Even railroad fanatics like myself have to admit that the future of passenger transportation by rail, particularly urban commuter rail, is pretty well frozen where it is.
New rail — even light rail, an idealistic indulgence — is doomed by high costs, lack of appropriate track and political squabbling.
New subways, the elegant way to get around a city by going under it, are an almost impossible dream. The costs are too great in times of austerity and the cost of maintenance — as Washington, D.C., has discovered — can be prohibitive as the system ages, particularly as local jurisdictions have a habit of postponing maintenance.
Increasingly, the future appears to be the once humble bus. They have a low capital cost, they are flexible, and they can be adjusted to demand and population changes in a way that trains cannot.
Spare the groaning; the buses are coming. Yet today’s bus need not be yesterday’s bus — noisy, smelly and unreliable.
London, which has possibly the best transportation infrastructure in the world with a huge rail network, the largest subway system of any city and some light rail, is nonetheless betting on buses.
Currently London is deploying a brand new bus, designed for the times and preserving some of the features that have made its buses, along with its taxis, emblematic of the city, like the jump-on jump-off rear platform and two decks. And, yes, they are red.
The new London buses are a meeting between nostalgia, high tech and environmental sensibility.
London was busy phasing out its traditional and much loved double-deck buses in favor of articulated buses, which bend in the middle (popularly called bendy buses in London) and run in cities worldwide, when a controversial and eccentric Conservative journalist-turned-politician, Boris Johnson, declared that if he were elected mayor of London, he would save the old buses, called Routemasters, or at least the concept of double-deck buses. Johnson won the election and ideas were sought from the public, fashion designers and bus-makers.
The result is what tabloids call “the Boris Bus.” It is a high-tech beauty that meets many demands. It has two doors and two staircases, but it is so low that wheelchairs are easily accommodated without the “kneeling” feature of American single-deckers. It has great glass sweeping panels in the front and rear.
The buses are designed to have conductors during rush hours, when all the doors are open, and to be operated by the driver only at off-peak hours. The rear platform — so loved by agile Britons — can be closed off for safety at night.
The new London buses use modern composite materials from the airline industry and are hybrids, with diesel engines and regenerative breaking.
It is this technology that has made way for the lowering of the bottom deck, increasing stability while reducing weight.
The initial reception of this high-tech scion of the old and loved London bus has been so enthusiastic that Johnson is talked about as a future Conservative prime minister — riding the bus to the highest office in the land.
Back to our buses. They, too, are getting better, but less dramatically so. Between Washington and New York, there is now thriving bus service with half a dozen competing firms offering Wi-Fi, toilets, and many points of departure and arrival. The ticket price, at about $20 each way, is a fraction of the ticket prices for Amtrak and airlines.
These intercity buses are diesel-powered, but many cities are using natural gas-powered buses. That might yet seal the deal for buses as the first line of future urban transportation, reducing the use of cars. The United States is awash in natural gas and it is not subject to the world oil price. It also has less environmental impact and the engines are not noisy.
Buses are at their best when, as my wife, the journalist Linda Gasparello, pointed out in London once, they run like conveyors. Frequently, that means dedicated bus lanes — and enough of them.
The Obama administration would be well advised to launch a bus initiative with emphasis on better vehicles, a la London, and dedicated bus lanes.
The solution to urban congestion may be in a high-speed, Wi-Fi-equipped, natural gas-powered omnibus, as they were once called.
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle” on PBS. His e-mail is lking@kingpublishing.com.
