Londonist » bus

Bus-Tops In Numbers And Pictures

Hazel — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:30:31 +0000

A long, long time ago we wrote rather deliriously about Bus-Tops, an arts project that puts glowing messages on top of bus shelters. The project was a submission for the Artists Taking the Lead commission for the Cultural Olympiad. It won, leading to us having a happy chat with Alfie Dennen, one of the artists behind it. A little over two years later and after a lot of work with TfL and Arts Council England, Bus-Tops are finally here, and lighting up London’s bus journeys really nicely.

Check out our pictures taken from the top deck of a bus on the night of the Bus-Tops launch — the striking graphics are Mark Titchner’s ‘31 Day Programme‘, an evolving series of messages and motivational challenges meant to inspire and enlighten the most mundane of bus journeys. Our tip to London bus passengers in 2012 is go upstairs and take a seat on the left for the best views, and have a go at putting your own work on a Bus-Top when the Bus-Top submissions website is ready.

BUS-TOPS IN NUMBERS:

Bus stops with Bus-Top screens — 30
London boroughs with bus stops with Bus-Top screens — 20
Bus routes featuring Bus-Tops — 6
Contemporary artists featuring in month-long residencies and new work on Bus-Tops — 9
Months Bus-Tops will be active across London this year — 9
Hours in a day Bus-Top screens will be active — 24
Frames per second each Bus-Top screen can manage for animated artworks — 10
Pixel by pixel proportions of a Bus-Top — 256 x 80
Colours in which Bus-Tops display artworks — 2 (black and red)

For more information on Bus-Tops and how to take part in this city-wide public art project, go to the Bus-Tops website.

In Pictures: The New Bus For London

Dean — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:27:25 +0000

The Mayor officially unveiled the New Bus for London on the streets of the capital this morning. We went down to Trafalgar Square to take a look.

The first impressions are good: this is a gorgeous vehicle. Whether you think this is a symbol of 21st-century travel or are convinced that it’s a costly vanity project, the finished product is a beautiful thing to behold. Not since the Routemaster has London seen a bus that looks like it’s been so lovingly designed. The influence of Thomas Heatherwick’s studio, who worked on the project, is clear: the flowing forms of the exterior are matched inside, and every detail, from the recessed lights to the ‘stop’ buttons, are clearly the product of a heightened aesthetic sense. A hybrid vehicle, the bus is also being described as ‘the most environmentally friendly of its kind’, and in tests emitted 640 g/km of CO2 and 3.96 g/km of nitrogen oxide, around half of what a diesel bus pumps out.

The comparisons with Routemaster extend to the cork and rubber flooring, which is the same used in the older bus, and most notably at the rear, with its open platform. There are three doors in total on the bus; the one in the centre allows people in wheelchairs to board, while the back will, for the most part, be a hop-on, hop-off door, with an Oyster card reader at the bottom of the stairs. The rear platform will be kept open whilst a conductor is working on the bus, which should cover it for most of the operating hours; however, in late evenings, when no conductor is on board, the central and rear doors will be for exit only. There is also a staircase in the middle of the bus.

One thing to note is that, unlike most of the capital’s buses, the windows cannot be opened, meaning it will rely on the air conditioning system for ventilation. All very well and good, but it might become unpleasant on a hot summer’s day.

The bus will be tested over the coming weeks and is due to be put into passenger service on 20th February on the 38 route, a service that has been operated by Routemasters and bendy buses over the years. Transport for London have so far bought eight of the vehicles, and by the summer all should be running on the 38, the peak vehicle requirement (PVR) for which is 70, so the New Bus will make up a little over 10% of the buses on that route.

TfL has spent £10m for the eight buses, or £1.6m each, including research and development; building further vehicles will be significantly cheaper. This hasn’t stopped Labour dismissing it as mayoral vanity project. If it is, then at least it’s a good looking one.

The one thing it’s missing at the moment, of course, is a nickname: ‘New Bus for London’ isn’t particularly snappy. Suggestions welcome in the comments.

London Transport Fares 2000-2012

Rachel Holdsworth — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:30:35 +0000

With the Mayoral election coming up, fares will be a burning hot topic. But there’s so much politicking surrounding the issue it’s almost impossible to separate the fact from the posturing. So we decided to put together some actual data that we can refer to the next time a candidate says “when you look at the fares increase in real terms / compared with inflation / I had my fingers crossed and it didn’t count”.

Not as easy as it sounds: until 2003, new fare proposals were published in TfL Board Papers. After that, as far as we can tell, the data disappear, with only select information in press releases, before returning in 2009 on the Mayor’s website – but only accessible by wading through search results. Thankfully, TfL were able to provide us with a full history for certain fare types.

Direct comparisons aren’t always easy – we had the introduction of Oyster and removal of bus zones in 2004, and withdrawal of day travelcards for zones 1-3, 1-5 and 2-6 in 2011, for example – and so many permutations. But we’ve decided to look at travel between zones 1 and 4.

Tube single journey zones 1-4: cash

2000: £2.60
2001: £2.70
2002: £2.70
2003: £2.80
2004: £3.00
2005: £2.80
2006: £3.00
2007: £4.00
2008: £4.00
2009: £4.00
2010: £4.00
2011: £5.00
2012 (original): £5.40
2012 (revised): £5.30

Tube single journey zones 1-4: Oyster PAYG (peak)

2004: £2.80
2005: £2.50
2006: £2.50
2007: £2.50
2008: £2.50
2009: £2.80
2010: £3.10
2011: £3.40
2012 (original): £3.60
2012 (revised): £3.60

Bus single fare including zone 1: cash

2000: £1
2001: £1
2002: £1
2003: £1
2004: £1
2005: £1.20
2006: £1.50
2007: £2
2008: £2
2009: £2
2010: £2
2011: £2.20
2012 (original): £2.30
2012 (revised): £2.30

Bus single fare: Oyster PAYG (peak)

2004: 70p
2005: £1
2006: £1
2007: £1
2008: 90p
2009: £1
2010: £1.20
2011: £1.30
2012 (original): £1.40
2012 (revised): £1.35

One day cap bus and tram Oyster PAYG

2005: £3
2006: £3
2007: £3
2008: £3
2009: £3.30
2010: £3.90
2011: £4
2012 (original): £4.20
2012 (revised): £4.20

One day travelcard / Oyster PAYG cap zones 1-4 (all day)

2002: £6.80
2003: £7
2004: £7.30
2005: £8
2006: £8.40
2007: £9
2008: £9.40
2009: £10
2010: £10
2011: £10
2012 (original): £10.80
2012 (revised): £10.60

Seven day travelcard zones 1-4

2000: £26.80
2001: £27.60
2002: £28.10
2003: £28.40
2004: £29.20
2005: £30.40
2006: £31.60
2007: £33.20
2008: £34.60
2009: £36.80
2010: £36.80
2011: £39.40
2012 (original): £42.60
2012 (revised): £ 41.80

Seven day bus and tram pass

2000: £11.50
2001: £9.50
2002: £8.50
2003: £8.50
2004: £9.50
2005: £11
2006: £13.50
2007: £14
2008: £13
2009: £13.80
2010: £16.60
2011: £17.80
2012 (original): £19.10
2012 (revised): £18.80

Photo by gary8345 from the Londonist Flickr pool

Video: London From A Bus Window

Lindsey — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:50:28 +0000

Take a few minutes out of your day to watch this video, shot from inside London buses. The maker, Moritz Oberholzer says, “everything is shot handheld with an hd camera and a DIY 35mm adapter while sitting in one of those red vehicles of London.”

In an amazing feat of filmmaking, it feels like Moritz has captured a snapshot of all London through the bus window and edited it together into a dreamlike sequence that is quite beautiful. A love letter to London? At the very least, it’s a priceless reminder to look up, look down and all around.

For your info, the music used is Ratatat “Loud Pipes”.

Many thanks to @Zefrog for the tip off.

App Review: Bus Checker For iPhone

M@ — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:30:44 +0000

When’s the next bus due? London’s bus stops often have handy countdown boards that let you make an informed decision about whether to wait, or go grab a coffee. But there are many stops that lack these readouts. Passengers with iPhones can now use a new app to see where their bus has got to from any of London’s 19,000 bus stops.

If this sounds familiar, you probably read about TfL’s Countdown site, which launched less than a month ago. This web-based service was welcomed as a potential game-changer for those with long waits between scheduled busses. Finally, you could check up on the real-time progress of any bus, and not waste time hanging around for a service that’s still 20 minutes away.

The natural evolution for this use of data is to stick it into an app. London Bus Checker basically takes TfL’s data and repackages it into a friendly phone-based version.

The app has a very clean interface. There are only three types of page: the main map view (top), which shows all nearby bus stops; the countdown board (right), accessed when you click on any given bus stop; and the list view, a handy way of browsing all the local services and finding out which bus stop you need. It’s also possible to bookmark your most-used stops for quick reference.

The app is much swifter and simpler to use on a mobile than plodding through TfL’s web site. That said, the latter also shows the full route of any given service, a useful tool if you’re journeying to unfamiliar parts of town and want to know where you’re going. Something for version 2, perhaps.

Bus Checker is out now for iPhone and other Appley species, price £1.49. Data come from TfL, but the app is independently produced by FatAttitude, Ltd.

Extra, Extra

Rachel Holdsworth — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:00:51 +0000

Gary Dobson and David Norris plead not guilty to murdering Stephen Lawrence
Schools can claim free Olympics tickets for their pupils…
…and there’s free tickets on offer for anyone who took part in the 1948 Games
Southeastern introduce a compensation scheme if you’re delayed 30 minutes or more (shame it wasn’t around earlier in the week, really)
Three gap year students from Dulwich have been killed in a coach crash in Thailand
More of us are taking the bus than ever before

Police line from yesterday courtesy of Pryere via the Londonist flickr group.

Extra, Extra

M@ — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:49:49 +0000

The Shard...a crude penis?

Alain de Botton compares the Shard to ”a giant penis that’s made an appearance at a very inopportune and unwelcome moment”, saying it’s “arrogant, insensitive, crude and reactionary”. You might formulate a sentence involving kettles and pots, but we couldn’t possibly comment.
Say goodbye to the number 25 bendy bus.
Say hello to this secret vestigial train service between Wandsworth and Kensington.
London’s Habitats get a new owner.

Image by murphyz in the Londonist Flickr pool.

New Bus For London Is On The (Northern Irish) Roads

jamesup — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:41:46 +0000

This rough and ready video shows a prototype of Boris’ new bus for London test driving out on the streets of Northern Ireland.

Thanks to skyscrapercity user ‘ulsterman’ for the tip off.

BusMapper. It Maps Buses. But In A Useful Way.

M@ — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:02:55 +0000

Buses and maps. It’s a nerd’s wet dream. But BusMapper has such an easy interface it might just appeal to everyday commuters.

Simply click your start and end points on a Google Map, and the site overlays the best routes. You can then drag and drop either terminus to try alternative journeys.

Let’s say, for example, that Boris Johnson wanted to travel from City Hall to visit his sister at The Lady in Covent Garden. Someone’s stolen his bike, there’s a Tube strike on, and all the hire bikes are taken. Which bus should he take?

A quick fiddle with the map offers three options. The 188 takes him almost door to door, but detours on an apparent gravitational slingshot around the Elephant and Castle. The oddly named RV1 route (it stands for ‘riverside’) runs right past City Hall on Tooley Street, and would offer the mayor a pleasant stroll across Waterloo Bridge after it terminates at the cognate station. His third choice involves transponting Tower Bridge on foot then catching the number 15 on the Routemaster Heritage Route all the way to Strand.

What should our tousled-haired mayor do?

Cheers to @zefrog for the tip.

New Bus For London On Display At Transport Museum

Dean — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:11:16 +0000

A model of the New Bus for London, the Routemaster-style vehicle that Boris Johnson plans on bringing to the capital’s streets next year, has been delivered to the London Transport Museum, where it will be on public display for the next three months.

The full-scale 3D mock-up was unveiled last year at TfL’s Acton depot, but this is the first time that members of the public will be able to clap eyes on the omnibus that’ll be ferrying them around come 2012. Not that we’ll be able to do much more than ogle it, of course: the interior is off-bounds. Access to the bus is included in the price of entry to the Museum (£13.50 adults / £10 concessions for a year’s entry), but it will be open for free on 13 and 20 May.

A working prototype should be completed this year, and five of the new buses are due to begin service next year.

See more pictures of the New Bus for London.

In Pictures: A New Bus For London

Dean — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:05:09 +0000

Thanks to Transport for London for these pictures of the new Routemaster bus (we really need to stop calling it that at some stage) shown off by the Mayor yesterday. There is also an excellent gallery over at The Guardian, which features some images taken of the interior; though described as a “raw sketch”, they do show how the bus has been inspired by its fondly-remembered namesake, particularly in the pattern used on the seats.

A few further notes on the design. As speculated before, the bus, built by Northern Irish company Wrightbus, with design input by Heatherwick Studios, does look a little like a re-fitted version of the former’s Eclipse Gemini II vehicle, with an additional staircase and rear platform added. According to the press release, the bus calls for an second member of staff (after the driver) to operate when the rear platform is open, but the press release stops short of naming that person as a conductor.

One thing missing from TfL’s press release yesterday was any discussion about the cost of the buses. As we’ve previously reported, the R&D work on these vehicles has pushed the cost for the first five buses (the ones that will be ready in early 2012) to £7.8 million, or £1.6 million per vehicle. Further buses will of course be a lot cheaper, but will there be any money left to fund a fleet of them?

Preview: Moquette For London @ Transport Museum

Lindsey — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 15:30:17 +0000

As a prelude to the introduction of one moquette to rule them all London Transport Museum hosts an evening about the history and future of its iconic seat covering fabric this week.

The designers of the new textile will talk and there is a guided tour of the museum’s bonkers, multimedia Design for Travel gallery. For those who like to get hands on – apart from the essential pretend to drive a tube train and a bus bit – The Make Lounge run a make and take workshop for you to create bespoke moquette patterned drinking glasses to show off at your next Come Dine With Me London Transport themed geek out dinner party.

Moquette for London is at London Transport Museum on Wednesday 22 September between 6.30-9.30pm. Tickets £18/15/12.50: call 020 7565 7298 to reserve yours now. Part of the London Design Festival.

Bus Crash At Piccadilly Circus

Rachel Holdsworth — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:25:32 +0000

Reports are coming in that a bus has hit a woman at Piccadilly Circus, before crashing into railings badly enough to cause metal to fall into one of the tube entrances. The woman has been treated for an arm injury and taken to hospital. Two lanes on Regent Street are closed which is, fairly obviously, causing queues – so far all the way back to Hyde Park Corner according to TfL. BBC London has been sent a photo of the bus with its central doors badly mangled and a set of railings embedded underneath.

Did Bus Driver Refuse To Take Muslim Students?

Dean — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:15:10 +0000

Photo / che-burashka

Metroline, which operates buses throughout London, are launching an investigation after allegations that one of their drivers refused to allow two veiled Muslim students on his vehicle.

The students, one of whom was wearing a face-covering niqab, the other a hijab (in which the face remains exposed), had been waiting on the number 7 at Russell Square for about 10 minutes before it departed; when the driver returned, the women claim that he ordered them off the bus as they were a “threat”. One of the students says she attempted to film the driver, but he hid his identity by using the more rudimentary technique of covering his face with his arm.

The incident will further provoke debate about a style of clothing that, for something worn by a small percentage of the population, elicits frenzied opinion. However, if the allegations are substantiated, then whatever your view on face-covering garments, it’s difficult to side with the driver, who appears (at the very least) to have wildly over-reacted.

That said, the ever-enlightened mouth breathers on the Standard’s comments pages have already made their minds up who was in the wrong on this one.

New Routemasters To Cost £1.6m ‘Each’

Rachel Holdsworth — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:00:24 +0000

Image by kenchie from the Londonist Flickr pool

We know the specification, roughly what it’ll look like and who’s building it, and now the Times have come up with how much Boris’s new Routemaster buses will cost. And it works out at a massive £1.6m each – eight times more than a conventional double decker.

The Wrightbus contract is to design, build and test a prototype plus five buses for use on the roads before 2012, at a cost of £7.8m. The cost of any additional buses won’t be more than £300k, but that’s still £100k more than a standard double decker and £50k more than the hated bendy. Now, that might not be enough to plug the holes in TfL’s colander-like budget but it’s not helpful PR, especially when you get anonymous bus company execs telling the Times

“It is, frankly, farcical. We did not ask for the new Routemaster and I am not sure we would want them.”

At that price, however, we kind of have to like them – we can’t afford not to.

Free Flowers Around Town Today

M@ — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:30:07 +0000

There’s a big, friendly bus full of flowers travelling round town today. If you spot it, you can get your hands on one of a thousand free bouquets of tulips. Wherefore art the bulb of munificence from which springeth such bounteous clasps of inflorescence? Well, we’re glad you asked, even if you do phrase things in such a peculiar way. it’s a rather lovely marketing push for the International Flower Bulb Centre, promoting its current ‘Brighten Up my Day’ campaign. The route will take the bus round Embankment, Oxford Street, Hyde Park and High Street Kensington. If a single bouquet is just not enough, you can win a month’s supply (!) by photographing the omniflourent omnibus and sending your pic to info@bulbinfo.com.uk.

No More Sleeping On The 25

Rachel Holdsworth — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:00:15 +0000

Image by Doilum from the Londonist Flickr pool

We’ve all fallen asleep on the night bus and ended up stuck at the end of the route (haven’t we?) but if you don’t have a home to (eventually) go to, the night bus can seem a good place to bed down. Particularly the 25, which takes two hours to plough between Oxford Circus and Ilford, on which 31 rough sleepers were found in just one three day period. Which seems fair enough to us – it’s been bloody cold – except drivers were calling police and ambulances to the depot to turf the homeless out, and that means the bus is out of service.

Cue an Outreach team dedicated to working with TfL to find these people, who are hidden from the usual teams by not being visible on the streets. 25 are currently being helped to find somewhere a bit more permanent to sleep. The London Delivery Board (which sounds more like it should be dealing in milk in the 1960s, but no matter) has also helped three-quarters of the city’s “most entrenched” rough sleepers off the streets in the last year, according to its recent progress report.

Tottenham Court Road Bus Diversions: Mapped

Rachel Holdsworth — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:00:10 +0000

Image by pixelthing from the Londonist Flickr pool

Here’s a word of warning for users of bus routes along Tottenham Court Road: 2010 is not going to be fun for you.

Works to strengthen or replace Victorian utility pipes before Crossrail construction really kicks off will start on Saturday 16th January and not finish until November (in theory). The eastbound lane of Oxford Street between Newman Street and Tottenham Court Road will be closed for the duration, so the following eastbound routes will be diverted: 7, 8, 10, 25, 55, 73, 98, 390 N7, N8, N10, N55, N73, N98 and N207. Fareham Street off Soho Square will also completely close from 5th January until 2017.

The major alterations that we can see are: the 25 will terminate in both directions at Tottenham Court Road, the 73 and N73 won’t serve Tottenham Court Road at all, while the 8, 55 and 98 are going to take so long to get from Oxford Street to New Oxford Street that it’ll probably be quicker to walk that bit and pick up another bus. The 7 will do a bit of a dog-leg that’s only really going to mess you about if you want it for Great Russell Street. We’ve mapped the diversions as best we can, and you should take a look at TfL’s press release for more information and details of temporary stops.

View TCR Bus Diversions in a larger map

Further Bus Strikes Affect East London

M@ — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:09:40 +0000

Bus drivers are once again on strike, affecting 58 routes through East London. Members of the Unite union will strike until 3am on Sunday. Routes through Barking, Bow, Leyton, Romford, Upton Park and West Ham are most heavily affected. The industrial action comes in protest against the freezing of wages which, according to transport officials, range from £28,000 to over £35,000. The action follows a 24-hour strike a couple of weeks ago.

East London Bus Strike On Monday

Rachel Holdsworth — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:00:37 +0000

You’d better start making alternative arrangements for tomorrow if you usually catch the bus; from 3am, drivers working out of Barking, Bow, Leyton, Romford, Upton Park and West Ham bus garages are walking out on a 24 hour strike to protest at the East London Bus Group’s plans to impose a pay freeze. 58 routes across the East and City, including the Routemasters on route 15 and six night buses, won’t be running unless a last minute deal is struck (unlikely). Take a look at the BBC’s travel site for all the affected routes. Honestly, you get one strike sorted out and another one comes along… (Image / dave_olis_trip)

Bus Stop Aggression In Orpington

Hazel — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:30:00 +0000

Seven teenagers between 16 and 19 have been arrested at a bus stop on Orpington High Street, for violent disorder and assault. No knives, no mugging, no robbing, sexual assault or demands for “respect” were involved; this was the scene of a bus being simply too full with passengers to allow any more to board on Tuesday afternoon.

About 40 teenagers were left behind when the no. 51 bus tried to pull away, with a 25 year old PCSO aboard to stop the surging crowd holding up the bus. The PCSO had to call for police and suffered a cut to his face when the bus was attacked by the angry crowd who kicked front and back doors and pulled open the emergency exit. Later, when finally arriving home very late for their teas many of them also received major nagging and harrassment about homework. Cases of witheld pocket money have not been confirmed.

Buses are not Tardis-lilke vehicles that are bigger on the inside than they look on the outside – if the bus is full, it is full. Some people succumb to the belief that there is room for just one more person, and that person is them. But when there’s 40 people all making that same assumption, that’s basically a formula for “NO ONE is getting on this bus and EVERYBODY must suffer.” Not a helpful result, as this unpleasant bus stop scene proves.

The Apprentice: The London Bus Version

Hazel — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:00:01 +0000

Buses are hip: bus stop tops are hot, people are having babies on the backseats and they are not tube travel with its perilous chance encounters with irate Jedi assistants. Boris Johnson wants 400 apprenticeships for bus drivers each year so that drivers can expand and develop new skills, gain qualifications and generally contribute more to the economy and London life. All well and good, but can apprenticeships in “braking carefully to avoid whiplash at every traffic light” also be provided? That way passengers can also benefit, and that would be nice too. Image by daejn

Baby Born On Bus Named

Hazel — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:40:00 +0000

Unto the number 394 single deck bus in Hackney, a boy has been born! We can imagine the duo behind Bus-Tops having a lot of fun with this… Mother of three Emiloju Fatima Lawal went into labour with her fourth child on Tuesday this week, on the number 394 near Mare Street. Once it became clear he was going to make an appearance right there and then, the bus was parked, an ambulance called and the delivery begun.The baby boy was delivered safely and seemingly with very little trouble, brought gently into the world by driver Pauline Jacobs and fellow passenger Carole Allen.

And what has the 7.5 lb boy been named? Olatidebe Dennis Agboola, the Dennis in honour of the manufacturer of the bus, Dennis Specialist Vehicles. It’s not to be Routemaster or Number 394, though those could be very cool middle names for getting a seat on a crowded journey. He’s the first ever child born on a London bus so he’s sorted for London kudos for… well, forever.

Contractions, pain, stress, screaming, making the last agonising push at the end of a long pregnancy… The capitalisation in the following quote imbues a whole other meaning to the event, which is delightful in a rather depressing way:

“A man asked if I was OK, I said ‘No, I’m in Labour.’ “

Congratulations to everybody!

Image author’s own

Mayor Defends Transport Strategy But Not Boris Island

Rachel Holdsworth — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:45:22 +0000

Image of a maligned bendy by steve_w from the Londonist Flickr pool

Boris Johnson spent time defending his transport strategy at the London Assembly Transport Committee yesterday. Despite the reduction in bus services (due to an expected 1-3% fall in passenger numbers because of, er, fare rises), he said he’d already resisted a cabinet minister who wanted to see fewer buses on London’s streets. (Sadly, he wouldn’t name the bus-refusenik.)

The Mayor also fears a backlash from motorists over his plan to increase cycling fourfold from 2000 levels.

“There will come a time when the motorists say it’s really all too much of a good thing and they don’t want to see so many bikes, they wish people would get back in their cars, and I [will] have to say that is the right way to go.”

We suspect the hike in the congestion charge will probably do more to bring pitchfork-carrying car owners to Boris’s door.

And what of the fabled Boris Island, the airport in the middle of the Thames Estuary? The Mayor was so excited about this a few months ago he went out on a dredger to inspect the possible site, but there was no mention of it in the strategy. Doug Oakervee’s feasibility report, published this week, found no major barriers to construction. Given his previous enthusiasm, we rather expected to see Boris spilling over with Latin and classical references, but instead he’s convened another committee and told the Transport Committee he does

“not have an aspiration to construct such an airport”

Really? Interesting. Even though Middle Eastern money is apparently at the ready, could the lack of support for the project finally be getting to him?

Art Review: Object Retrieval @ UCL

Londonist — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:29:11 +0000

Parked in UCL’s main quad on Gower Street, an old school double-decker bus houses Object Retrieval, a new interdisciplinary art project by Joshua Sofaer. A single item from the university’s Museums and Collections is being exhibited in hopes of attracting the insight of experts from various fields as well as the knowledge of everyday passers-by. Organisers hope to accrue a network of information about the object, from the anecdotal to the hyper-scientific, that will continue to grow for the seven-day duration of the project.

On display is a toy car, licked clean of paint, and its accompanying medical case study notes detailing the lead poisoning of a four year old who demonstrated signs of pica—a medical condition in which the sufferer possesses an appetite for non-nutritive substances, in this case paint. On our visit, a curmudgeonly Professor Plum look-a-like was vehemently arguing against the validity of the project, suggesting that mathematical formulas and science experiments could provide all that researchers could care to know about the object. (As we cowered under his icy stare, a well-informed volunteer played Colonel Mustard and shot his single-minded perspective down to size.)

Contrary to the mindset of our professor, the website, where people can submit their own information about the toy car and medical notes, already details strands of the item’s social biography. The site seems to be the crux of the collaborative project, where people can build on each other’s ideas, whether they are stories about other pica sufferers, legal documents from similar cases of lead poisoning, or a CT scan of the car.

Although even the artist admits the task of mapping the entire social and scientific biographies of the object might be ‘endless’, the project’s main point, it seems, is the act of collaboration: what happens when you bring together minds from such diverse specialisations and focus them on the same item? Only time will tell, but we suggest you throw your own grey matter into the mix. If you can’t swing by UCL, do check out the website to bring your own expertise to the project.

Object Retrieval is open 24 hours a day until Wednesday when it wraps up with a Midnight Feast from 11pm to 1 am.

By Rob Lederer

Bus Dents Porsche, Kills Bus Stop

Rachel Holdsworth — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:45:54 +0000

The Currant Bun (and a bunch of other places too) brings us the cautionary tale of bus versus Porsche. Emma Freeman parked her car at a Barnes bus stop (naughty) while she nipped out to use a cashpoint… only for a 283 to pull out, get on the wrong side of the road, smash into her car and total the bus stop. A CCTV camera happened to be trained on the incident back in June, so now we can all, um, enjoy it.

Wonder Bus Boy

Lindsey — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:30:48 +0000

Want a nifty route through town by bus? Forget journey planner, you need a hotline to 4 year old Ishaan from Lewisham. At an age when most of us have just managed to master ‘The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round’, Ishaan has memorised the entire London bus network; night buses included, and is out sharing his hard earned knowledge with lost tourists, we hope with his mum or dad in hand. Here clearly is a Londonist contributor in the making, demonstrating unhealthy levels of geeky interest in our intricate and endlessly ~~vexing~~ fascinating transport system at a prodigiously young age. We’re here when you need us, Ishaan. (Image / quadriman)

London Bus Service Reviewed

zefrog — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:15:00 +0000

Photo by historicist from the Londonist flickr photopool.

Only a week after “debendyficiation” of the streets of the capital started on route 507, and as passengers of said route are already asking for the bendies back, the Bus Service Review (pdf), by accountancy firm KPMG for Transport for London (TfL), has been released and it’s not pretty. The review was commissioned by Boris in November 2008 and, as you may expect from something produced by accountants, focuses mostly on the financial side.

The economic crisis is hitting TfL like the rest of us, but financial pressures on the organisation are made even more serious by the £16bn Crossrail project and the Tube modernisation. Still, the budget for buses is projected to rise from £653m last year to £766m by 2017, excluding possible changes in the level of funding from central Government and, perhaps most significantly, the creation of the new Routemaster, which will apparently go into service from 2012.

The report identifies “the price of fares and the scale of the network, both its size and frequency of services” as the most convenient levers of spending control. According to analysts at Deutsche Bank, fares could go up by 11% solely to cover the cost of the new buses (and the 3000 new staff they will require). The controversy around the cost of the New Bus for London is of course not new but this new report will do nothing to calm the debate.

Bus.Tops – A New Idea For London’s Bus Stops

Hazel — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

We like to keep track of bus couture in London: godlessness, bendiness, newness. But what about the bus stops? What about the tops of bus stops?

Alfie Dennen, the man behind Moblog and various geo-cyber-virtual-socially networked things like geoglyphs and real world fun with Google maps has a great new idea for them: Bus.tops. Bus.tops are a far more sophisticated version of bus stop innovation than the potato meteorites of 2006. This scheme would place networked LED display boards in the tops of bus stops that show pieces of digital art, curated and contributed by established artists or submitted and uploaded by the public.

Tiny short stories, roof top confessions, a game that places clues on every third bus stop of every bus route that’s a multiple of three, a comic book that unfolds panel by panel, stop by stop… The possibilities are quite astounding and London could look completely different with these bus stop roofs providing outlets for our creativity, marking roads and routes throughout the cityscape with manifestations of our imaginations.

Bus.tops are not a reality yet; the application for the London 2012/Arts Council fund Artists Taking the Lead has been submitted, and we hope to see these story telling bus tops as part of London’s transformation for the Olympic Games in 2012. With the infrastructure and technology in place, the legacy could be passengers looking forward to traffic jams and congested roads because they’re just dying to see what the next Bus.top is showing. The only downside is… no one would sit downstairs.

London Film Quiz: 2. London Red Bus

M@ — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:51:21 +0000

Can’t make it to tonight’s film quiz at the Roxy? Never fear, we have our very own compilation of filmic facting for you to ponder. This time round, the focus is on the the London red bus. See how many of these you can get, but only leave one answer in the comments to give other people a chance to shine. And when you’re done, there are still a few unanswered posers in our previous Tower Bridge quiz. All questions are set by Simon Williams, co-host of the monthly Bigger Boat film quiz in Highgate’s Boogaloo. Their next event takes place on 15 July and is themed around movie blockbusters. Now, on with the questions:

1. Which 1960s’ musical sees Don and friends borrow a London bus for a road trip across Europe?

2. In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin (Mike Myers) and Vanessa (Liz Hurley) dance on the upper deck of an open-top London bus. Who provides the musical accompaniment on piano?

3. In Notting Hill, what is the name of the new Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) movie that we see advertised on the back of a London bus?

4. Spy agency The Ministry’s mobile headquarters is disguised as a red London bus in the disastrous 1998 movie adaptation of which cult TV series?

5. In the science fiction disaster movie The Core, a London bus finds itself under attack from what?

6-10. Name the films shown below.

Man Dies ‘Forgotten’ On Bus

Hazel — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Image by lindseymclarke

25 year-old Pawel Modzelewski died on the 36 bus in January this year; his body was undisturbed for at least six hours as he lay in the garage overnight then set off on the next morning’s journey. While there’s an On the Buses style set of potential gags in this story, we’ll respectfully ignore those to look at how this young man died such a death.

Modzelewski boarded the 36 at Harrow Road then sat all the way to the bus depot in New Cross. That’s a long journey even when a Tube strike hasn’t tossed bus travel into chaos. He started his journey around 12.30am and went to the top deck. CCTV footage shows him slumping forward a few moments after taking his seat. Then an hour later the bus arrived at the depot where Modzelewski remained in his seat where the driver found him and failed to rouse him from what he thought was a deep sleep. He had died of an overdose of drinks and drugs, still grasping a wrap of heroin in his hand when he was eventually discovered, but to the driver, understandably keen to go home, he was just out of it.

The driver ‘forgot’ to tell anyone at the bus garage about him

The cleaners didn’t come

The engineers checked the bus before it was due to start on the 171 route but didn’t look upstairs

It wasn’t until a passenger on the 7am bus decided to rouse the ‘sleeping’ man that the alarm was raised and Modzelewski was removed. It may not have made any difference to his situation if he had been discovered earlier by the people who should have been doing their jobs, but it’s still a grim end to an already grim ending. And whatever our position on the atheist and drug buses we can only hope insult wasn’t added to this sad, lonely, neglected death by either of those being the vehicle that was his resting place.

Stops You Speeding

Rachel Holdsworth — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:00:36 +0000

A gadget that can stop you speeding is being trialled in 20 TfL vehicles, including a bus and a taxi. Intelligent Speed Adaptation knows where you are and what the local speed limit is; in override mode it stops you accelerating beyond the limit. (In advisory mode it just bleeps like hell and shows a frowny face. Bet that’s not annoying in any way.) Developers hope to reduce accidents – and speeding fines. It might sound a bit Orwellian (especially since it records ‘driver behaviour’), but as boroughs mess about with speed limits it’s getting harder to remember how fast (or slow) you should be going. Now we just need a device that stops bus drivers throwing passengers around when they brake too hard and we’re sorted. (Image / ‘stpiduko’)

Photo of the Day: View

NatalieU — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:30:00 +0000

The unusual crop of this photo draws our attention to the reflections on the side of the bus which reveals the subject of the lady’s glance. A tourist at heart, no doubt.

Photo by Pebaline via the Londonist Flickrpool.

Londonist’s Slow Exposure Photography Competition is now open for entries.

London Assembly Snow Report Points More Fingers

Rachel Holdsworth — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:30:40 +0000

Image courtesy of nuttyxander via the Londonist Flickr pool

At the time we threw our hands in the air and huffed a lot, and now a report confirms that the agencies supposed to deal with bad weather in London really didn’t have a clue what the others were doing. Valerie Shawcross, who chaired the London Assembly investigation, says what’s needed is something similar to the emergency response plan that kicks in after, say, a terrorist attack (apparently the snow didn’t “constitute a level of emergency” high enough to trigger it).

What intrigues us is that even though many of the respondees to the committee cite these emergency plans as an example of how London is capable of getting its arse in gear, not all of the organisations boasting about it seem to have been able to, oh, we don’t know, transfer some of the knowledge and common sense from their emergency training into another highly unusual situation. Which fule, for example, decided to wait until 6am to tell Boris Johnson that buses were off the roads?

TfL also gets a real kicking from the boroughs. Some complained about having to get travel information from TfL’s website, and Enfield can’t seem to stop putting the boot in (you can get the report from the BBC’s website, it’s quite funny). Shawcross has a personal whinge at the Mayor too, accusing him of not showing any concern, before or after. Clearly everyone’s learned their lessons and have resolved to communicate better in future, then. Sigh.

And the outcome of all the soul searching? Why, another review of course! The London Resilience Local Authority Panel and TfL are going to “review the events” of the snowfall (didn’t the LA committee just do that?) with a “view to identifying any lessons that might be learned”. Because bureaucracy works, kids. Oh no, wait…

The Saturday Strangeness

NeilA — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:30:00 +0000

96. The Ghost Bus

The belief that vehicles can appear as apparitions has long been confirmed by sightings across the capital, and the rest of the country of ghostly carriages. But to consider phantoms of modern day modes of transport seems absurd, and yet one such spectral vehicle is said to haunt Cambridge Gardens, Notting Hill Gate in the west of London.

The most recent report of what has become known as the ‘ghost bus’ was recorded from 1990. The vehicle is said to be a number seven double-decker, that has often been observed around 1:15am in May-time each year. Most sightings of the ghost bus have involved other motorists who have had to swerve to avoid the approaching double-decker.

The first sighting was said to have taken place in 1934 when a man driving along Cambridge Gardens swerved to avoid the bus. His car crashed, killing him instantly. However, witnesses at the time of the accident reported that the victim had attempted to avoid the ghostly bus, whilst a handful of other observers claimed the man swerved for no reason, and saw no bus approaching.

Those who have had the terrifying experience of seeing the bus whilst driving, report that no driver is at the helm and in the early hours of the morning the bus never has its lights on. The vehicle races along the road, heading straight for oncoming motorists, who, once they’ve avoided the bus, would turn round to look and see no bus rumbling further down the road.

Why such a vehicle haunts the area of Cambridge Gardens we will never know, but in the case of many ghostly vehicles, it seems as if they have the same motive of some phantom hitch-hikers in that they exist to either cause accidents, or to make motorists swerve to avoid them. Are such ghostly vehicles possessed? It seems that the phantom bus never stops, but then again who would want to step aboard this devilish double-decker?

Photo by araqnid on flickr

Monday Miscellanea

Dave — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:06:00 +0000

This Week In London’s History

Monday – 16th February 1659: The first known handwritten British cheque is written by a Nicholas van Acker, payable to a Mr Delboe and drawn on Messrs Morris and Clayton, scriveners and bankers of the City of London. Reports vary as to how much the cheque is made out for (some sources say £10, others claim £400).

Tuesday – 17th February 1958: The inaugural meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) takes place at Central Hall in Westminster. It is attended by some 5000 people.

Wednesday – 18th February 1996: An IRA bomb explodes on a double-decker bus on Aldwych, killing the bomber and injuring eight members of the public.

Thursday – 19th February 1960: Prince Andrew is born in the Belgian Suite of Buckingham Palace.

Friday – 20th February 1913: Two suffragettes set fire to the tea pavilion at Kew Gardens at around 3am, destroying it completely.

Random London Quote Of The Week

London – A place you go to get bronchitis.

Fran Lebowitz

London’s Weather This Week

By all accounts it will be decidedly milder this week than of late, and there may even be a bit of pleasant sunshine (and rain).

Picture taken from tonymadrid’s Flickr photostream via the Londonist Flickr pool.

Snow Bonkersness

Rachel Holdsworth — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:40:18 +0000

Image by kind permission of Tim*A

When the first giddy rush of all that snow had subsided, and we were back inside warming our toes after all the frolicking, we sat down to play the game of London Snow Madness.

You know the one: spotting examples of over-reaction, over-cautiousness and general official madness that always accompanies a snow fall (or flurry, on some occasions).

Our contenders are:

This here destination board at Sydenham Hill station, which apparently can’t display any information. Apart from the information that it can’t display information.

All London buses being cancelled. Eh? All of them? Every single one? Not even anything on central, gritted roads, until mid-morning? Fffft. When I were a lass in t’North, this’d never a’ ‘appened. Bus companies claim the roads are unsafe – maybe they ought to do some winter weather training…

Train company websites, which are either down, pointing to National Rail Enquiries (who are somehow still running normally), or displaying a bizarre default page (“The following services are running normally: x to x via x”; thank you Southeastern, most informative).

But our winner is TfL’s explanation for why the Waterloo & City line was suspended this morning. Adverse weather conditions? Staff shortage we could believe, but was it snowing in the tunnels?!

Spotted any others as you’re huddling over a steaming cuppa? Let us know.

Atheist Campaign: In Pictures

Rachel Holdsworth — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:00:18 +0000

The atheist bus / tube campaign has been running for a few weeks now. We thought we’d gather together some sightings of the adverts for anyone who hasn’t managed to spot them for themselves. We wouldn’t want you to miss out on what we can only now describe as an international, controversial, twittering phenomenon…

Images from the British Humanist Association (© Jon Worth), fabbio, jonworth_eu, distillated, Dissonancefalling, Loz Flowers, flashboy, PabloBM and that_james under Creative Commons licences

Atheist Bus Hits The Streets

Rachel Holdsworth — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:55:10 +0000

The atheist bus is here… and the atheist tube and the atheist TV screens. The campaign responding to a series of religious bus ads has now received a staggering £140,000 in donations from the public and the results are on show now. Nicely timed for Epiphany.

With that kind of cash sloshing around we’re not just talking about one or two bendies either. 200 buses carrying the slightly hedge-betting (and actually agnostic rather than atheist) slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” are rolling around the streets of London (plus another 600 across the country). From next Monday, 1,000 cards will arrive in tube carriages featuring the slogan and atheist quotations from people like Katharine Hepburn, Albert Einstein and the late lamented Douglas Adams. And if you manage to miss all that, head to Oxford Street: opposite Bond Street tube station you will see an animated version on two LCD screens.

The atheist / agnostic fervour is spreading internationally, too. Washington DC beat us to the punch with bus adverts in November, Barcelona buses have gone godless and Italy has plans up its sleeve too. Oh, for a photo of an atheist bus heading to the Vatican…

And what do the religious think of it all? Well, they’re being very understanding. Turning the other cheek, almost. Think tank Theos say the campaign is “great discussion starter”. We doubt there’s going to be a return to theological debate, but there’s certainly enough to spark the odd row down the pub.

If you see one of the ads don’t forget to snap it and add it to our Flickr pool and tag it with ‘londonist’…

North West London Bus Strike

Lindsey — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:20:35 +0000

Bus routes 13, N13, 114, 183, 292, H9, H10, H11, H13, H14, H17 and 398 are affected today by a driver strike over pay. Their union, Unite, say that London Sovereign drivers work for £6000 less than those employed by other companies and mediation broke down. Seems the bus driver pay discrepancy grumbles are rumbling on into 09. Keep an eye on TfL’s website for updates.