Buses - London Transport (since 2000): books - history

Today's London Buses

Today's London Buses, covers the London bus scene of the last ten years, including pictures of bus types used in the capital on its major services.
This volume looks at various routes accross London during this period and the variety of vehicles that have been used in that time frame.

Some of the services depicted in this book have changed, or ceased to operate, during the period covered in this book.
The author has set out to cover in broad terms, the colour and variety of London bus operation during this period of great change to bus services, during the last decade.

London's Low-floor Buses

In 1994, London saw the inauguration of low-floor buses with a fleet of sixty single-decks introduced by London Buses Limited. Swiftly transitioning to newly privatized operators, these vehicles faced limited popularity, and it wasn't until 1996 that Dennis Dart SLF brought additional examples.
The debut of low-floor double-deckers took almost two more years. The early 2000s witnessed an influx of low-floor buses, primarily from DAF and Dennis, with a smaller Volvo contingent. The capital welcomed the second generation of low-floor vehicles in 2006, marked by the Enviro range from Alexander Dennis Limited.

While the Enviro 200 and 400 models gained prominence among London operators, some opted for alternative models.
David Beddall's illustrated book captures this chapter of London's bus history with 180 compelling photographs, offering a captivating tribute to the evolution of low-floor buses in the city.

The London Bendy Bus

Between 2002 and 2006 six of London's bus companies put into service 390 articulated 'bendy' buses on twelve routes for transport in London.

During what turned out to be a foreshortened nine years in service, the Mercedes-Benz Citaro G buses familiar on the continent and worldwide earned an unenviable reputation in London; according to who you read and who you believed, they caught fire at the drop of a hat, they maimed cyclists, they drained revenue from the system due to their susceptibility to fare evasion, they transported already long-suffering passengers in standing crush loads like cattle and they contributed to the extinction of the Routemaster from frontline service. In short, it was often referred to as 'the bus we hated'.

This account is an attempt by a long-time detractor of the bendy buses to set the vehicles in their proper context - not quite to rehabilitate them, but to be as fair as is possible towards a mode of transport which felt about as un-British as could be.