Are you going my way? (From Surrey Comet)

Are you going my way?

1:35pm Friday 6th August 2004 in News

On a hot summer's night, reporter SIMEON BRODY took a trip on the Love Bus in search of romance. But in the end, was it more fumes than fate...

"I wish it was a love boat," says fellow Love Bus guinea pig Estelle, as we head down to Richmond's riverside on a humid Monday evening, writes Simeon Brody.

The embarkation point for the area's first-ever love bus is the Slug and Lettuce in Water Lane, and as we arrive we are handed our bus pass.

But this is not like the bus pass you may be familiar with unless you normally use your pass to score your fellow passengers.

The Love Bus is the setting for three hours of speed dating, with the occasional pub stop, as it wends its way through Richmond, Kingston and Wimbledon.

The usual speed dating rules apply. Each date lasts three minutes, and afterwards you secretly tick yes' or no' on your bus pass. People who have selected each other are put in touch via email by the organisers after the event.

And, according to organisers, a big old-fashioned double decker is the perfect place to find love.

"It's a classic icon of London," says Tom Muirhead, managing director of organisers Initiative. "And it's the perfect vehicle for dating. You've got double seats and you get to ring the bell every three minutes."

Unfortunately, the bell did not seem to work but what could be more romantic than meeting a prospective partner on a London bus?

I ponder this question as I am thrown around the lurching vehicle's stairwell, as I attempt to make my way to the top deck.

"It smells of fish," says one participant.

Still, speed dating is not about romance, it is a rather businesslike way of finding a mate a cost-effective, screening process.

There are more women than men on the Love Bus, which is usual for a speed dating event, according to Mr Muirhead, so I have plenty of potential partners to choose from.

As the bus reverses, following an ill-advised attempt to negotiate the Wolverton Avenue home zone, I am in deep conversation with a Transport for London planner.

Three minutes later I am attempting to explain my musical interests to a prospective doctor, and in a further three minutes my date is showing me her bus pass. None of the boxes appear to have been ticked, and a single comment about date number 16 (me) reads "odd socks".

We disembark for a pit stop at Kingston's Slug and Lettuce, and apocryphal tales begin to spread among the daters.

One of the participants is believed to have taken part in all four of the Love Bus's previous journeys through different parts of London. Another is said to have a list of Mastermind-like questions with which to test potential mates.

There was even rumoured to be a journalist on board.

Some of the participants were raring to get back on the bus, and were clearly having a good time, but others appeared more disconsolate.

"The truth is there's no love on this bus," said recruitment consultant Louise.

But, others may have found love on the bus, and may be exchanging flirtatious emails even now. Either way we all had had a most unusual night.

Call 0161 494 7077 or go to www.thelovebus.co.uk for more information.