The Boris bus was a replacement for the beloved Routemaster.
The bendy bus had gone – it was hardly suitable for the narrow roads and sharp corners. And to be fair, the days of the Boris bus have been numbered for some years.
Boris was enthusiastic. He said it would be a reliable, efficient, green bus that countries all round the world would buy. We know exactly how many have been sold elsewhere – none (0). At a cost of more than £350,000 per bus.
We still have nightmares of a journey towards home on a Boris bus a few years ago, the 390 from King’s Cross to Archway. Every time the bus stopped moving, the engine stalled and an alarm went off. The bus had to sit for a minute before we could start, and off we go again.
The buses are not green. The energy efficiency was a myth as so many batteries were faulty.
The cost to keep them running has been escalating. It’s rare to be in central London and not see a broken down Boris bus somewhere, blocking the road.
You may notice there are three doors, and in fact two sets of stairs to the top deck, meaning less room for seating. The rear door is usually locked, partly because people getting off were having accidents.
One plan (to save money) was that you could get on at any door and use your Oyster to pay, but people skipped the fares and TfL lost millions (actually, roughly £100 million a year), so that was stopped, as was rear door access.
You can see from these pictures that there were no opening windows. The heating and cooling systems varied between weak and non-existent, and people were being ill or fainting in the summer heat. Windows in some buses were replaced at a cost of millions.
For taller people like us, the stairs are a death trap. The handrails are so low down you cannot reach them and falling down the stairs is a real possibility.
And if all that isn’t enough, you can see that the back window curves upwards with the stairs. People were standing outside at the back of the bus, watching ladies going up the stairs, looking up their skirts. I believe these windows are now tinted.
So, Boris’ London legacy…?
I was talking yesterday with someone I know who has worked for TfL for very many years, and for a long time on the buses, so has personal experiences. They were not shedding any tears about the Boris Bus removal, though it is old news, and had more tales to relate (but I won’t put them here).
They did say that the heating/cooling was adequate, but that the bus companies chose not to switch it on, to save money. In the winter it could be cold, but in the summer it could reach over 40C and people really were fainting.
Having an opening window defeats the heating and cooling system, and it makes no sense to me that they would pay millions for new windows rather than just switch on the heating/cooling and make sure it was up to the job.