Elephant and Castle

Coordinates: 51°29′42″N 0°06′04″W / 51.495°N 0.101°W / 51.495; -0.101

The Elephant and Castle is a major road junction in Central London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. Though the name of the surrounding area is properly known as Newington, the proximity of the London Underground station of the same has led to the area being more commonly called "Elephant and Castle". The name is derived from a local coaching inn.

"The Elephant", as locally abbreviated, consists of major traffic junctions connected by a short road called Elephant and Castle, part of the A3. Between these junctions, on the eastern side, is the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, with the Hannibal House office block above. To the north of this, bounded by Newington Causeway and New Kent Road is the large Metro Central Heights residential block. The 43-storey Strata residential block lies just south of the shopping centre on Walworth Road.

Traffic runs to and from the south-east of England along the A2 (New Kent Road and Old Kent Road), the south of England on the A3, to the West End via St George's Road, and to the City of London via London Road and Newington Causeway at the northern junction. Newington Butts and Walworth Road adjoin the southern junction. The whole junction forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone.

Alexander Dennis

Alexander Dennis (formerly known as TransBus International) is a British bus building company based in Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom, Alexander Dennis is one of the world’s fastest-growing bus builders, with manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, Europe, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United States.

In 2013, Alexander Dennis had a 34% market share in the United Kingdom. As at April 2014, Brian Souter and Ann Gloag collectively held a 55% shareholding.

History

Alexander Dennis was formed as TransBus International on 1 January 2001, when Mayflower Corporation (owner of Dennis and Alexander) merged with Henlys Group (owner of Plaxton).

TransBus International inherited a number of factories around the United Kingdom from all three merged companies: the former Alexander factories in Falkirk, Scotland and Belfast, Northern Ireland, the former Plaxton factories in Anston and Scarborough, the former Northern Counties factory in Wigan, and the Dennis factory in Guildford.

Go-Ahead London

Go-Ahead London is the trading name used collectively for the London bus operations of the Go-Ahead Group. The name first appeared in August 2008, before which the company had traded under separate names and brands. It is the largest bus operator in London, operating a total of 115 bus routes under contract to Transport for London.

History

The Go-Ahead Group is a large transport group based in Newcastle. It first became involved in London bus operations in September 1994, where upon the privatisation of London Buses it purchased London Central. In May 1996, it added another former London Buses subsidiary, London General, which had been sold in 1994 to a management buy out. These two companies subsequently developed in much the same way, both establishing a livery of red with a charcoal skirt and yellow relief band, and splitting orders for new buses.

Further expansion did not occur until September 2006, when Docklands Buses was purchased. On 29 June 2007, the Go-Ahead purchased Blue Triangle. With these purchases, Go-Ahead surpassed Arriva London to become the largest operator of buses in London, running around 16% of London bus services.

London

London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. It was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1.12-square-mile (2.9 km²) medieval boundaries and in 2011 had a resident population of 7,375, making it the smallest city in England. Since at least the 19th century, the term London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms Greater London, a region of England governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The conurbation also covers two English counties: the small district of the City of London and the county of Greater London. The latter constitutes the vast majority of London, though historically it was split between Middlesex (a now abolished county), Essex, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire.

New Routemaster

The New Routemaster, originally referred to as the New Bus for London and colloquially as the Borisbus or Borismaster (a portmanteau of the name of the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who drove their introduction, and that of the AEC Routemaster that they were designed to replace) is a hybrid diesel-electric double-decker bus operated in London. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is manufactured by Wrightbus, and is notable for featuring a "hop-on hop-off" rear open platform similar to the original Routemaster bus design but updated to meet requirements for modern buses to be fully accessible. The first bus entered service on 27 February 2012.

The original AEC Routemaster was a standard London bus type, with a rear open platform and crewed by both a driver and conductor. It was withdrawn from service (except for two heritage routes) at the end of 2005 by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, in favour of a fully accessible one-person-operated modern fleet, none of which featured a rear open platform. The withdrawal of the Routemaster became an issue of the 2008 London mayoral election, and Johnson was subsequently elected mayor, with one of his campaign pledges being to introduce a new Routemaster. Following an open design competition in 2008, Wrightbus was awarded the contract to build the bus at the end of 2009, and the final design was announced in May 2010.