London's Red Double Decker Buses Are Being Exported To Mexico

City AM
By City AM Last edited 79 months ago

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London's Red Double Decker Buses Are Being Exported To Mexico
From Oxford Street to Mexico City. Photo: Javier Ayala

The iconic red double decker bus is being exported to Mexico, after manufacturer Alexander Dennis secured a £44m finance deal to build 90 of the buses in Britain.

Prime Minister Theresa May will today visit the bus manufacturer, which has secured the deal to export the classic bus to Mexico City.

The firm is building low-emission buses to help reduce congestion and pollution on the Paseo de la Reforma, a prominent street at the heart of the city, with plans for the buses to begin operation from the end of this year.

The deal is one of £1.7bn in government finance deals secured since the Department for International Trade (DIT) was created, to help support British exports. The government said today 137 British firms have been boosted by the financial support to help expand their businesses and secure global contracts.

Prime Minister Theresa May said:

We are building a truly global Britain by helping UK companies win multi-million pound contracts to export their products across the globe, and supporting high value jobs here in this country.

From exporting iconic red double-decker buses to Mexico, cutting-edge MRI systems to Australia or rail equipment to Bangkok, each one is an example of a great British success story and shows the UK is leading the way as a great, global trading nation.

The polluted Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City

Colin Robertson, Alexander Dennis' chief executive, said: "As a global double-decker leader with fleets of our vehicles across the world, we see the positive impact these vehicles can have in improving the transport infrastructure, congestion and air quality in the world’s busiest cities."

The news comes after a recent report from the London Assembly Transport Committee calling for the return of the bendy bus to the capital.

The committee said the reintroduction of the articulated buses could cut journey times and provide better disabled access if they were rolled out in London.

The buses were ditched in 2011 after former mayor Boris Johnson branded them "cumbersome machines" and said they were never suited to London's narrow roads.

This article originally appeared on City A.M.

Last Updated 23 August 2017