What shall we do with our
New Routemasters?
23 January 2022
ABOVE: LT 152 in Hayes Town on Saturday 2nd October 2021
The New Bus for London, also known as the New Routemaster, Boris Master or just the LT class, has been with us for 10 years now; the first prototypes entered service in February 2012.
At that time they were hailed (no bus-related pun intended) as the next big thing for London – a new design that would become iconic on the busiest of major Central London bus routes, restoring the facility to jump on-and-off a bus in traffic, with a second crew member available at all times. Three-door boarding, we were told, would speed things up.
Ten years on and that isn’t quite how it is. They are certainly prevalent – there are 1000 of them after all – but the rear door has long since been permanently closed between stops, the second crew member has been laid off, and everyone boards through the front door.
The London Omnibus Traction Society (LOTS) has noted on its news page today that the earliest examples are well overdue a mid-life refurbishment, but that TfL does not have the money needed to do it – estimated at £31M.
These buses have never been my favourites. They have poor visibility because of their relatively small / low-height windows, and a restricted view across the offside because there is a blocked-off window at the top of the front stairs, which reduces the light on the top deck too. On the left-hand side upstairs, legroom seems to diminish the further back you sit.
And of course the buses are very long, at 11.3 metres (37 feet in old money), but have only 62 seats – 10 less than a long traditional Routemaster (RML type), which came in at 30 feet.
OK, I accept that an RML may not be a fair comparison – RMLs did not have a wheelchair space, and only had one door and one staircase. But many modern buses that are a metre shorter have as many, or more, seats than an LT. The extra staircase and door come at a cost.
One of the problems is that the buses are just too long for some of London’s tight streets. It is often reported that “every” route that turns right out of Praed Street in Paddington onto the Edgware Road has been ruled out for LT operation. The 94 is ruled out because of the tight turns at the terminus at Acton Green.
Route 91 has become the first to lose the buses (without an associated change of routing), reportedly because of concerns about the tightness of the Crouch End turnaround. But take that with a pinch of salt because they successfully navigated the turnaround for several years.
I think the designer of the New Routemaster might be left-handed. On the top deck, when one gets up to get off the bus, most of us instinctively reach for the right-hand side of the stairs for a grab pole. But there’s only a grab pole on the left-hand side on these buses.
But my main thought on these buses is that Transport for London (TfL) doesn’t know what to do with them any more. The intention was reportedly to focus on major central and inner London services, but this was diluted somewhat when the last vehicles of the order were introduced onto route 267 (Hammersmith to Fulwell). But it was their subsequent allocation to route 313 (Chingford to Potters Bar) in 2020 that really sent a signal that TfL was asking “What shall we do with our New Routemasters”?
Many of the services that the buses were initially used on have been at the heart of recent frequency reductions, and LTs have been becoming surplus all over the place. This has enabled them to be moved to other routes – I believe the 259 (Edmonton Green to King’s Cross) is the latest route to gain an allocation.
There was a bit of a shuffle of buses in RATP-land back in the summer of 2021, to get enough buses together for various tender gains. The net result was the temporary conversion of route 111 (Heathrow to Kingston) to the type. A few were also added to make a partial allocation on the H32 (Southall to Hounslow), despite a very tight turn from Hamilton Road into Avenue Road in Southall as part of the turning arrangements for the route. This is supposedly temporary, whilst route 148 warms up some electric vehicles until other depots are ready for them.
Some of those for the H32 have started turning up regularly on the H98 (Hounslow to Hayes End). It’s quite an important service, the H98. Double-decked fairly recently and now, as I say, seeing LTs regularly. But for all that, it doesn’t fit the definition of a major Central London route.
So an interesting future development coming up… Later this year, the contract for route 111 transfers to Abellio London. The award was made before the introduction of LTs to the route, and was on the basis of new electric buses. That means 25 LTs (plus spares) will become surplus overnight. I suspect they will then kit out the full services on routes H32 and H98, which have about the same allocation between them (those currently in use on these routes will presumably return to the 148 at some point).
At that time they were hailed (no bus-related pun intended) as the next big thing for London – a new design that would become iconic on the busiest of major Central London bus routes, restoring the facility to jump on-and-off a bus in traffic, with a second crew member available at all times. Three-door boarding, we were told, would speed things up.
Ten years on and that isn’t quite how it is. They are certainly prevalent – there are 1000 of them after all – but the rear door has long since been permanently closed between stops, the second crew member has been laid off, and everyone boards through the front door.
The London Omnibus Traction Society (LOTS) has noted on its news page today that the earliest examples are well overdue a mid-life refurbishment, but that TfL does not have the money needed to do it – estimated at £31M.
These buses have never been my favourites. They have poor visibility because of their relatively small / low-height windows, and a restricted view across the offside because there is a blocked-off window at the top of the front stairs, which reduces the light on the top deck too. On the left-hand side upstairs, legroom seems to diminish the further back you sit.
And of course the buses are very long, at 11.3 metres (37 feet in old money), but have only 62 seats – 10 less than a long traditional Routemaster (RML type), which came in at 30 feet.
OK, I accept that an RML may not be a fair comparison – RMLs did not have a wheelchair space, and only had one door and one staircase. But many modern buses that are a metre shorter have as many, or more, seats than an LT. The extra staircase and door come at a cost.
One of the problems is that the buses are just too long for some of London’s tight streets. It is often reported that “every” route that turns right out of Praed Street in Paddington onto the Edgware Road has been ruled out for LT operation. The 94 is ruled out because of the tight turns at the terminus at Acton Green.
Route 91 has become the first to lose the buses (without an associated change of routing), reportedly because of concerns about the tightness of the Crouch End turnaround. But take that with a pinch of salt because they successfully navigated the turnaround for several years.
I think the designer of the New Routemaster might be left-handed. On the top deck, when one gets up to get off the bus, most of us instinctively reach for the right-hand side of the stairs for a grab pole. But there’s only a grab pole on the left-hand side on these buses.
But my main thought on these buses is that Transport for London (TfL) doesn’t know what to do with them any more. The intention was reportedly to focus on major central and inner London services, but this was diluted somewhat when the last vehicles of the order were introduced onto route 267 (Hammersmith to Fulwell). But it was their subsequent allocation to route 313 (Chingford to Potters Bar) in 2020 that really sent a signal that TfL was asking “What shall we do with our New Routemasters”?
Many of the services that the buses were initially used on have been at the heart of recent frequency reductions, and LTs have been becoming surplus all over the place. This has enabled them to be moved to other routes – I believe the 259 (Edmonton Green to King’s Cross) is the latest route to gain an allocation.
There was a bit of a shuffle of buses in RATP-land back in the summer of 2021, to get enough buses together for various tender gains. The net result was the temporary conversion of route 111 (Heathrow to Kingston) to the type. A few were also added to make a partial allocation on the H32 (Southall to Hounslow), despite a very tight turn from Hamilton Road into Avenue Road in Southall as part of the turning arrangements for the route. This is supposedly temporary, whilst route 148 warms up some electric vehicles until other depots are ready for them.
Some of those for the H32 have started turning up regularly on the H98 (Hounslow to Hayes End). It’s quite an important service, the H98. Double-decked fairly recently and now, as I say, seeing LTs regularly. But for all that, it doesn’t fit the definition of a major Central London route.
So an interesting future development coming up… Later this year, the contract for route 111 transfers to Abellio London. The award was made before the introduction of LTs to the route, and was on the basis of new electric buses. That means 25 LTs (plus spares) will become surplus overnight. I suspect they will then kit out the full services on routes H32 and H98, which have about the same allocation between them (those currently in use on these routes will presumably return to the 148 at some point).
ABOVE: I stumbled across LT 154 in Avenue Road, Southall on Wednesday 22nd September 2021, looking distinctly sorry for itself. I gather that it may have collided with another bus on the same route. This is where buses park between trips and passengers are not carried at this point.
But further reductions are coming to services all over London, and inevitably some of those will be LT routes. There is a plan to merge routes 1 (Canada Water to Tottenham Court Road) and 168 (Old Kent Road Tesco to Hampstead Heath). Route 168 currently has 18 LTs (plus spares), but the new route is proposed to terminate at Canada Water, which reportedly cannot take LTs. What route(s) will they turn up on next?
TfL owns all 1000 LTs, and seems to be very keen not to move buses around between operators unless a contract changes hands. That may be why partial allocations on routes such as the 332 (Brent Park Tesco to Paddington) have not become full allocations despite the apparent lack of ideas about where to put spare vehicles.
Routes 5 (Romford to Canning Town) and 32 (Edgware to Kilburn Park) have seen odd appearances in the past – could they be candidates, if TfL is prepared to move buses between operators?
My local 207 (White City to Hayes By-Pass), or the Express 607 (White City to Uxbridge) could be candidates, though I would prefer not… And, if you can get an LT round Hamilton Road in Southall, they would probably fit into the tight Uxbridge High Street, which opens up the 427 (Acton to Uxbridge) as a candidate too.
The Mayor who brought the LTs to London has long since moved on to other things (anyone know what he’s up to these days?) – time will tell whether TfL still has a strategy for its now-not-so New Buses for London.