Bus design competition is just a sideshow

London: London's new Routemaster bus will operate on a scale far wider than expected but the much-hyped public competition to design it is a sideshow, according to a senior Transport for London manager.

As Mayor Boris Johnson prepares to unveil the results of the competition, it has emerged that TfL will order up to 800 of the new Routemasters, almost double the expected number. They will serve all central London's busiest routes.

The design contest has attracted around 470 entries. But David Hampson-Ghani, TfL's programme manager for new buses, said it was seen inside TfL as "almost a consultation" to the key effort, which is talks with the manufacturers. The Standard can also reveal that TfL has been engaged in extensive below-the-radar discussions with Britain's major bus manufacturers about building the new bus and Britain's biggest two firms said they were "very interested".

Folder of designs

"The key objective is to replace the current buses that are used on central London's busiest bus routes," said Hampson-Ghani in a recent presentation to the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. "We will simply hand over a folder of the winning designs [from the competition] to whoever wins the manufacturing tender and say: 'See what you can do with these.'

- Evening Standard