The London Traveler

Transport for London (TfL) has now announced the two winners of the competition to design the new Routemaster. One is a joint venture between Aston Martin (who obviously think the credit crunch make buses a better bet than luxury cars!) and Foster + Partners, and the other was designed by Capoco, a firm which designs buses, coaches and trucks.
I suspect a lot of people will be disappointed. Neither of these creations actually looks like the much-loved RM. In particular, the radiator of the Capoco design looks very squashed – not the friendly ‘face’ of the traditional bus, but a pudgy …read more

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Following my report on ‘Last Stop’, Ralf Obergfell’s exhibition of photographs on the last eighteen months of the Routemaster’s service for London Transport, I had the chance to interview the photographer about his work.
LT: When did you first encounter the Routemaster bus? How far back does your fascination with it go?
RO: I first saw the Routemaster on TV at my parents’ house in Staufen, on the edge of the Black Forest. I was 12 or 13 years old.
LT: How did the project for Last Stop get started?
RO: I’m a founding member of photodebut, which was set up in 2002 as …read more

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