New Routemaster
The New Routemaster, originally referred to as the New Bus for London and colloquially as the Borismaster or Boris Bus, is a low-floor hybrid diesel–electric double-decker bus operated in London, England. Designed by Heatherwick Studio and manufactured by Wrightbus, it is notable for featuring a "hop-on hop-off" rear open platform similar to the original Routemaster bus design but updated to meet requirements for modern buses to be fully accessible. It first entered service in February 2012 with Arriva London on route 38.
The original AEC Routemaster was used as the standard London bus type, with a rear open platform and crewed by both a driver and conductor. After half a century, it was withdrawn from service at the end of 2005, in favour of a fully accessible one-man-operated modern fleet, none of which featured a rear open platform. The withdrawal of the Routemaster became an issue during the 2008 London mayoral election with Boris Johnson elected mayor with a campaign pledge to introduce a new Routemaster. Following an open design competition in 2008, Wrightbus was awarded the contract to build the bus at the end of 2009, and the final design was announced in May 2010.
The design for the new double-decker bus was inspired by the original AEC Routemaster and features three doors and two staircases to allow accessible boarding. Unlike the AEC Routemaster, the new bus has a full front end rather than the protruding, bonneted "half cab" design, and a rear platform with a door that can be closed, rather than being permanently open. The layout of the new bus allows it to be operated by the driver alone. The cost of each bus was £355,000 over the four-year procurement period. The last of the 1,000 New Routemasters was delivered in December 2017.
Configuration
The final design has doors at the front, centre and rear. The front and rear doors lead to staircases to the upper deck. The rear entrance initially had a platform and pole similar to the original Routemaster, with a door kept open for hop-on, hop-off operation when a conductor was on board. Readers for the contactless Oyster card used for payment for transport in London are provided at each of the three boarding points. Other types of tickets must be presented to the driver. This applied even when a conductor was on board, as the conductors did not take fares or check tickets.There is a new pattern of moquette for the seating, manufactured by Camira Fabrics. The internal lighting is provided by LED clusters, and there is a climate-controlled ventilation system. There is a system to display text and provide audio announcements via loudspeakers, and T-loop for users of hearing aids; the information typically includes the route number, destination, name of the next stop and that the bus is stopping.
The bus is a hybrid diesel–electric driven by a battery-powered electric motor, charged by a diesel fuelled generator and recovering energy during braking by regenerative braking.
In 2020, Transport for London announced that the New Routemasters would be converted so passengers only enter by the front door, with the middle and rear doors becoming exit-only. This was done to reduce fare evasion, which had been double that of other London buses.
Background
Original Routemaster in London
Designed for and largely operated in London, over 2,800 AEC Routemasters were built between 1956 and 1968, with a design so robust that the Routemaster outlasted newer buses intended to replace it, remaining in use until 2005, well into the deregulated era.From 31 December 2000, it became mandatory for all new buses delivered in the UK to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, leading to the development of the wheelchair-accessible low-floor bus. Older buses were allowed to continue operating in London until 23 October 2009, and in the rest of the United Kingdom until 22 October 2014. Through the TfL contract renewal process, after 2000, the Routemaster began to be identified as the most common example of a non-wheelchair-accessible bus type used on TfL routes.
The first Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, supported the Routemaster during his first term, indicating the type would be retained in a limited capacity on contract renewals as before. He also promised to convert the whole London bus fleet to low-floor with an original targeted timeline of 23 October 2009, which then was pushed earlier to 1 January 2006, requiring the withdrawal of the Routemaster from London. Contributory factors to the withdrawal were said to be the risk of litigation over accidents arising from using the rear platform, the cost savings of one-person operation and the fact that passengers preferred the comfort levels of modern buses to the vintage Routemaster. Livingstone said that the Routemasters were too dangerous, with approximately twelve people per year dying after falling from them during his mayoralty. The last examples were withdrawn from regular London passenger service in December 2005.
The Routemaster continued in operation on heritage routes 9 and 15, with the former discontinued in July 2014. The heritage routes, shorter than the full 9 and 15 routes, were awarded as tendered routes by TfL and did not contravene the TfL accessible public transport policy requirement, as frequent wheelchair-accessible buses also operate on these routes. The provision of Routemaster buses was drastically curtailed on 2 March 2019 to availability on weekends only for 60 days a year. As of 2021, the heritage routes with Routemaster are withdrawn.
FRM and XRM
An attempt to design a rear-engined front-entrance version of the Routemaster in 1964/65 led to the construction of the FRM1 in 1966. The prototype shared approximately 60% of its components with a standard Routemaster and was the first integrally-constructed rear-engined double-decker built in Britain. Because of its single door and continued mechanical problems associated with its unique design, the FRM was considered a dead end although it provided proof of concept.In 1968, London Transport went back to the drawing board for another replacement of the Routemaster, with an anticipated introduction date of 1985. The initial result was a four-axle low-floor design that would have been suitable for automatic fare collection. By 1975, the project was well in hand and had been named XRM. Features of the new design included a side-mounted engine for maximum flexibility in door and seating layout and hydraulic drive to four small-wheeled axles for the lowest possible floor. Experiments in the mid-1970s yielded disappointing results, and in 1978, the XRM morphed into a more conventional-looking vehicle but with the rear door behind the rear axle. Other proposed features were LPG fuel and hydraulic suspension to lower the floor at stops. XRM design work was cancelled in September 1980, as it was calculated that it would cost £153million to build 2,500 new XRMs but only £13.5million to overhaul 2,700 Routemasters. London Transport had, by then, committed heavily to the Leyland Titan, to which they had significant design input and it was regarded as a more viable option.
A decade later, London Transport once again looked for a replacement. In 1989, designs were solicited from Dennis Bus, Alexander and Northern Counties. The style specified was a rear-entrance half-cab layout identical to the original Routemaster, but by now, it was considered obsolete elsewhere in Britain.
In 1999, London Transport received an unsolicited design from its former vehicle engineering manager, Colin Curtis, who had overseen the design of the Routemaster. Dubbed the Q Master, it found little favour within London Transport and by manufacturers that Curtis approached. Transport for London announced that it would look at developing a Routemaster replacement, but the project was confirmed as dead in June 2003.
Design
Initial Capoco proposal
On 3 September 2007 the Conservative mayoral candidate for London, Boris Johnson, announced that he was contemplating introducing a modern-day Routemaster. In December 2007, the UK automotive magazine Autocar commissioned the bus designer Capoco, designer of the innovative Optare Solo, to come up with detailed proposals for a new-generation Routemaster. Their design, dubbed the RMXL, was a hybrid technology low-floor bus with a lightweight aluminium space frame, with four more seats and twice the standing capacity of the old Routemaster, and operated solely by a driver.The design incorporated disabled access through a closing front door behind the front wheels while retaining open platform rear access, with the staircase still at the rear. The hybrid drivetrain had a front-mounted continuous-revving hydrogenised petrol engine; this charged front-mounted batteries, which powered the rear wheels through rear-mounted electric motors. This arrangement, through not requiring a mechanical transmission, allowed for a low floor and a step-free entrance into the lower deck from the rear platform.
Hydrogen storage tanks would be located under the rear staircase. The design was covered by the national press but attracted criticism from Livingstone as being too costly to justify and still not safe, despite proposals to monitor the rear platform with cameras.
New Bus for London competition
Johnson backed the Autocar / Capoco design in principle and suggested that he would hold a formal design competition to develop a new Routemaster if he was elected London mayor in May 2008. After winning, on 4 July 2008 Johnson announced the New Bus for London competition.An initiative of Transport for London, the competition invited anybody, both companies and members of the public, to submit ideas for consideration. The competition had two categories, an Imagine category for general ideas and concepts, and a Design category, for more detailed proposals. In both categories, entries could be either "whole bus" submissions, or proposals for parts of the bus.
The Imagine category called for the submission of imaginative ideas for a red double-decker bus with a rear open platform, and one other entrance/exit with doors. The Design category called for detailed designs of a low-floor, red double-decker bus with at least one internal staircase, a rear open platform, and one other entrance/exit with doors, to be crewed by a driver and conductor, and suitable for carrying 72 passengers seated and standing. The designs were required to satisfy a table of mandatory and suggested design specifications, and "be practical and economic and capable of being put into mass production". The competition offered cash prizes for entrants, with £25,000 for the winner, and smaller awards for good ideas.
One initial set of proposals gained media attention after being unveiled during October 2008, for a "smiley bus" known as the H4. Future Systems offered a "space age" alternative powered by hydrogen. Foster and Partners submitted a glass-roofed design.
The winners were announced on 19 December 2008. There were 225 entries in the Design category, and 475 entries in the Imagine category
The £25,000 prize for winning the whole bus Design category was shared between two entries, one from Capoco Design, a bus, coach and truck design firm, and one from a joint submission made by architects Foster + Partners and automotive company Aston Martin.