Articulated Buses in London

Articulated Buses In London

Articulated buses, popularly called bendy buses, were introduced to London in June 2002 when the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, introduced new Mercedes-Benz Citaros to Red Arrow commuter services 507 and 521. While articulated bus operation had been standard in several other countries, the UK had only sparingly tried their use, so their introduction in London caused a lot of press attention.

In 2007, as part of his 2008 Mayoral campaign, Boris Johnson had pledged to withdraw bendy buses on the grounds that they were unsuitable for London, and to introduce a modern replacement of the Routemaster bus. The withdrawal began in 2009, when bendy buses on three routes were replaced with conventional low-floor single and double decker buses, and a prototype for a New Routemaster was promised to be on the streets by 2012. The withdrawal of all bendy buses was completed by the end of 2011.