Revamped Routemaster bus pulls up in Kingston (From Surrey Comet)

Iconic revamped Routemaster bus pulls up in Kingston

7:40am Monday 9th January 2012 in News By Tom Barnes

Back on the road: One of the new Routemaster buses

Kingston residents got a chance to see the Mayor of London’s new Routemaster bus at a public exhibition.

The first prototype new bus for London, unveiled by Boris Johnston in Trafalgar Square before Christmas, was outside the Guildhall in High Street, Kingston, on Saturday.

The new double-deckers have two staircases, three entrances and a rear platform to provide a hop-on, hop-off service.

Their arrival fulfils an election pledge by Mr Johnson, who vowed to bring in a green successor to the Routemaster.

A second crew member will be on the bus to prevent fare evasion whenever the hop-on hop-off platform at the back is open, expected to be in daytime hours.

Mr Johnson said: “I’m very proud that 50 years later we now have a new Routemaster bus on the streets of London for the first time in a generation.

“It is not only convenient in some of our streets where people will be able to get on and off in slow moving traffic, but it is also one of the cleanest, greenest buses around.

“It sends a message to the world that we can not only design beautiful buses but we can still build them in the UK.”

Eight of the new buses will be introduced in the first half of next year and the first of them, operated by Arriva, will be on route 38, which runs from Victoria station to Hackney, East London.