how the New Buses for London were performing on Route 24 from Hampstead Heath to Pimlico.
I didn’t see any real problems except those caused by the crowds in Trafalgar Square and near Victoria Station.
I also got the impression that some tourists were a bit confused at the new buses.
This post shows though how the New Buses for London are superb ways to see the sights of London. Will the tourist buses suffer, when there are more routes with the new buses?
Especially, if someone does a commentary app for a smart phone, so you get the details on everything you pass.
A Mistake On A London Bus
London buses are nearly always built with an entrance at the front and an exit in the middle. This post gives a good view of the two doors on the bus in the foreground.
I was on a 205 going from Kings Cross to Marylebone and sitting next to me at the back, were a couple from Sheffield, who wanted to go to the gardens at Regent’s Park.
The bus was a bit crowded and when it came time to get off,they walked right to the front door, before the driver, told them that you exit London buses from the middle.
The muddle in the middle of the bus as they returned, illustrated one reason, why buses should have an entrance and an exit.
This separation also makes it easy to load one baby buggy, as another is getting off and it tends to push the low life away from the driver.
I can’t for the life of me understand, why it isn’t compulsory for buses to have separate entrances and exits.
Strangely though, with New Buses for London, the drill now seems to be that you wait for everybody to get out at the entrance nearest you and then step in. People also tend to avoid getting on through the middle door and of course the conductor marshalls the passengers in busy times.
A Pattern For New Buses for London Is Starting To Emerge
Next month on the 22nd, London bus route 24, gets the New Bus for London. Route 24 has always been a high-profile route and was the first to have the new RML Routemasters in the late 1960s. So it wasn’t a surprise to me, that this route through the homes of the chattering classes, was the first to be wholly converted. The route has a peak requirement of 26 buses according to Wikipedia.
Now it has been announced that Route 11, will be the next to be upgraded to new buses from September 21st. According to the report 25 buses will be used to replace a current requirement of 26. This reduction is probably to be expected as anybody who uses Route 38 regularly as I do, knows that over a distance, they are faster than their normal cousins, as they spend less time at stops. More than once, I’ve noticed four or more 38’s indicated on the display at a bus stop and when they arrive, it’s the New Bus for London leading the convoy.
Will the introduction on Route 11 lead to complaints as they are going down one of the most congested roads in London; Kings Road, Chelsea? On the other hand, it is just the sort of road, where the hop-on and hop-off facility of the buses will come into its own. Hopefully, it’ll entice a few of Chelsea’s residents out of their tractors. It’ll be interesting to read about how the buses are received on Route 11.
Both Route 24 and 11, have a peak requirement of about 25 buses, so as 600 of these buses are expected to be delivered in the next few years, that means they’ll run on 24 routes, if they go in batches of 25.
The more you look at it, the more the introduction of the eight prototype buses on Route 38, was a well-thought out trial to find out how they would be received by the public and how they would perform.
For a start, the terminus at Hackney Central is close to their depot at Ash Grove, so if a bus went AWOL, it could easily be replaced in service by one of the other normal buses on the route. In fact, I’ve not heard of any rumours of serious problems with these buses, although I did see one broken down in the Essex Road. One apparently, also got white-vanned up the backside.
Route 38, is a very cosmopolitan route, with every type of person using the buses, as it goes through both some expensive housing and some big estates, not known for being genteel. So they would get feedback from all sorts and I suspect they have.
Route 38 is also one, with lots of varied traffic conditions, from routes that tend to be pretty clear for a lot of the day, to the congestion of the West End.
I think they have only one major problem, and that is that if Transport for London decided to redeploy the Hackney 8, there would be a lot of protests.
I believe that to use some of the six hundred New Buses for London to fully upgrade Route 38, could be one of the positive things that could be done to give a stimulus to Hackney.
LT12 On Test
I was on Tottenham Court Road today and saw New Bus for London number LT12.
I’m surprised that the registration numbers aren’t in the same sequence as the first nine.
I talked to a lady waiting for a 24 and she was enthusiastic about the arrival of new buses on a route she often used.
Where Do New Buses for London Go On Holiday?
According to this story, LT1 seems to be having a good time in the United States.
Surprisingly, it seems to have lost the green hybrid logos!
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.
A New Bus for London Training On Route 24
I was at the front of the top deck of a 30 bus today going past Warren Street station, when I saw a New Bus for London going towards Camden Town.
As this is along route 24, I would assume it could be driver training or route proving.
The bus wasn’t showing any signs or advertising.
Are New Buses for London Female Friendly?
It may be just coincidence but on a New Bus for London from the Angel on Tuesday evening, except for the two driver/conductors and myself, everybody downstairs was female.
The Anonymous Widower 