Boris is cracking on with his Routemaster competition, despite which it’s been missing from the TfL front page for several weeks now. It is prominent on the Corporate subsection, however. Latest message reads:
Budding bus designers have just three weeks left to submit designs for a new bus for London. The competition to design a bus inspired by the classic Routemaster was one of the Mayor’s key manifesto pledges.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘There has been a lot of interest in the competition but I am sure that there are still many people out there with cracking ideas for our new bus.
Now, am I just being obtuse here, but does that not sound like a particularly encouraging response? Surely if there were thousands of Routemaster enthusiasts blizzarding TfL HQ with plans this would be reflected in the PR? With three weeks to go it’s also way, way too short for any serious bus designer to come up with anything particularly revolutionary, particularly when the original Routemaster took several years. Since the competition began in July and ends on September 19th, the chances of fully-fledged designs being ready to roll when the winners are announced at the end of October are slim to none. It does seem that the competition is structured in a way that will put off serious professional designers (not enough money, not enough detail, not enough time, no OJEU notice, which the hybrid taxis and hydrogen buses already have) and is geared towards the enthusiastic amateur. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s been set up to fail. They’ll take a couple of ideas for show and maybe add a them to the next round of bus renewals, but the idea of fleets of new Routemasters will be allowed to die.
A more sober look is brought to the party by Peter Hendy, unsurprisingly:
Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy said: ‘We’re looking for a modern, accessible, environmentally friendly design that will be an asset to London.
‘We have a history of innovation in public transport and design, and we will marry our expertise with the best ideas from the competition to produce a brand new icon for London.’
Now that sounds more like ‘OK, guys, suggest what you like, but don’t forget we’re the experts here’. Again, not a ringing endorsement of the idea of letting the great unwashed have much of a say.
TfL’s entire top management are unchanged from the previous administration. Just thought I’d throw that one in.
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i’d like to propose a bloody big red box thing with four wheels, a driver at the front and a pile of black fumes pluming out the back. ahhh. just like the old days.
if that’s a ‘key manifesto pledge’ i’d hate to see the minor one.
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