Results tagged “bus”

There's a big, friendly bus full of flowers travelling round town today. If you spot it, you can get your hands on one of a thousand free bouquets of tulips. Wherefore art the bulb of munificence from which springeth such bounteous clasps of inflorescence? Well, we're glad you asked, even if you do phrase things in such a peculiar way. it's a rather lovely marketing push for the International Flower Bulb Centre, promoting its current ‘Brighten Up my Day’ campaign. The route will take the bus round Embankment, Oxford Street, Hyde Park and High Street Kensington. If a single bouquet is just not enough, you can win a month's supply (!) by photographing the omniflourent omnibus and sending your pic to info@bulbinfo.com.uk. more ›

We've all fallen asleep on the night bus and ended up stuck at the end of the route (haven't we?) but if you don't have a home to (eventually) go to, the night bus can seem a good place to bed down. Particularly the 25, which takes two hours to plough between Oxford Circus and Ilford, on which 31 rough sleepers were found in just one three day period. more ›

Here's a word of warning for users of bus routes along Tottenham Court Road: 2010 is not going to be fun for you. Works to strengthen or replace Victorian utility pipes before Crossrail construction really kicks off will start on Saturday 16th January and not finish until November (in theory). more ›

Bus drivers are once again on strike, affecting 58 routes through East London. Members of the Unite union will strike until 3am on Sunday. Routes through Barking, Bow, Leyton, Romford, Upton Park and West Ham are most heavily affected. The industrial action comes in protest against the freezing of wages which, according to transport officials, range from £28,000 to over £35,000. The action follows a 24-hour strike a couple of weeks ago. more ›

You'd better start making alternative arrangements for tomorrow if you usually catch the bus; from 3am, drivers working out of Barking, Bow, Leyton, Romford, Upton Park and West Ham bus garages are walking out on a 24 hour strike to protest at the East London Bus Group's plans to impose a pay freeze. 58 routes across the East and City, including the Routemasters on route 15 and six night buses, won't be running unless a last minute deal is struck (unlikely). Take a look at the BBC's travel site for all the affected routes. Honestly, you get one strike sorted out and another one comes along... (Image / dave_olis_trip) more ›

Seven teenagers between 16 and 19 have been arrested at a bus stop on Orpington High Street, for violent disorder and assault. No knives, no mugging, no robbing, sexual assault or demands for "respect" were involved; this was the scene of a bus being simply too full with passengers to allow any more to board on Tuesday afternoon. more ›

Buses are hip: bus stop tops are hot, people are having babies on the backseats and they are not tube travel with its perilous chance encounters with irate Jedi assistants. Boris Johnson wants 400 apprenticeships for bus drivers each year so that drivers can expand and develop new skills, gain qualifications and generally contribute more to the economy and London life. All well and good, but can apprenticeships in "braking carefully to avoid whiplash at every traffic light" also be provided? That way passengers can also benefit, and that would be nice too. Image by daejn more ›

Unto the number 394 single deck bus in Hackney, a boy has been born! We can imagine the duo behind Bus-Tops having a lot of fun with this... Mother of three Emiloju Fatima Lawal went into labour with her fourth child on Tuesday this week, on the number 394 near Mare Street. Once it became clear he was going to make an appearance right there and then, the bus was parked, an ambulance called and the delivery begun.The baby boy was delivered safely and seemingly with very little trouble, brought gently into the world by driver Pauline Jacobs and fellow passenger Carole Allen. more ›

Boris Johnson spent time defending his transport strategy at the London Assembly Transport Committee yesterday. Despite the reduction in bus services (due to an expected 1-3% fall in passenger numbers because of, er, fare rises), he said he'd already resisted a cabinet minister who wanted to see fewer buses on London's streets. more ›

Parked in UCL's main quad on Gower Street, an old school double-decker bus houses Object Retrieval, a new interdisciplinary art project by Joshua Sofaer. A single item from the university’s Museums and Collections is being exhibited in hopes of attracting the insight of experts from various fields as well as the knowledge of everyday passers-by. Organisers hope to accrue a network of information about the object, from the anecdotal to the hyper-scientific, that will continue to grow for the seven-day duration of the project. more ›

The Currant Bun (and, well, a bunch of other places too) brings us the cautionary tale of bus versus Porsche. more ›

Want a nifty route through town by bus? Forget journey planner, you need a hotline to 4 year old Ishaan from Lewisham. At an age when most of us have just managed to master 'The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round', Ishaan has memorised the entire London bus network; night buses included, and is out sharing his hard earned knowledge with lost tourists, we hope with his mum or dad in hand. Here clearly is a Londonist contributor in the making, demonstrating unhealthy levels of geeky interest in our intricate and endlessly vexing fascinating transport system at a prodigiously young age. We're here when you need us, Ishaan. more ›

Only a week after and "debendyficiation" of the streets of the capital started on route 507, and as passengers of said route are already asking for the bendies back, the Bus Service Review (pdf), by accountancy firm KPMG for Transport for London (TfL), has been released and it's not pretty. more ›

Tiny short stories, roof top confessions, a game that places clues on every third bus stop of every bus route that's a multiple of three, a comic book that unfolds panel by panel, stop by stop... The possibilities are quite astounding and London could look completely different with these bus stop roofs providing outlets for our creativity, marking roads and routes throughout the cityscape with manifestations of our imaginations. more ›

Can't make it to tonight's film quiz at the Roxy? Never fear, we have our very own compilation of filmic facting for you to ponder. This time round, the focus is on the the London red bus. See how many of these you can get, but only leave one answer in the comments to give other people a chance to shine. And when you're done, there are still a few unanswered posers in our previous Tower Bridge quiz. All questions are set by Simon Williams, co-host of the monthly Bigger Boat film quiz in Highgate's Boogaloo. Their next event takes place on 15 July and is themed around movie blockbusters. more ›

25 year-old Pawel Modzelewski died on the 36 bus in January this year; his body was undisturbed for at least six hours as he lay in the garage overnight then set off on the next morning's journey. While there's an On the Buses style set of potential gags in this story, we'll respectfully ignore those to look at how this young man died such a death. more ›

A gadget that can stop you speeding is being trialled in 20 TfL vehicles, including a bus and a taxi. Intelligent Speed Adaptation knows where you are and what the local speed limit is; in override mode it stops you accelerating beyond the limit. (In advisory mode it just bleeps like hell and shows a frowny face. Bet that's not annoying in any way.) Developers hope to reduce accidents - and speeding fines. It might sound a bit Orwellian (especially since it records 'driver behaviour'), but as boroughs mess about with speed limits it's getting harder to remember how fast (or slow) you should be going. Now we just need a device that stops bus drivers throwing passengers around when they brake too hard and we're sorted. (Image / 'stpiduko') more ›

The unusual crop of this photo draws our attention to the reflections on the side of the bus which reveals the subject of the lady's glance. A tourist at heart, no doubt. more ›

At the time we threw our hands in the air and huffed a lot, and now a report confirms that the agencies supposed to deal with bad weather in London really didn't have a clue what the others were doing. Valerie Shawcross, who chaired the London Assembly investigation, says what's needed is something similar to the emergency response plan that kicks in after, say, a terrorist attack (apparently the snow didn't "constitute a level of emergency" high enough to trigger it). more ›

96. The Ghost Bus more ›

When the first giddy rush of all that snow had subsided, and we were back inside warming our toes after all the frolicking, we sat down to play the game of London Snow Madness. more ›

The atheist bus / tube campaign has been running for a few weeks now. We thought we'd gather together some sightings of the adverts for anyone who hasn't managed to spot them for themselves. We wouldn't want you to miss out on what we can only now describe as an international, controversial, twittering phenomenon... more ›

The atheist bus is here... and the atheist tube and the atheist TV screens. The campaign responding to a series of religious bus ads has now received a staggering £140,000 in donations from the public and the results are on show now. Nicely timed for Epiphany. more ›

Bus routes 13, N13, 114, 183, 292, H9, H10, H11, H13, H14, H17 and 398 are affected today by a driver strike over pay. Their union, Unite, say that London Sovereign drivers work for £6000 less than those employed by other companies and mediation broke down. Seems the bus driver pay discrepancy grumbles are rumbling on into 09. Keep an eye on TfL's website for updates. more ›

Hmm, that new design for the Routemaster really does look familiar... more ›

Oxford Street's Very Important Pedestrian Day on Saturday was such a success there are calls for it to become permanently pedestrianised. The Evening Standard yesterday ran a cri de coeur to banish fume-belching, noise-throbbing, snail-crawling traffic from London's world famous shopping district. more ›

The bus, which can be viewed here, features a rakishly titled front, like a City gent ambling to work, and a sleek grille that looks like it was pinched from a Bentley. The lower deck features space for seven wheelchairs via a ramp that automatically adjusts to kerb height, and a safety barrier that can be used in case of overcrowding. Upstairs, the designers have included a glass roof, with panels that can be opened or even replaced by energy-generating solar panels to power the electric motor. The bus also features side parts that can spring back into shape following a collision - sounds a little like the T-1000. Perhaps John Connor could be employed as a conductor. more ›

As we warned earlier in the week, today is another bus strike Friday. This time it's Metroline and First drivers affecting 160 bus routes mainly across north-east and west London. For a full list of routes affected visit TFL's website. They're striking over pay again, seeking an across the board £30k for all bus drivers. If they get it, we're thinking of retraining. Good luck out there. more ›

The 38, 507 and 521 bendy buses are in jeopardy following Boris and TFL chums' consultation over their articulated future, seeking to fulfill the reckless election promise of binning the bendies. But TravelWatch took a fine tooth comb to the proposals, putting specific questions to TFL about the plans. Lo and behold, it seems there really aren't any significant benefits to changing the bus routes, but on the downside, operational costs would be much higher and, obviously, for the "non-articulated vehicles boarding and alighting will take a little longer at the busiest stops". Meh. more ›