Scrapping bendy buses 'will bring misery for passengers'

Seeing red: the Mayor wants to axe bendy buses on three routes but has been warned this will reduce capacity

Mayor Boris Johnson has come under fire over plans to scrap bendy buses on three key routes across the capital.

He has proposed replacing the buses with double-deckers and single-deck buses.

But Labour London Assembly members today warned this could mean more crowded and slower journeys, higher costs and increased carbon emissions.

The Mayor is consulting on the future of three routes: he has suggested using doubledeckers on route 38 from Victoria to Clapton, and 12-metre single-deck buses on routes 507 from Victoria to Waterloo and 521 from Waterloo to London Bridge. But Valerie Shawcross, Labour's transport spokeswoman on the Assembly, said this would mean a cut in capacity on the single-deck routes even if more services are put on.

She calculates that hourly capacity will be reduced by 270 passengers on route 507, and by 135 passengers on route 521.

Bendy buses have a capacity of 120 passengers, while doubledeckers carry 85 and single-deckers 70.

Ms Shawcross warned that journey times could increase because getting on and off bendy buses is quicker.

There would also be more carbon emissions from the extra vehicles and higher costs as more staff would be required to drive and maintain them. She said: "I'm calling for wider consultation on these bus routes as there are some pretty dire consequences for the people who use them. There's no getting away from the facts - these proposals are a bad deal for passengers."

Consultation on the three bus routes ends on 3 October.

Mr Johnson has pledged to ultimately scrap all bendy buses and replace them with new generation double-deck Routemasters.

A competition to design a new bus closed on Friday and a winner is expected to be announced in early November. Key features for the designs included an open platform.

A spokesperson for the Mayor said: "The Mayor was elected on a platform of ridding the Capital of the bendy bus, which many Londoners feel is intimidating and inappropriate for our streets. Londoners have already spoken in electing Boris Johnson as Mayor, and will in addition be able to feed into the consultation process currently underway."

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