New Bus For London in St Martin's Place

Very nice looking bus - and the AirCon was working yesterday when I tried it. My route was not quite so cool and scenic as in the above picture of the tree-lined section of road opposite the National Portrait Gallery. No, it was Victoria Street, an irritable amalgam of rushed people going nowhere very fast until we got north of Trafalgar Square. My experience of the bus was that the stairs are extremely solid and pleasurable to negotiate and the upper deck feels - how can I put it - it has the all potential to transport that a train or plane has since you are above it all for a moment. On the lower deck, I sat next to a Chinese lawyer on her way to the Supreme Court and visibly but very politely appalled by the lack of speed on Victoria Street. On the upper deck, I sat next to a visitor from New Zealand who mentioned Wuppertal a lot (apparently they have a transport system where the rapid transit cars are suspended on a monorail - a Sky Tram - 8 m (26.25 ft) above the streets and whizz around unencumbered by other traffic getting in their way. (Must be cheaper to install than tramways I imagine but just as efficient perhaps.) I noted the stopped vehicles at each set of traffic lights and the average count included: 4-5 buses, old and new; 10-11 vans of various sizes; 8-9 taxis, often empty; 5-6 private cars; 2 or 3 brave cyclists. The people making the best speed were the walkers. Time: 2.30 pm, Tuesday 09 July.