Dave Arquati wrote:

This is true, but I think the main reason bendies are used in London is
to provide rapid boarding and alighting. Judging from the London
Assembly report released today on the value-for-money of quality
incentive contracts, there now seems to be a recognition by TfL that the
rapid boarding and alighting capability should be used on routes used
for short hops, rather than automatically for all high-demand routes,
some of which are characterised by the longer journeys you mention (e.g.
38, 73).

The 73 is a difficult one, having both long-distance journeys and a
very dense, short journey section in the middle. I suspect the best
approach for it (without looking at the map) would be to remove it from
Oxford Street, sending it down a parallel street instead (also some
other services), and run a very high frequency bendy service from
Euston to Victoria down Oxford Street. With changed stop layouts and
other infrastructure customisation, that would work.

I also wonder if it would be worth looking at a Berlin-like design of
long-wheelbase double-decker with two staircases, which would provide
even more of a hybrid, possibly with several doors on the lower deck.
The front doors would be mainly for boarding and going upstairs, the
rear for exiting from upstairs and the middle doors for both. It has
always surprised me that "normal" single deckers in the UK are
typically much longer than double deckers - why not have a "super
decker" that's a hybrid? The Manchester Dennis Dragons are almost
there, but they don't work well because they are single-doored (and a
very narrow door at that).

Although German cities may generally be of the model you specify with
near-exclusive penetration of the city centre by rail-based modes, it's
not true of all European cities which use bendies - Rome has poor rail
penetration of the city centre and uses bendy buses from in the inner
suburbs to serve the centre along busy corridors which are not
well-served by rail.

Interesting, thanks. There is a counterexample in Hamburg, as well,
namely the route (used to be 102, but now one of the Metrobus routes)
from Niendorf-Markt via Lokstedt and Hoheluft to the centre. It's a
former tram route, but is operated using bendies on dedicated
infrastructure. It's also an interesting operation in that the bus
lanes are in the middle of the road, with stop "platforms" at the
lights. London would do well to copy it for any similar roads, if
there are any wide enough.

Hamburg also, notably, has the Schnellbusse, which are express buses
that do penetrate the city centre. A premium fare is chargeable on
these. This is almost a recognition that buses penetrating the centre
aren't the best way to do things, but offers a direct service for those
who are willing to pay for it.

Interestingly, two of the main bendy routes in London (18, Euston -
Sudbury and 25, Oxford Circus - Ilford) are high-demand and yet still
run along corridors well-served by rail compared to other bendy routes
such as the 436 and the 38. I'm not sure what's going on there - I think
perhaps the price differential plays a part on the 18, but I'm not sure
about the 25.

Price differential does have an impact on modal choice in all British
cities, I'd say. It would be interesting to see what would happen if
all British cities adopted a true joint tariff without changing the
actual routes. This would particularly apply to cities like Manchester
- would routes like the 50 that parallel rail routes do a lot of
business? If the price differential went completely, would the old
British adage that people won't change vehicles still apply?

Economically, given rail congestion and the massive cost of providing
new capacity, providing the choice between a fast, expensive mode and a
slow, cheap mode makes a lot of sense - travellers with a lower value of
time can be shifted off the fast mode and onto the slow mode, resulting
in those with a higher value of time experiencing less congestion. The
relief of congestion is a benefit to the high-value-of-time travellers
on the fast mode, and the lower prices are a benefit to the low
value-of-time travellers.

True. The big difference with London is that the Tube is overloaded,
and the money isn't there to add capacity (nor, in some cases, the
physical space). Hamburg's U- and S-Bahn system has tons of spare
capacity, as does (say) Merseyrail. Given the latter, Merseytravel is
quite keen on having buses feed trains, and is spending a vast amount
of money on interchanges and the likes.

Neil