OK, let's try this over-sold, hold-the-front-page style...
Ahem!
Mayor Johnson and Transport for London will today disclose details about the replacements for the bendy bus services currently operating on routes 38, 507 and 521 to come into effect next year.
The cost of ousting bendys, which have been subjected to a somewhat bonkers and largely unjustified hate campaign by political foes of self-styled mayor-in-exile Ken Livingstone, will be significantly lower than some had predicted, Dave Hill's London Blog has learned.
Sources who, er, know about all this have also disclosed that the bendys working route 38, which runs between Victoria and the sacred Clapton Pond, will be replaced by double deckers rather than the single deckers that will work routes 507 and 521, as was previously revealed by London blogger Dave Cole.
The cost of the new operator contracts, though higher than the existing ones, will help Mayor Johnson claim that the "value-for-money" approach he has required from TfL has paid off. Waiting for existing bendy contracts to approach their expiry date rather than renegotiating them all immediately has resulted in more competitive tendering which has driven the price down, Dave Hill's London Blog understands.
Critics will complain that the larger numbers of buses required to maintain passenger capacity will result in greater traffic congestion and more pollution, but informants close to the throbbing heart of mayoral bus policy privately invite them to look forward to having a more frequent service under the new arrangements.
In a separate development, Dave Hill's London Blog can reveal that the results of Mayor Johnson's Design A Bus competition will definitely be announced later this month and that's all it's going to reveal about that for the time being. Heh.
And now, the weather.
Update, 09:52. Word is that this will become official later this morning. I'll be out visiting some London Citizens by then, but keep on eye on the mayor's media site while I'm gone. Later, alligators.
Update, 13:43 So here's the press release as predicted. There's no change in the operators, with Arriva retaining the 38 and Go Ahead hanging on to the 507 and 521 in the form of London General. Details of increased frequencies are there, but not the prices paid. I'm assuming TfL will provide those. I'll ask.
Update, 16:14. London TravelWatch is "disappointed" by the decision to dump bendies saying that "no credible reason" has been given for doing it and that "TfL should be more explicit both about the actual costs involved and the reasons for the decision." Full response here.
