In article , Robert Woolley
writes
They certainly are. However:

a) Continuing growth in passenger numbers means that RMs in many cases
aren't big enough. Hell, even an RML is too short to take a Cat D
driving test on.

b) Full DDA compliance is attractive - not just for moving wheelchair
users, but also for ambulant disabled people and those with
shopping/puschairs.
I strongly disagree with this. Although making buses accessible to
those in wheelchairs in laudable (I recently took someone on a London
bendi in a wheelchair, his first bus ride in 32 years), low floor buses
make people like my arthritic mother *much* more unsteady, as the space
for wheelchairs (and buggies) is such that stanchions are too widely
spaced for them. And of course there are fewer seats.

A case of winning on the roundabouts and losing on the swings, I feel.

Artics have full low-floors throughout.

c) What do you do with a conductor? With cash used by less than 20%
of passengers and falling they have little to do. They're not security
guards.
But maybe they should be? Having a staff member in the saloon makes
bus travel feel safer for people and allows them to help with "tourist"
type enquiries which can and do cause long delays when such questions
are aimed at the driver.

d) PR spin or not, passengers like artics.
They do, yes. But they like double deckers, too! I've lost count of
the number of overseas clients I've had in London for whom as double
decker ride is a very "special" thing.

Apart from the "open top tour" type operations, I wonder what the vague
"heritage operations" will be where RMs will continue?

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk