Boris Watch

I’ve been on a course up in the City this week, and thus, armed with a 7-day Oyster Z1-3 Travelcard (which, as an aside, repeatedly failed to open the barriers at Waterloo) have been trying out some unusual bus routes.  I tried using the 521 every morning to see what it’s about and here are [...]

I’ve been a bit remiss in posting various researches that have appeared on other forums, so I’m going to put them here in a big lump.  First off, Red Arrow bus types and capacities over time:
Bus    Seats    Stands    Total    %sts    %stnds    stnds/sts ratio
MBS    25    48    73    34%    66%    1.92
N/nal2    28    46    74    38%    62%    1.64
CitaroG    [...]

Naturally, when Boris’s people embargoed the staggering news that he’s appearing in Eastenders (we weren’t included in an embargo, being Beyond Civilisation in blog terms) we cynical sods wondered if he was burying anything.  So far nothing’s come to light, but there are two things this week that might use a diversion.  First off, the [...]

A few more things from the Routermater trainwreck to add to the pile:

There’s now a requirement to cover up the gap at the back.  This is known to the sane majority of transport observers as a ‘door’.  Nearly 100% of buses have them already, I understand.
Apparently the conductor is now not a conductor, as there [...]

Another day, another TfL press release asking us to give credit to Boris for something he didn’t start.  Uh-uh.  This time it’s the iBus automated bus information and location system, the rollout of which is now complete across all 8,000-odd London buses:
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘I put providing Londoners with clear concise information [...]

A serial-hybrid bendy with hub-mounted motors, expected to enter service in late 2009.  B-b-b-but we keep being told that only Boris can save the planet with his new Routemaster. and now the Germans are ahead of us?  Schweinhund!
The support of politicians and the public sector in the form of subsidies is required to make the [...]

Much shenanigans after my recent post about Boris taking the bend out but keeping the bus.  In it I linked to an online, publicly readable, Google searchable site called The Bus Forum.  Naively, since this is publicly readable, I assumed that the people contributing to it might be aware of this and the usual online [...]

Comment left over at Mayorwatch on the 11th March:
Ha!
What bloody cheek. Funny how all these environmental warriors weren’t jumping up and down when the Newt and TFL were ordering thousands of diesel buses – one of the primary causes of the NoX and soot pollution in the centre of London.
Oh, and the 21,000 black cabs [...]

Now the figures are out, we have the immensely satisfying task of examining our guesswork and rune reading over the last few months.  Regular readers will know that the Boris Watch conclusion on bendy replacement was that it would cost a lot more and put a lot more vehicles on the streets, be ungreen, do [...]

We’ve said before that the rules of debendification are simple – Boris has to ditch one of his frequently stated commitments:

Phase out bendy buses
Pursue value for money at TfL
Reduce congestion

We’ve also assumed that he’ll debendify regardless of the evidence, because he’s stuck up a gum tree by his own campaign spin and related Gilligoonery.  So [...]