Bendy Buses * UK - Ken declares no more

London,UK -BBC News -16 March 2008: -- The mayor of London has revealed that he will not be ordering any further fleets of bendy buses... Ken Livingstone said they were only introduced for a small number of routes and there were no plans to put more on the roads... Livingstone insisted bendy buses were popular with commuters. But critics argue the buses are not suited to London's roads and have led to increased revenue losses for Transport for London (TfL) because they have no conductors... Introduced in 2001, they were temporarily taken out of service in 2005 when three buses caught fire... (Video fromYouTube, by heene - August 20, 2006: "Bendy bus out of control in a tunnel" - Who needs blackpool pleasure beach when you can ride this!)

* London bus fare dodging 'doubles' - Fare evasion is higher on bendy buses
London,UK -BBC News -12 March 2008: -- Fare evasion on London's buses has nearly doubled in the last four years, according to the Liberal Democrats... A freedom of information request shows in 2003 the evasion rate was 2.2% of the total number of journeys compared to 3.9% in 2007... The party says fare evasion on bendy buses cost £6.4m last year. The total cost it claims is £52.3m... But Transport for London (TfL) disputed the figures saying the total cost of fare evasion was £35m...