"Don't believe anything from a flack who uses the word "debendified" to describe the withdrawal of bendy buses."Actually, I claim to have invented the word 'debendification' - and I'm certainly not a fan of Boris bus policies, which are provably insane.The design: it's longer and thus presumably heavier than conventional hybrids, likely to use more fuel, takes up more roadspace, has the same capacity, appears to require the use of open boarding (which, rather than the bend, is the origin of the 'bendies = fare evasion' myth) and Boris still hasn't, after two years and a 44% increase in the bus fare figured out how the two man crew is supposed to work, considering every London administration since about 1970 has eventually come to the conclusion it's impossible to operate like that.Hybrids - we currently have two main manufacturers of hybrid double deckers with a capacity of 85 people, so why not just buy more of those? I asked Boris this and he didn't answer, instead wittering on about something completely different.The other madness is that the bendy replacement is almost entirely being achieved by building a massive fleet of conventional off the shelf diesel double deckers, which given the state of the country are likely to be around for ten years or so on the busiest routes, which makes the economics of the Borismaster highly questionable when he's supposed to be trying to *reduce* the bus subsidy. In fact he's reducing the bus subsidy by salami slicing service on other routes, while increasing the number of buses on the ex-bendy routes, which in turn is paid for by reducing service elsewhere, and so the whole cycle continues. Madness.
Thomas Barry ● 5787d