This is a follow up to
my previous article showing the list of routes served with New Routemaster
(NRM) routes.
As the number of New
Routemaster routes has increased to 25, I do think they should have a specific branded service which is similar to the East London Transit and Fastrack Bus Rapid Transit scheme and the old Red Arrow service.
The New Routemaster is
a 3 door 2 staircase hybrid bus, providing a 3 door open boarding platform
which is similar to the Bendy buses when they were around during the
decade of 2000’s.
The original purpose
of the NRM was to bring back the open platform which the original AEC Routemaster
featured, but only a small number of routes have an open platform with a 2nd crew member at the rear of the bus.
By having a 3 door
open boarding it makes it in to a Semi
Bus Rapid Transit due to the fast boarding. The drawback with open boarding
is the fare evasion, as we saw with the bendy buses, but thankfully in
September there will be a 1 hour fare scheme which will enable passengers to
change buses in one fare for one hour.
Why
did I come up with this idea? Because of the New Routemaster design evolving to
new bus models such as the Alexander
Dennis Enviro400H City and the Wright
Volvo B5LH SRM (Son of Routemaster). London Buses routes 78 and 26 are
currently served with the Enviro400H City
and soon a small number of Wright SRM's
will appear on route 13. Having the New Routemaster routes in their own brand
can separate the confusion, like the open boarding from the standard buses.
This
scheme is not really a bus rapid transit
as in order to make it so, the route needs its own segregated busways. Many of
the routes in London have bus lanes and roads which are access for buses only. The faster boarding, which is to board by
any 3 doors also counts as a bus rapid transit as it reduces the time spent at
bus stops.
The
NRM shows to be similar to a bus rapid transit service, but they don’t have
their own branding, it’s the route served by the NRM which makes the branding
in order to bring a service.
I’m
only suggesting the idea because East London Transit have their own branded
service which includes East London Transit branding on the bus stops they
serve.
As
the rollout of the 3 door 2 staircase NRM comes to a close by acheiving a fleet
of 1,000 buses, it's time to move towards zero emission buses!
If
you think this is a good idea then drop me a comment in the comment section
below.
You can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92
Image attribution
By Aubrey Morandarte from Guildford or Coventry, England - London Central LT438 on Route 12, County Hall, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40981714
By Au Morandarte from London, Middlesex, England - IMG_7057, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34229309
Image attribution
By Aubrey Morandarte from Guildford or Coventry, England - London Central LT438 on Route 12, County Hall, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40981714
By Au Morandarte from London, Middlesex, England - IMG_7057, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34229309