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A curious new route began on 27 April 2002, following a decidedly indirect route between Tower Gateway and Covent Garden via the south bank. Surprisingly, despite TfL's dislike for letters in route numbers, it was dubbed RV1, doubtless for Riverside as per the side of the bus, and awarded to First Capital using new Mercedes Citaro full-size single deckers. ES64001 (LT02 NTV) is seen on the South Bank of the Thames on Sunday 5 September 2004 with a healthy load.

Photo © John Bennett.

The route is clearly aimed at tourists, with depictions of the various attractions served along the way, including the Tower and London Eye. Buses run every 10 minutes all day every day of the week, which is unusual – most routes run less frequently during the evenings and on Sundays. The use of full sized single deckers, rather than Dart sized buses, is also unusual for London.

I do not normally deliberately include obsolete vehicle types, but three vehicles used on the RV1 from 2004 to 2006 deserve a special mention. These are the hydrogen powered fuel cell buses, which use hydrogen and oxygen to produce water and electricity – the reverse of electrolysis – the electricity being used to power the vehicle. Although hydrogen production and storage raises challenging questions, if technical and cost issues can be cracked then the technology provides an ideal solution for clean urban transport.

Photo © James Fullick.

Providing a typically atmospheric view is ESQ64992 at Aldwych on 22 February 2006, where the route terminates, near Covent Garden, showing off its "demonstration" blind displays. The "no emissions" claim on the side of the bus is clearly spurious, but what can be said is that the emissions are clean, being pure steam. The bus is labelled with many of the organisations taking part in this research & development trial; London was one of ten European cities which received 3 of these vehicles each. Following completion of the trial, the vehicles were decomissioned and the components returned to manufacturers for further research. It is rumoured that a larger trial may soon take place on the RV1; the route has been removed from the tendering programme (it has just completed its original seven year term, extended from 5 years).

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