The bus was a 2008 manifesto commitment by Mayor Boris Johnson who has previously hailed it as “the latest, greatest masterpiece of British engineering and design”.
The Mayor has predicted that “600” of the buses will eventually be seen in the capital’s streets.
Currently just eight prototypes are undergoing in-service trials.
The design includes a rear entry platform reminiscent of the iconic Routemaster which TfL have said will be open for most of the day.
Despite mandating the presence and use of the open platform, TfL has distanced itself from any liability arising from its use.
Responding to an FOI request about discussions with insurers over any such liability, TfL said its contractors “are responsible for such matters” and confirmed it “has not purchased any additional insurance cover in this regard.”
Operators will also have sole responsibility for recruiting and paying the second crew member needed to supervise use of the rear platform.
This potentially threatens to increase costs for operators who may be forced to use the New Bus in order to help the Mayor deliver on his target.
TfL declined to provide what advice it has had over mandating the use of a single bus on future route tenders.
However it did reveal the contract with prototype manufacturers Wrightbus “provides that TfL will have sufficient intellectual property rights to enable other manufacturers to supply vehicles of this style in the event that their usage represents a material proportion of the London bus fleet.”
TfL’s response also says: “The contract allows for either TfL to purchase the buses and make them available to route operators (if appropriate) or for Wrights to supply them to our operators at capped prices.”
ASLEF shrugged says
I can’t see why any of the 20 private operators would want to lease the Boris Bus when it means paying for the extra member of staff needed to use the open platform as well as paying for extra insurance to cover accidents caused by hopping on and hopping off?
Can you confirm there are 8 buses in service as the last I heard only four have been delivered because Wrightbus had experienced production problems.
Martin Hoscik says
Yes, it’s possible I’ve been over generous in the number of buses reported as undergoing trials!
Snoggle says
There are now 6 NB4Ls in London and 5 have been seen in service. Two remain to be delivered – LT3 and LT5. LT8 was the most recent delivery.
It is all rather tenuous to suggest cost has somehow been allocated away from TfL. The routes are contracted and what TfL specifies it also has to pay for. Therefore staff costs are ultimately paid by TfL as would any additional insurance premium that an operator may decide to take out. If TfL mandate the NB4L for a given route contract then the operators have no choice but to bid on that basis or else they can choose not to bid. I somehow doubt the operators will do that.
ASLEF shrugged says
Snoggle – the bus operators aren’t stupid enough to bid on any route that they feel is uneconomic, TfL are going to have to make the contracts generous enough to cover the cost of extra staff and additional insurance. Added to the capping of the leasing costs this will obviously reduce TfL’s revenue from any route using the new bus. Somehow I doubt if any savings made by fuel efficiency will balance those, making them more expensive to run than conventional hybrids.
Snoggle says
@ ASLEF Shrugged – I’m a little confused by your reply. TfL take all the revenue risk and only pay the operators a performance adjusted contract fee. I would not expect revenue to decline on routes operated by the NB4L – the overall trend in bus patronage and revenue is broadly positive. I do agree that the operators are likely to put in somewhat higher bids because of the costs of the second member of crew and possibly for other uncertainties associated with running the new bus. I do fear that the overall bus budget will be severely affected by the introduction of 600 of the buses – a very “back of a fag packet” guess comes out with a 9 digit cost impact by 2016. Quite where that sort of extra money will come from is anyone’s guess.
ASLEF shrugged says
“Quite where that sort of extra money will come from is anyone’s guess”.
The answer is blatantly obvious, from TfL’s budget. The private operators are not going to accept any losses for operating the new bus so the entire burden will fall on TfL. As Boris has said he will not raise the GLA’s slice of the Council Tax that means either higher fares to fill in the hole or cut back elsewhere, probably a mix of both but it comes down to the public getting a worse deal for the sake of Boris’s ego.
The introduction of the new bus isn’t going to change the general trend in passenger numbers which will continue increase as long as the service remains at the same level and the fares don’t drastically increase.