On 19 Dec, 13:20, "Recliner" wrote:
Surprised no-one's posted this story:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/l...2.stm(complete with
pics)

Aston Martin designs Routemaster

The Aston Martin-Foster design has solar panels

Sports car manufacturer Aston Martin is joint winner of a competition to
design a new Routemaster bus for London.

The Warwickshire-based firm's winning entry was a team effort with
leading architects Foster and Partners.

They share the £25,000 first prize with bus, coach and truck design firm
Capoco Design, based in Wiltshire.

A Transport for London spokesman said the first of the greener and more
accessible, hop-on hop-off, double-deckers could be in service by 2011.

The original Routemasters were phased out from regular service by the
end of 2005 as they were inaccessible to wheelchairs or pushchairs.

Tendering process

The competition, in which children were also invited to take part,
attracted about 700 entries.

The winning designs will now be passed on to bus manufacturers,
following a competitive tendering process, to develop into a final
proposed design.

The Aston Martin-Foster bus design envisages a highly-manoeuvrable,
zero-emissions vehicle, with solar panels built into a glass roof, full
accessibility, warm lighting and wooden floors.

The Capoco design combines what the company describes as "the best of
the old with the best of the new".

The Capoco Design retains the Routemaster-style front engine

It has a low flat floor to allow easy access and will be low emission,
but will also retain the Routemaster-style front engine and open rear
platform.

The youngest winners were nine-year-olds Thomas Staricoff, from
Brighton, and Olivia Carrier, from north-west London, who received £200
worth of bicycle vouchers for their drawings of what a new bus should
look like.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "We have had a phenomenal response,
with ideas submitted from around the globe, and we now have, in our
joint winners, two stunning designs that allow us to go forward and
produce a truly iconic bus fit for 21st Century London."

But Labour's transport spokesperson on the London Assembly, Val
Shawcross, said: "The design competition may have been fun and the
winning designs are extremely impressive, but this is not a serious way
to make policy and not a worthwhile use of public money.

"I have yet to hear one convincing argument for why London needs a new
double-decker bus and until Boris comes up with some, Londoners will see
this as little more than a vanity project."

I couldn't find detail on the engineering:

- Will the bus be air conditioned? (Why aren't they now?)
- What will the drive train be? Hybrid or Plug-in hybrid seem logical.
- What steps are taken to improve safety? (always the biggest
perceived problem with routemasters).