Looks like it's the end of the Road ( again) for the bespoke London Bus.

The New Mayor has rather hastily terminated future orders for the New Routemaster ( or Borisbus) and it's planned derivatives. Just as it approaches a volume which will bring long term benefits of standardisation.

I say hasty as the latest all electric bus he favours and those that meet the specs his political advisors are pushing are 99% Chinese in component origin and probably complete build.

So in a nutshell, Original Routemaster 100% British Components, 100% Built in London.

New Routemaster 60% British Components 100% Built in the UK

Future London buses, Be lucky if 2% is British and that will probably be the safety stickers.

But the real rub is the huge cost in jobs within the UK which will now be lost in due course.

Hence in my personal view a rather hasty decision, with considerable ramifications.

I also hear after a meeting at City Hall this week with transport executives that they now want to ban ALL vehicles that will not meet the new LEZ regs including all current exemptions.

Something that no party would be drawn on when asked pre election.

Does that mean existing 'New' Routemaster orders cancelled or any future additional orders won't occur ? Would have hoped Boris and his advisors would have allowed significant anti cancellation penalties to have been built in with the manufacturer to prevent this not unexpected situation occurring to make it unviable to cancel financially ? (probably not legal under EU rules I suppose).
As you say Jack the more standardisation that occurs the lower the running costs of the fleet are in the long term ?

My bus number (if any): RML2747

No more orders even though a shorter version, opening windows and an all electric version are all just in the offing.

The remaining orders stand.

Plus a lot of additional revisions to make it a more versatile vehicle.

It might not be in London but a lot of jobs will no doubt be lost simply because of the politics of spite by the new Mayors advisers. Shades of Ken's Second term where things were really run by faceless and unelected advisers.

But clearly politics has come in the way of common sense and in this case, a great many British ( and european) Jobs handed on a plate to China.


But the ULEZ is likely to cost hire businesses their business and individuals with diesel vehicles from cars to small trucks a small fortune.

quite simply London will become a bit of a ghost town. Not every small business can afford the "luxury" of electric vehicles. I tried a Toyota hybrid car for my private hire taxi business a couple of years ago; the technology was wonderful, but it did less mpg than the Skoda Octavia I replaced it with!

And, talking of ULEZ, what is the average mpg of the newer buses compared to our beloved Routemasters? 2-3mpg compared to 8-10 mpg! so twice as much diesel fumes of whatever sort being pumped into the atmosphere than was being pumped 20 years ago. Am I missing something?

My bus number (if any): RML2532

Sadly whatever the merits of the ULEZ apart from Routemaster operations being affected if they are included, many out of town coach operators who bring in theatre and school trips to museums and theatres simply won't be able to afford to invest in compliant vehicles.

My bus number (if any): RML 2747