Extra, Extra

Boris is barking if he thinks a ‘modern Routemaster’ is economically viable. The original Routemaster was overengineered and way too expensive – it pretty much bankrupted London Transport, who couldn’t offset the costs by finding any other municipal buyers. Great bit of engineering and design, though. However, custom designed London buses in the 21st century? How much will that cost?

And conductors. Who’s going to pay the wages?

The sums don’t add up, Boris.

Not being snide Steve, but I, as many Londoners, am rather interested in the nitty-gritty of these mayoral bouts, could I ask where you get your info on the sums, and why they don’t add up?

Laying my cards on the table, I’m a Boris chap, but I’m not going to vote out of sentimentality for a bus if its stupidly expensive. I moved to H&F to keep my council tax low, and I like it there!

The Guardian has some analysis of the sums – and they REALLY don’t add up. Boris’s campaign estimates the cost at £8m, by doing the most back-of-an-envelope calculations ever, and then accuses TfL of political bias when it produces figures that take into account things like relative capacity and frequency of buses – and come to a cost 8 times higher than Boris’s estimate.