I see that David Brown, MD of Surface Transport at TfL, is all
enthusiastic about the new 2-person-operated bus: "now we hand the baton
to the bus manufacturers to turn those fantastic ideas into a brand new
bus for the Capital's fleet."

That wasn't his view in December 2007, when he wrote a letter to The
Times as follows:

"Reintroducing open platform buses would require conductors on all
routes, as they would be required to safely manage access. This would
cost £600 million – raising this money would require a huge fare rise
for London’s six million daily bus passengers. The single fare would
have to rise from 90p to at least £1.50 and the weekly pass from £13 to
at least £21.

Open platform buses mean more passenger deaths. The passenger fatality
rate on Routemasters is more than double that of other London buses."

Of course, we had a different Mayor then ...

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)