Bye bye bendy 25

I have just seen the following posted on another forum I frequent:

I imagine some here may be interested to know that the new contract [for the number 25 bus] has been awarded to First London East with new double deckers. Vehicle requirements increases from 43 bendies to 59 deckers. The new contract starts on 25/6/11 so plenty of time for the construction of the buses and mobilisation of the depot space and new drivers. Interesting that the 25 swings between East London (and its predecessors) and First London East.

The Number 25 bus, which runs from Oxford Street to Ilford and links my home and workplace, is one of the most awful in London, with bendification having made it even more packed, not least because the official capacity of a bendy bus is about 50% more than can actually fit on-board (and drivers will do what they can to enforce the lower limit). There are few seats and passengers are repeatedly thrown all over the place. It is unsurprising to see many people opting instead for the double deckers that parallel part of the route, even where those double deckers stop short.

Bendy buses were originally designed for very short hop mass transit, such as at airports or fast inner city journeys like the trip from the main railway terminals to the City. It was simply ridiculous to put bendy buses on a route that runs from central London to the outer suburbs and their departure on this route cannot come soon enough so I'm glad to hear that they are going at the end of the contract:

I will not miss them. This was one of Boris Johnson's highest profile pledges in the last London Mayoral election and I am very glad to see implementation is finally reaching East London.