London’s Iconic Routemaster Bus Rolls Again, With a Modern Design
There are few things more iconic about London than the classic double-decker Routemaster bus. Surely you’ve seen it in countless souvenir shops: it’s the curvy, bright red bus with the open staircase cut into the back left corner. But here’s a secret - those 1950s-style buses haven’t rolled through London’s streets since 2005. They were replaced with various breeds of double-deckers no longer specifically built for the British capital.
But Londoners should have a renewed sense of local pride: the Routemaster was introduced back into service Monday, with a remarkably 21st-century look. It’s a fully British-born product, assembled in the plains of Northern Ireland, and it has all the perks of a modern bus (a hybrid-diesel engine is among the most ecofriendly additions), plus one legacy feature that has been restored. The “hop-on, hop-off” function that made the Routemaster fly through London’s stop-and-go traffic will once again be in operation, thanks to the rear platform and staircase. Passengers can get on and off the bus whenever the bus is stopped at a red light, effectively decreasing stopping time. There is a hitch, though: the rear door requires a conductor to operate it, so it will only be functional during daytime hours.
Or perhaps not even then. On the bus’s inaugural #38 route Monday from Victoria Station to Hackney in East London, a reported “software glitch” kept the rear doors locked shut. Riders on the first route also noted air-conditioning problems and a forced pull-over that saw the bus arriving at its destination 30 minutes late. But the issues were cast off as “teething problems,” and London’s mayor Boris Johnson touted the project as a “stunning piece of automotive architecture.”