End of the road for London's Boris Buses as mayor reveals zero-emission plan

London's iconic but controversial New Routemasters are set to retire from the capital's streets following the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, revealing a new mission to clean-up London's air.

All 1,000 deckers, which were ordered by previous mayor Boris Johnson at a cost of £350m, are set to be replaced by fully electric or hydrogen buses by 2030, despite being in service for less than 15 years.

They were designed by Heatherwick Studio and manufactured by Wrightbus, with the first vehicles entering service with Arriva in February 2012 on Route 38. Each bus cost the public £355,000.

Although the design has become an iconic feature of London, they are not very popular among passengers: not long after their introduction, they had to be retrofitted with opening windows due to high temperatures in the summer.

Not only that, in July 2015 the BBC reported a high number of problems with the batteries that power the hybrid-electric system, with 80 buses operating in diesel-only mode. And prior to 2017, some buses had faulty batteries which emitted more harmful particles than the original Routemaster!

Sadiq Khan said: "By 2030, all the buses in London will be zero emission... Some may need to be retro-fitted but I think all will be new buses by 2030."

At the time of writing, there are no plans to withdraw the New Routemasters within the next few years. They will likely be phased out over time as new electric or hydrogen buses are introduced.

The future of the buses ultimately remains unknown - at least for now. Although unlikely, it's not unreasonable to suggest that some vehicles may be converted to single-door units for regional use outside of London.

Last year, the aim was for a zero-emission bus fleet by 2034, but this was recently brought forward by Khan to 2030. He said, "We’ve already made significant progress cleaning up our air, with the introduction of the world’s largest clean-air zone."

Ultimately, it's a waiting game to see just how successful this mission is. Will the New Routemasters be history by 2030, or will they still be roaming the streets of London?