Borismaster First Thoughts

Full gory details here and here:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *SNORT* *TEASPRAY*

It looks like it’s been in a crash (‘An asymmetric design for the front-end completes the futuristic look’ as the furiously spinning GLA press team would have us believe), has a massive grille spoiling one side (hybrids need lots of cooling grilles for batteries, motors and things, the design challenge on a hybrid is making them part of a coherent whole, not slapping them in where the ‘futuristic’ design wonks leave space).

“I expect to eventually have hundreds of these on London’s roads, and for cities around the globe to be beside themselves with envy”

For envy read laughter.  This whole story is a triumph of puff over substance that makes even the ArcelorMittal Orbit seem like a sensible piece of cityscape.  We’ve got an expensive bus that looks like an inexpensive bus disguised with some cheap bits of design – the glass staircase, the slashed front that’s supposed to remind us of the vanished RM bonnet like the carved stone triglyph on a Greek temple but actually makes the front end look lopsided and the bus look like a Tellytubby after a stroke.  Futuristic stuff.

Whatever it is, it’s not a Routemaster.  Watch the press lap it up.

Update: More reaction coming in:

• Tory Troll
• Ross Lydall at the Standard (with a not-particularly-robust point)
• 853 say it ain’t no Routemaster
• Pippa Crerar with the official Standard response
• London Reconnections