Two years ago, a few months before the Mayoral elections, the New Bus For London prototype went on a whistlestop tour of London. It was exhibited for a couple of hours in eleven different locations so that the general public and the media could visit, inspect and admire. And admire they did, history reports, with the New Bus generally seen as a prime electoral asset.
The first location on the tour was Trafalgar Square, then the two Westfields, then (after a brief pause for Christmas) four pairs of locations in Outer London boroughs covering each quadrant of the capital.
Fri 16th Dec 2011: Trafalgar Square Sat 17th Dec 2011: Westfield Shepherd's Bush, Westfield Stratford Wed 4th Jan 2012: Bexleyheath Broadway, Bromley High Street Thu 5th Jan 2012: Romford High Street, Ilford High Road Fri 6th Jan 2012: Ealing Haven Green, Golders Green Bus Station Sat 7th Jan 2012: Sutton High Street, Kingston High Street
I've marked each of these locations on the map below, approximately, with a yellow dot.
I've also marked, approximately, all the bus routes along which the New Bus For London currently runs, or is scheduled to run in the near future. They're the red lines. You are invited to compare and contrast.
The seven New Bus For London routes are as follows:
38: Victoria → Clapton Pond (Feb 2012, some buses) 24: Hampstead Heath → Pimlico (Jun 2013) 9: Hammersmith → Aldwych (Oct 2013) 11: Fulham Broadway → Liverpool Street (Sep 2013) 390: Notting Hill Gate → Archway (Dec 2013) 148: White City → Camberwell (Feb 2014) 8: Oxford Circus → Bow Church (Jun 2014)
From this we note...
a) At present, the New Bus for London serves only seven boroughs (all north of the river) b) By June, the New Bus for London will serve only ten boroughs (all in inner London) c) The New Bus for London is only being used on inner London routes (because they're busiest) d) Boris's New Bus preview tour visited mostly outer London boroughs (72% of stops) e) Only one stop on that New Bus tour is currently served by New Buses (Trafalgar Square) f) By June, only two stops on the New Bus tour will be served by New Buses (Trafalgar Square and Westfield Shepherd's Bush) g) Nowhere in Outer London visited on the New Bus tour is scheduled to be served by New Buses (not even close) h) All the Outer London boroughs visited on the New Bus tour have so far seen a New Bus for only two hours (on the day of the tour) i) All eight boroughs on the Outer London New Bus tour later voted for Boris as Mayor (pure coincidence, surely) j) More than 600 New Bus for London vehicles will enter passenger service by 2016 (we're barely quarter of the way there yet)
