Skip to content
April 2002 image of First London's Routemaster RML 2473 (JJD 473D), operating from Westbourne Park garage, as it made its approach to Ladbroke Grove Station en route to East Acton Station. The bus was withdrawn in 2005. Photo by Kotasik, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Britain’s venerable double-decker gets design makeover

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
April 2002 image of First London's Routemaster RML 2473 (JJD 473D), operating from Westbourne Park garage, as it made its approach to Ladbroke Grove Station en route to East Acton Station. The bus was withdrawn in 2005. Photo by Kotasik, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
April 2002 image of First London’s Routemaster RML 2473 (JJD 473D), operating from Westbourne Park garage, as it made its approach to Ladbroke Grove Station en route to East Acton Station. The bus was withdrawn in 2005. Photo by Kotasik, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

LONDON (AP) – It’s the latest incarnation of a British icon: a lightweight, fuel-efficient double-decker bus expected to hit the streets of London in 2012.

Mayor Boris Johnson spent Thursday morning unveiling a life-size model of the new bus – one that conserves the curves and asymmetry of the original.

Double-decker buses have been a feature of the capital’s life since the 19th century, when the horse-drawn variety were praised by elder statesman William Gladstone as the “way to see London.”

The best-known model remains the curvy red Routemaster, which was retired from general service in 2005 after half a century of service.

Its replacements – boxy, modern double-deckers and giant articulated single-decker buses – kept the traditional color, but largely failed to gain Londoners’ affection.

The new model, due to enter service in 2012, brings back the round edges and charm of the much-missed Routemaster.

Johnson, who posed for pictures on the open platform at the back of a life-size model of the new bus at a transport museum in west London – said that being inside the new bus brought “a sense of nostalgia.”

The model unveiled Thursday is immobile – prototypes aren’t due for another year – and the bus’s look may still change. The new vehicle is being designed and built by Northern Ireland-based Wrights Group Ltd. and London-based Heatherwick Studio, whose recent projects include the U.K. Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo.

___

Online:

Transport for London: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/

Wrights Group Ltd: http://www.wright-bus.com/

Heatherwick Studio: http://www.heatherwick.com/

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-11-11-10 0916EST