"Recliner" wrote:

"Michael Bell" wrote:
Like it or loathe it, here is today's London newspaper report of
a full-size "Boris Bus" intended to succeed the Routemaster:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...e-23896801-.do
as-boris-bus-rolls-into-london.do , sponsored by London Mayor
Boris Johnson.

I loathe it. Open rear platform! The man's a Neanderthal!

Yes, it was on local TV as well. I suspect it'll be very popular if
enough can be afforded.

Incidentally, this was discussed at great length on uk.t.l when the design
was first unveiled some months ago, and before that, when the design
competition was run. The news this time is that the mock-up is available
for the public to inspect.

Indeed, we've had many in depth discussions about it all on utl. The cost is
of course a big question, as is just how much use the rear platform would
see in day to day use, and how it would be staffed (which is itself of
course a cost issue).

I noted this paragraph in the piece in the Standard:

---quote---
A mock-up of the "New bus for London" - which the Mayor's aides are happy to
have nicknamed the "Boris bus" - was unveiled in the capital.
---/quote---

So that's alongside 'Boris bikes' too. Meanwhile all Ken got it terms of
transport related nicknamery was for a few people to call the CC the
'Kengestion charge' - though thankfully that was so unutterably lame that it
never took off. Of course all the various transport improvements that
happened or were initiated under Livingstone don't really fit into a neat
catchphrase or two.

'Boris boats'? Well, despite Mr Gilligan's best efforts, I don't think
riverbuses (useful as they can be) are about to become the centrepiece of
the metropolis's transport system - Tom of Boriswatch's take on this can be
read he
http://www.boriswatch.co.uk/2010/03/...xchange-f-off/

'Borisport' - the proposed new London airport out in the Thames estuary...
er, yeah, perhaps prefixing everything with 'Boris' isn't an automatic path
to its fruition.

(To be fair, I'm not sure the Mayor's aides ever used the phrase
'Borisport', plus I kinda invented the 'Boris boats' phrase just now, I
haven't come across it beforehand - though if the GLA ever gets control of
the Royal Parks as has been mooted, then if the pedalos on the Serpentine
need replacing whilst Bozza is still mayor maybe he could come up with some
whizzo new design...)

Re the prototype of this new bus - AFAICS the ES piece doesn't actually say
that the unwashed masses are going to be allowed to see it, just
'stakeholders' and the like. (I think I've got a stake left over from
Halloween fancy dress, so perhaps I too could become a stakeholder?)