Wrightbus have built a mainly plywood mockup at their factory in
Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to test the design of the new "Son of
Routemaster":

http://preview.tinyurl.com/34kgwg3
or:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/h...00/9002737.stm

On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 09:54:15 +0100
Bruce wrote:
Wrightbus have built a mainly plywood mockup at their factory in

Plywood? Are you sure its a mockup and not a pre-production model?

B2003

Bruce gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Wrightbus have built a mainly plywood mockup at their factory in
Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to test the design of the new "Son of
Routemaster":

That's some very metallic looking plywood.

On 16/09/10 09:54, Bruce wrote:
Wrightbus have built a mainly plywood mockup at their factory in
Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to test the design of the new "Son of
Routemaster":

http://preview.tinyurl.com/34kgwg3
or:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/h...00/9002737.stm

Just spotted this:

"The final design of the New Bus for London, based on the much-loved
Routemaster was unveiled today by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and
London's Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy."

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...mes/15493.aspx

So, out with the BendyBus and in with the HendyBus? ;-)

-roy

On 16/09/10 09:59, d wrote:
On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 09:54:15 +0100
wrote:
Wrightbus have built a mainly plywood mockup at their factory in

Plywood? Are you sure its a mockup and not a pre-production model?

B2003



Just a mockup, the prototypes aren't due until next year. See the
accompanying article he

http://tinyurl.com/2vt4ezs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mindthega...a_look_at.html

"This mock-up is fully to scale. It's made of plastic, steel and wood
but it lets the designers work out problems."

-roy

On Sep 16, 10:51*am, Roy Badami wrote:

On 16/09/10 09:54, Bruce wrote:

Wrightbus have built a mainly plywood mockup at their factory in
Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to test the design of the new "Son of
Routemaster":

http://preview.tinyurl.com/34kgwg3
or:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/h...00/9002737.stm

Just spotted this:

"The final design of the New Bus for London, based on the much-loved
Routemaster was unveiled today by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and
London's Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy."

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...mes/15493.aspx

So, out with the BendyBus and in with the HendyBus? ;-)

Hendy was rather more associated with the bringing in of the bendy bus
- some called them 'Hendy bendys' etc. (Worth bearing in mind Hendy
came from a bus background.)

It remains hard to see how this expensive project might proceed given
the lack of money and coming cuts, though now Boris had made up his
mind to try and stick around for another term I guess he might feel
the need to commit to it more firmly. If existing bus services get cut
to pay for this, well...

On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 03:02:23 -0700 (PDT)
Mizter T wrote:
It remains hard to see how this expensive project might proceed given
the lack of money and coming cuts, though now Boris had made up his
mind to try and stick around for another term I guess he might feel
the need to commit to it more firmly. If existing bus services get cut
to pay for this, well...

Though Boris has never knowlingly admitted to being wrong, perhaps the
cuts might make him reevaluate the logic of leaving a couple of million
quids worth of bendy bus lying around idle and spending money on resurrecting
a bus that wasn't actually as much loved as a lot of people seem to think.

They were cold in the winter and not very comfortable.

B2003

On 16/09/10 11:02, Mizter T wrote:

It remains hard to see how this expensive project might proceed given
the lack of money and coming cuts, though now Boris had made up his
mind to try and stick around for another term I guess he might feel
the need to commit to it more firmly. If existing bus services get cut
to pay for this, well...

I would expect that a lot of the money for the design and prototyping
will be contractually committed at this stage, so outright cancellation
would be expensive, and probably politically unpalatable as a result.

More likely, if savings are to be made, would be for the initial order
of production buses to be scaled down and/or put back by a year or two.

I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see a much more gradual phasing out of
the bendybuses than Boris might have envisioned.

-roy

On Sep 16, 11:10*am, Roy Badami wrote:

On 16/09/10 11:02, Mizter T wrote:

It remains hard to see how this expensive project might proceed given
the lack of money and coming cuts, though now Boris had made up his
mind to try and stick around for another term I guess he might feel
the need to commit to it more firmly. If existing bus services get cut
to pay for this, well...

I would expect that a lot of the money for the design and prototyping
will be contractually committed at this stage, so outright cancellation
would be expensive, and probably politically unpalatable as a result.

Agreed - though it begs the question of at which juncture Boris might
choose to back off from the scheme somewhat - after the October CSR
perhaps (where the 'blame' can be attached to the diminishing grant,
and justification given that 'London needs to do its bit too' or some
such.


More likely, if savings are to be made, would be for the initial order
of production buses to be scaled down and/or put back by a year or two.

Yes, seems quite possible. If he gets re-elected though I can't quite
see it being shelved indefinitely.


I wouldn't be surprised if we'll see a much more gradual phasing out of
the bendybuses than Boris might have envisioned.

Not too sure about that - the provisional dates for 'de-bendification'
are out there [1], and if it was done it would be something concrete
that Bozza could point at during the re-election campaign to show that
he had 'achieved' something of his manifesto commitments. I think de-
bendification is daft so I'd be quite happy if it was delayed, as any
potential new Mayor would probably not be quite so hung up on bendy
buses, but it might well be a fait accompli by then.

-----
[1] Boriswatch debendification update:
http://www.boriswatch.co.uk/2010/09/...-down-5-to-go/

On Sep 16, 11:08*am, wrote:
On Thu, 16 Sep 2010 03:02:23 -0700 (PDT)

Mizter T wrote:
It remains hard to see how this expensive project might proceed given
the lack of money and coming cuts, though now Boris had made up his
mind to try and stick around for another term I guess he might feel
the need to commit to it more firmly. If existing bus services get cut
to pay for this, well...

Though Boris has never knowlingly admitted to being wrong, perhaps the
cuts might make him reevaluate the logic of leaving a couple of million
quids worth of bendy bus lying around idle and spending money on resurrecting
a bus that wasn't actually as much loved as a lot of people seem to think..

They were cold in the winter and not very comfortable.

Putting aside questions of the comfort and loveability of the old
Routemasters to one side for a moment...

I suppose that if one was feeling (exceptionally) generous to Boris,
one could perhaps argue that the whole 'new Routemaster' idea was born
of a slightly different era, i.e. before the financial meltdown really
began in earnest. Though like much of Boris's manifesto it also seemed
to be born of vague ideas scribbled on wine stained napkins conceived
during blahdy good lunches what ho.