In 2002, London received their first 31 articulated buses for the Red Arrow route 507. MAL31 was the last of this batch.
Later MAL31 was often seen on other routes during her time in service like the 521.
In January 2006, MAL31 was modelled by Creative Master Northcord Ltd wearing this livery and sporting the destination depicted in the drawing. The bus also resides in my existing collection.
10 years later, MAL31 was transferred to CT Plus Bristol for the P&R 904 service and was painted in the dedicated blue livery. Since then there has been no word of where this bus has been since 2014 so is presumably withdrawn or scrapped.
Mercedes-Benz Citaro Gs have been a famous yet controversial type for London due to various reasons. One including a breakout of fires that occurred in 2004 which gave the Citaro a bad name for quite a bit. All of this type had to be recalled for fire suppression modifications which resulted in the Mercedes-Benz Citaro G demonstrator being drafted in to help with the unique Hispano Habit bodied Volvo B7LA.
In later years these bendy buses were involved in some crashes mainly with cyclists, some of those were fatal which added more controversy to this type. As a result when ex-Mayor of London Boris Johnson just started his role as mayor, he shown a huge dislike to bendy buses and wanted to get rid of this type, and gradually he did just that and replaced the buses with 1000 Wright New Routemasters. Because of all this, its all sparked debate which is ongoing to this day about how efficient bendy buses are compared to double deckers. Many have argued a bendy bus carries more people with them carrying more standees in particular. Also, many bendy bus enthusiasts (like myself) have questioned their safety, which many have put down to our British roads as they've been a common theme abroad for years, longer than we've been having them. Remember Leeds has had a longer history with articulated buses and no problems related to them being bendy buses as the only issues were one ended up in a bakery window, and an isolated one-off engine fire, both occurring in 2006 on the Wright Fusions working route 1. A Wright StreetCar was also noted to have had an engine fire, but damage was much less extensive and was repaired. That incident was also posted on YouTube.
I suppose both double decker and bendy buses have their advantages and disadvantages, one disadvantage for doubles is that they often hit low bridges, this has happened in Leeds a few times in the past. In York, the requirement for bendy buses is still strong despite only around 3 left for route 2/2A for them to access through a low bridge near the railway station. However, bendy buses are more expensive to maintain, also one would question depot space. The other good thing about bendy buses is the quick alighting system where you can easily get off at the back but on a double decker you have to exit one door most places outside London. One other problem for the bendy buses in London was fare dodgers which could be put down to the fact the bus has three doors like the New Routemaster, but as explained in my earlier upload about the New Routemaster the rear platform is no longer in use so now is working more like a normal London bus. Again, abroad BVG are working tri axle double deckers with three doors and two staircases and they've been having no issues, even British manufacturer ADL is producing the next generation of such for the Germany city.
But whether you love them or loathed them, they were good people movers, as mentioned they had no controversy elsewhere as Aberdeen who've had them for 22 years now are using ex-First York Citaros for their 1/2 services which has seen little change over the years.
Back to London's bendy bus history though, the Citaro wasn't the first one as history can date back to the 80s when a Mainline liveried Leyland DAB was on trial in the capital city, a video can be seen on YouTube. In the early 2000s a few Wright bodied Volvos from First were there for a short time on route 207, only one being repainted into the red livery. Route 207 was the last bendy bus route in London which was later worked by double decker Scania Omnicitys.
Despite the controversy in London the Citaro has been a popular type across Europe. Citaros are still being sold in the UK to this day including the articulated variety but only for airports for now although articulated bus orders have slowed right down for operators, the most recent being for Metro in Ireland who works Van Hool ExquiCitys which look very much like the Wright StreetCars.
Meanwhile to this day there are some ex-London bendy Citaros still about knocking in places, sadly Brighton & Hove who received a few ex-Red Arrow ones with the latter 57 plate ones have withdrawn their artics although a farewell day with one providing a free-ride with donations accepted for an unknown charity. Also at least one is preserved and that happens to be another one of the ex-Red Arrow examples but it wasn't MAL31 which is most likely scrapped. Another place to see ex-London Citaro Gs are some airports dotted across the country, Manchester had a few for a short while working alongside their own bought new, also a bit more closer to home Leeds/Bradford Airport have a few ex-Stagecoach and Brighton & Hove ones and are repainted into a dedicated grey/white livery. These buses work airside duties with a small number of Optare Tempos.
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