Boris takes free pitch route for new London bus

Mayor of London Boris Johnson today launched a competition to design a new London bus based on the Routemaster, which was phased out in 2005.


However, the unpaid, open competition is likely to cause controversy among design professionals for failing to meet industry best practice guidelines which insist on designers being paid for all their work.


The winning entry in the A New Bus For London scheme will receive £25 000, with two runners-up awarded £10 000 each.


There are two categories for entries, including one for professional designers, to submit blueprints for either a specific part of, or a complete, bus. Designs will have to comply with TfL guideline specifications.


Announcing the competition at the London Transport Museum, WC2, this morning, Johnson said, ‘The new bus will have to be clean, Green and capacious – a new generation 21st Century Routemaster bus.


‘The winning design should have an open platform, seat 72 passengers, be a double-decker and be red – as well as Green.’


The new bus will also have to comply fully with the Disability Discrimination Act.


All entries must be submitted by 19 September, with the top three entries will be selected in October. The new bus will begin replacing London’s 393 bendy buses in about four years’ time.


A second section within the competition is open to all to enter. Titled Imagination, people can submit single design concepts for particular features of the bus, or a sketch of the overall look. Winners will receive unspecified tokens and vouchers.


The competition website went live this morning at www.tfl.gov.uk/anewbusforlondon.

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  • miles November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    You can’t compalin about free pitching here, it’s not a proper job, it’s just a competition for some ‘looser cruiser’ ideas.

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