Former Sales and marketing director, in fact, until 2005.

http://www.busandcoach.com/newsstory.aspx?id=251

He described the Enviro400, which is the bog-standard 2008 double decker I use for comparison and hardly the most luxurious travelling environment (my Mum’s local bus route in Birmingham, the 50, uses them, so I got to sample a few last weekend) as:

‘…a clever idea wrapped in a gorgeous design – the ultimate double-decker.’

I much prefer our local Scanias, frankly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Scania_OmniDekka_447a.jpg

Mind you, I like the sound of these:

http://www.busandcoach.com/newsstory.aspx?id=2131

Former director of Alexander Dennis.

Newsed1 claims two havn’t been leaked to the press. He is the press. I am sure the good looking one is a revamped version of the Capoco/Autocar design that has been modified to conform with the strict competition specification. Which will feature in a forthcoming issue.

“Sir, Your welcome for a new Routemaster bus (“Blueprint for ‘son of Routemaster’,” Dec 19) does not report the true cost to Londoners. Reintroducing open platform buses would require conductors on all routes, as they would be required to safely manage access. This would cost £600 million – raising this money would require a huge fare rise for London’s six million daily bus passengers. The single fare would have to rise from 90p to at least £1.50 and the weekly pass from £13 to at least £21.

Open platform buses mean more passenger deaths. The passenger fatality rate on Routemasters is more than double that of other London buses. ”

I wonder how on earth they managed to swing it to stuff the panel with competent professionals? Oh, and Kulveer Ranger.

Clare Kavanagh spoke at this year’s Capital Woman conference, for that matter:

http://www.london.gov.uk/capitalwoman/event/speakers/kavanagh-c.jsp

Given that, we may get a happy ending, defined as a nice prize for the winner followed by a hefty kicking into the long grass, with the best engineering ideas taken forward by WrightBus or whoever and incorporated into a proper economical green hybrid bus for mass introduction in 2012, as would have happened anyway.

There is something rather wonderful about getting on a warm bus from a freezing wet street, though. Now who’s sounding like a transport romantic?

I hardly ever used RMs while they were in service, only the 94 ran them round here in my time, and that stopped in 2004.

Peter Hendy – Transport Commissioner – TfL
David Brown – Managing Director, Surface Transport – TfL
Clare Kavanagh – Performance Director, London Buses – TfL
Mike Weston – Operations Director, London Buses – TfL
Kulveer Ranger – Director for Transport Policy – GLA
David Quainton – Independent judging panel member with relevant experience in vehicle design and manufacturing