Articulated buses in London

Articulated buses, popularly called "bendy buses," were introduced to London in October 2001 when two Wright Eclipse Fusion bodied Volvo B7LAs were hired from First Hampshire & Dorset, one of which was repainted into First London's red livery, and six Wright Fusion bodied Volvo B10LAs from First Glasgow for a trial on route 207 between Shepherd's Bush and Hayes-By-Pass.

[3][4] While articulated bus operation had been standard in several other countries for over 20 years, their use in the United Kingdom had been limited, with their introduction in London gaining a lot of press attention.

[7] During the 2008 mayoral campaign, victorious Boris Johnson pledged to withdraw articulated buses on the grounds that they were unsuitable for London, and to introduce a modern version of the AEC Routemaster.

[11] Articulated buses were introduced on several high-capacity routes in the 2000s, coinciding with withdrawal from passenger service of the AEC Routemaster.

They have a much higher passenger capacity, being able to carry over 140 people per vehicle compared to 77 in a Routemaster, although with far fewer seats.

The increased vehicle size meant they were more likely to block junctions and cause difficulties for other road users.

[14] The routes converted to articulated bus operation were:[2] (1) Route 453 transferred from Selkent to London General on 16 February 2008 after tender renewal During the initial stages of deployment of the articulated buses, between December 2003 and March 2004 there were three similar fires on the new Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses, causing concern over the possibility of an in-built risk to the public.

Go-Ahead Group transferred some to its Brighton & Hove, Go North East and Go South Coast divisions.