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Watchdog questions bendy bus axe

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London’s passenger watchdog has questioned the axing of the bendy bus from London’s streets, saying there was no “credible reason” for the decision which is suggests fails to represent value for money.

London TravelWatch’s intervention comes on the day Boris Johnson hailed to demise of the bus on route 507 which runs between Waterloo and Victoria. From tomorrow, Saturday 25 July, the articulated buses will be replaced with single deck, 12m buses.

To maintain capacity Transport for London are having to reduce the period between buses and run more vehicles on the route.

Questioning the scrapping of the bus, which was a key manifesto commitment by Boris Johnson, London TravelWatch Chair Sharon Grant said: “We have yet to hear a credible reason for scrapping bendy buses, and we are unaware of any evidence that supports it. We do not believe it represents value for money for London’s travelling public, especially at a time when Transport for London (TfL) is short of funds.”

Grant added: “We are still concerned about capacity on the replacement buses, as well as load and dwell times at stops. We will also be keeping a close eye on the potential congestion caused by the extra buses on roads and at bus stops.”

The Mayor has instructed TfL to begin negotiations with bus operators to remove bendy buses from other routes before the end of 2011. Speaking on Friday morning, Johnson said: “Bendy buses on other routes are on borrowed time and I can confirm they will all have gone by 2011”.

Comments

  1. There are hundreds possibly thousands of Lorries on the Streets of London each day , so it is a little confusing that The Mayor for London wants to remove a few Bendy Buses . This is a great expense that has not really achieved anything . The articulated Lorries will be thundering down the Streets of London for some years to come .

  2. Thank god for that, I always hated them,having to sit opp somone with smelly breath, is no fun, and most of the time it was impossible to get a seat, one good thing about them you could get a free ride,
    a Mayor with a brain at last, these buses took up too much room on the bus lane, and did not make any difference to the crowds waiting for a bus, these buses were suppost to shorten the Qs for the bus,

  3. “these buses took up too much room on the bus lane” – the new buses on the 507 are *longer*, in total, because there are *more of them* (180m as against 162m).

    “did not make any difference to the crowds waiting for a bus” – cobblers, where do you think the people on the bus came from, magicked into existence were they? What you’re actually seeing is rapidly increasing demand for bus travel after artics were introduced (they were introduced to cope with the expected demand, actually). Now ask yourself what will happen when you go back, effectively, to the type of bus used five years ago – you need so many of them that there’ll be a queue of slow-boarding buses down the street as well as queues at the bus stop.

  4. I touched on this subject on an earlier comment

    http://mayorwatch.co.uk/assembly-calls-on-mayor-to-show-greater-leadership/20098462

    This change makes no sense – except to Boris.

    There is no Economic advantage
    The congestions situation is made worse (more buses – more frequently)
    The fare dodger issue is a red herring (because although it’s easy to get on a bendy without paying, it’s just as simple to get on the exit doors on a single / double decker without the driver noticing)
    The is no pollution reduction

    What is going on?

    Why is Travelwatch asking sensible questions and not getting ANY response? Is our Mayor no longer accountable? Do we have to wait until the next election to stop this madness?

    Boris is WASTING LONDONERS MONEY.

  5. it’s ridiculous boris johnson dosent get the route 436 or the route 12 that run from south london to central, and at rush hour (5pm) thoes busses are packed full of passengers he has no right to scrap the bendies which serve more than a usefull purpose. for boris johnson this is a personal vendetta & he has not botherd to even think about people who dont use cycles and depend on those bendies. mark my words this subject gets me so infuriated as i think after boris gets voted out the next mayor will reintroduce the bendie bus, or even now a more simpler soulution just keep the most vital bendy bus routes. thoes busses are being kept in storage but i cant see them being sold anytime soon (which is good so if their brought back into servis we wont have to spend a penny to do so). the fare dodging is a problem but it does happen on many other non – bendie routes (belive me as a 19 year old it does) but as people say why dont they reintroduce the conductor on all busses, becuase when they bring back the routemaster they must surely bring them back to right??. but also in my days of traveling to school on routemasters (36 & 12) even with a conductor people have, will and always continue to dodge the conductor (i know this contradicts with bringing them on the bendy bus routes). my final comments are i hope there will be a public show of support to bring back the buses that have been wrongfully critisised by cyclists & who eles…..no one that wernt anti – ken livingstone, and hopefully the people who use that bus the women who were pregnant, the men & women who took pushchairs on the bendies with ease (with two buggie spaces), the wheel chair users & most importantly the people who want to get from a to b in litte time.

    Thanks Logan Emeric Sesay Keller

    p.s thank you ken livingstone for taking this city forward am sorry for you to see it’s being taken backwards.

  6. Logan,

    You said “i hope there will be a public show of support to bring back the buses that have been wrongfully critisised by cyclists”

    I don’t think cyclists in general actually criticised the bendy buses – as a cyclist myself I find them no more dangerous than any other bus or large vehicle.

    I think the only cyclist who had problems with them was Boris – and that might be a reflection on his level of common sense and inability to cycle than the buses themselves.

    I think it’s unfair that there were rumours that cyclists were anti-bendy buses – I cannot find a single cyclist who agrees with Boris in his condemnation of them.

    The actions of our mayor are more in line with a Dictatorship than a Democracy where he seems to be spending our money addressing the issues which are important to him – not real problems.

  7. tawkin you may be right, it’s just hard when boris always uses cyclists as an excuse for getting rid of perfectly good busses & i tottaly agree with you on the dictatorship issue boris has completly ignore what the public who use the bendy bus think

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