Unloved

Do you think that there will be any possibility that in 15-20 years’ time, as London’s early Mercedes Citaro articulated buses are being withdrawn, that they will engender the sort of feelings we saw in December 2005 upon the withdrawal of the last Routemasters?

Fashions and feelings are fickle emotions, if, indeed, fashion is an emotion at all. So, in spite of the bendy buses’ almost universal derision now, the future may be completely different. They won’t last as long as the Routemaster and they certainly won’t be the subject of so much refurbishing and re-engineering, but it’s possible that people in their mid- to late-thirties and early forties will view their passing as an end of an era. Yes, strange though it may now seem, in 20 years, early Citaros may be missed.

After all, these interloper Goliaths are so different when compared to anything London’s seen. They’re powerful (perhaps too forceful for standees) and anyone who’s driven a PSV will respect the drivers who manoeuvre bendy buses in London’s tight and crowded streets. They’re hungry for passengers, carrying about twice as many as a Routemaster. So there’s a chance that some – perhaps even many – who’ve grown up with the Citaro bendy bus will suddenly morn their passing. Interesting thought.

That’s if the artics get that far. While Omnibuses is at least prepared to be charitable towards them, few others are. Not even London mayor Livingstone, it would seem, whose cunning plan it was to introduce them as Routemaster replacements.

Charitable? Certainly not the London Evening Standard. Artics are a costly sideshow.

In terms of anti-Citaro material, March has seen one editorial and one article. Citing London’s roads, fare dodging and central doors jams, “The mayor’s increased provision of buses is very much to the good but bendy buses are not.” Further, “Even now, every bus carries on average, only 15 passengers… full, the bendy buses are like cattle trucks but very often they are not full. Quite simply, the economics of TfL are a fantasy world.”

Taken to the Standard’s extreme, Citaro routes would need no more than a 16-seat minibus, thereby freeing up the roadspace so prized by cabbies, cyclists and motorists. It’s an interesting though, 21 years after the birth of the urban minibus. The reality in central London’s different, of course, even after 0930.

Who knows what will happen in 20 years’ time. Hydrogen fuel cell bus technology may have taken over from diesel. Or trolleybuses and more guided busways, outside the crowded central zones. Or perhaps London’s jobs will have moved to the less-congested suburbs, where commuting times are on average 32 minutes compared to 55 getting into central London. Or London may even be underwater.

Finally, we just wonder how the good citizens of York will react to First’s capital-hungryfirst ftr project. And the government's just announced that York's council tax will be one of two that are capped, for profligacy. Will it be in the same way as in London? York already has artics on its Park & Ride, but not 18.75m Wright Streetcars on ordinary service through city streets on what is a pretty complicated and wandering route.

As in all things, time will tell.