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Friday, 15 May 2020

10 year anniversary of the New Routemaster design – How it has improved bus designs over the years

It has been 10 years since TfL, the London Mayor (now currently Prime Minister) Boris Johnson and Heatherwick Studios unveiled the final design of the most controversial three-door, two-staircase hybrid bus known as the New Routemaster,back in 2010.

We take a look at the press release from TfL when they unveiled the final design of the New Routemaster on 17th May 2010.


The final design of the New Bus for London, based on the much-loved Routemaster, was today unveiled by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and London's Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy.

Pioneering design

The bus will use the latest green technology. It will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than existing hybrid buses, and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double decks and much quieter on the streets.

The pioneering design makes use of lightweight materials, with glass highlighting key features and producing a light and airy feel inside the bus.

An impressive glass 'swoop' at the rear and offside pick out the two staircases and provide a dramatic visual effect.

An asymmetric design for the front-end completes the futuristic look.

Stylish, swooshing exterior

The open platform is a defining feature, shared with the Routemaster of old, and allows the reinstatement of a hop-on, hop-off service.

Three doors and two staircases will aid speedier and smoother boarding.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: 'This iconic new part of our transport system is not only beautiful, but also has a green heart beating beneath its stylish, swooshing exterior.

'It will cut emissions, and give Londoners a bus they can be proud of, complete with cutting edge design, and the freedom of an open platform.

Loved by Londoners

'I expect to eventually have hundreds of these on London's roads, and for cities around the globe to be beside themselves with envy for our stunning red emblem of 21st century London.'

Peter Hendy, London's Transport Commissioner, said: 'Designing and building a new bus exclusively for London is an exciting project to be working on and one of which we are all proud.

'This beautifully designed, environmentally friendly vehicle built for the Capital will be loved by Londoners for many years to come.'

Mark Nodder, Group Managing Director of Wrightbus, said: 'This project is not just about evolution, it's about revolution.

Quicker access

'I think the design is genuinely groundbreaking, people are really going to stop and notice these buses on the streets of London.'

Wrightbus and Transport for London (TfL) have been working with Heatherwick Studio as a collaborative design partner taking the lead on the styling of the bus to support Wrightbus in the design and development process.

The bus will feature two staircases, enabling easier and quicker access to and from the upper deck.

There will be two conventional doors and an open rear platform, which has the option to be closed off at quiet times for example during the night.

Wrightbus engineers are working on a static mock-up of the bus to be complete later this year with the first prototype to be delivered late next year, the new buses will enter service from early 2012.

Here are several more press releases from the early stages of the New Routemaster project before full production started, which you can enjoy reading.

Now for a brief recap from my previous articles

The original purpose of the New Routemaster was to bring back the open platform as part of Boris Johnson’s 2008 Mayoral election pledge. The conductors enabled the open platform operation which only served six routes (9, 10, 11, 24, 38 & 390) and they were withdrawn in September 2016.

There was controversy though with the NRM which had received negative publicity including fare evasion because of three door boarding. There were air cooling problems too which later resulted in window openings and also battery faults causing the NRM to only operate in diesel mode.

The cost of the entire project including design and rollout of 1,000 vehicles cost £346 million from TfL’s budget. They are leased to private bus operators for their contracted routes as the London bus operators pay the lease rental of £1 per NRM bus per year to TfL.

The first New Routemaster entered service on 27th February 2012 on route 38 and the last NRM entered service on route 267 on 19th February 2018.

Routes currently served using New Routemaster buses

Currently, there are 37 London Bus routes and 24 night routes served with New Routemasters.

The routes are: 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24, 27, 38, 55, 59, 67, 68, 73, 76, 87, 91, 137, 148, 149, 159, 168, 176, 189, 211, 253, 254, 267, 390, 415, 153, EL1, EL2, EL3.

And night routes: N3, N8, N9, N11, 12, N15, N16, N19, 24, N27, N38, N55, N73, 76, N87, 148, 149, 159, 176, 189, N253, 390, 453, EL1.

New Routemaster style buses outside London

The New Routemaster has certainly helped bus manufacturers improve the design of their double deck models by adopting certain designs such as the glazed staircase which is now seen on various services in Britain and elsewhere.

Bristol





Blackpool





Cambridge



Edinburgh





Glasgow



Manchester



Nottingham




 


 

Plymouth



Reading



The test trial of the New Routemaster and Enviro400H City has encouraged Reading Buses to purchase the Enviro400CBG with City bodywork for Purple 17 service.



Wrexham/Chester



Hong Kong

During late 2013, the demonstration of the New Routemaster in Hong Kong encouraged bus operator KMB to adopt the glazed staircase design to their fleet of new buses.





Egyptian bus manufacturer, MCV have adopted the glazed staircase to their double deck design for Hong Kong bus operator KMB.



A couple more cities are set to have double deck buses with the glazed staircase; the cities are Berlin and Singapore.

I personally believe the classic ‘half-cab’ double decker icon for London has evolved to be the double decker bus with glazed staircase and the design can be seen throughout many areas of Britain in different colours.

‘Successor’ to the New Routemaster for London
I think designing a new exclusive bus for London is obsolete now because bus manufacturers have already designed their own double deck models containing design cues from the New Routemaster.

During early 2015, the Mayor and management of TfL held a meeting with bus managers to encourage bus manufacturers to improve their double deck models by adopting New Routemaster styling for the dual door, single staircase buses for London.

During the autumn of 2015, Alexander Dennis (ADL) unveiled the Enviro400H City which takes design cues from the New Routemaster, then in late 2015 they first appeared on route 78 operated by Arriva London. The New Routemaster designer Thomas Heatherwick praised the design as a “back-to-front” compliment.

I’ve detailed the full reason, with evidence, in my previous article on how TfL planned to progress with the bus fleet once the New Routemaster project had ended.

Routes served by two-door, single-staircase New Routemaster style buses

The Alexander Dennis Enviro400H City serve routes: 20, 26, 78, 133, 333, 388 and night routes N26, N133, N550, N551.

The zero emission ADL/BYD Enviro400EV City serve routes: 43, 94, 212 and night route 94.

Upcoming routes to use these buses are: 106, 173, 174, 230, 319, 357 and school route 673

The Wrightbus SRM bodied Volvo B5LH(C) is partially served on routes 37 and 183. You can read more on why the SRM failed to gain sales in my previous article here.

Zero-emission New Routemaster style buses

Now it’s important for bus manufacturers to rollout thousands of zero-emission battery and hydrogen buses in order to reduce air pollution.

We see the fleet of zero-emission Enviro400EV City buses is increasing for London, and bus operators are choosing to use their own interior colour scheme instead of using the New Routemaster style interior. I once suggested in a previous article that TfL should set out a standard interior livery for new buses purchased or leased by the private bus operators.

I do think though that bus manufacturers (Optare and Wrightbus) should build a new double decker bus with design features which go beyond the New Routemaster styling.

I’ve mentioned in a previous article that Jo Bamford proposed that his hydrogen buses will be ‘state-of-the-art’, although the current double deck hydrogens have Gemini 3 bodywork. We’ll have to wait and see what happens once the hydrogen project has progressed further. Also, thanks to Jo Bamford for saving Wrightbus from Administration.

Future three-door, two-staircase buses?

I suggest that bus manufacturers should build a zero-emission variant of the New Routemaster style bus with three doors and two staircases. This will give TfL the option to potentially replace the hybrid New Routemaster bus with a newer zero-emission bus with a similar spec to the New Routemaster.

Currently we are in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic which has forced changes to many things in life. This has caused London buses to use middle-door boarding because of social distancing.

Before the pandemic TfL was trying to convert New Routemaster routes to front-door only boarding to help reduce fare evasion; you can read about it in my previous article here.

I have mentioned that one city in mainland Europe has three-door buses with front door entry only.



It will depend if TfL decides to continue to provide services with the three-door, two-staircase layout buses once the New Routemaster reaches the 14 year life cycle.

I believe the three-door, two-staircase buses are ideal for ‘bus rapid transit’ services to provide faster boarding. There is a bus rapid transit service in London named the East London Transit (routes EL1, EL2 and EL3). They are currently served using New Routemasters and no doubt they will change to front door only boarding once the Coronavirus pandemic ends.

Conclusion

I would prefer London Buses to retain a huge mixture of makes and models for various bus routes; I personally believe it would be boring to have a standardised fleet, therefore bus manufacturers should continue to use different shapes (boxyness or curves) and styles for their bus designs.

The New Routemaster does have a ‘successor’ which has now spread to services throughout Britain and they have certainly helped bus operators make their services more attractive by adopting the glazed staircase to their double-deck models which makes it eye-catching for the public.

The electric taxi manufacturer LEVC uses the iconic design of their taxicab dedicated for London in the rest of Britain and around the world. Bus manufacturers could do the same by standardising their double-deck models with New Routemaster style design for their zero-emission products.

We’ll have to wait and see for updates from the bus manufacturers once the Coronavirus pandemic ends.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter by searching for @CLondoner92 or clicking on the direct link to my Twitter page here.

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