Boris Watch

Andrew Gilligoon, wetting himself about the sketch-a-Routemaster announcement:

“…what TfL tended to do when a route went from Routemasters to bendies was to reduce the frequency - so it should be easy enough to increase the frequency right back again.”

How true is this?  First off, only three routes went RM->bendy, the others were either double deckers or new/much modified routes where you can’t directly compare them.  The magic three are:

• 12 - current peak frequency every five minutes
• 38 - current peak frequency every three minutes (busiest route in London)
• 73 - current peak frequency every three-four minutes

The 12 was restructured at bendy conversion time, with one part becoming more frequent, another part less, another part scrapped entirely.  It thus can’t be compared directly even though it’s kept the same number.

The 38 - with a bus running every 180 seconds with 100 people per bus it’s going to require a new 72-seat Routemaster every 130 seconds to keep the same capacity.  Apparently it ran every *two* minutes in the 1930s, long before Routemasters, but the frequency dropped until 2002 when it was increased (with RMs) because of, er, the congestion charge, which Gilligan opposes.  In other words, TfL first put the frequency up, then reduced it slightly when it went bendy a couple of years later due to the extra capacity provided.

The 73 is the one that had an ASA complaint upheld about TfL’s advertising, although the ASA actually accepted that capacity increased 25% with bendies, even though frequency was reduced.  They also accepted that Routemasters load slower than bendies if there are more than 10 people boarding.

So, far from TfL ‘tending’ to reduce frequency, the only route that went Routemaster->bendy with a reduction in frequency was the 73 which nevertheless has 25% more capacity.  Gilligan is tending to talk rubbish again.

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