Cover picture:Winner of the £1,000 first prize in the over-18s 'imagine' category for Transport for London's 'New Routemaster' was 24-year-old graphic designer Frances Faulder. Describing her design, she says: 'I took off everything that I felt was wrong or obsolete, added what I thought was needed and then wondered about something my boyfriend had once said about travelling by bus — “the great thing about getting the bus is that you get to see the city”. So I designed something that would allow people to do that.'

Contents

NEWS
Stagecoach offers to buy Preston Bus;Manchester voters reject TIF plan; First buys long-haul coach operation

BUS PEOPLE
New jobs for First's Yorkshire MDs; Steve Clayton to quit Arriva; death of Derek Fytche

INSIDE TRACK
Farewell to one of the industry's finest

GLOBAL NEWS
Maltese shake-up plan could use Boris's banished bendies; new trolleybuses for Solingen; Big Bus starts in Hong Kong; MAN buys VW Brazil

IN LONDON
The New Routemaster prize winners; thoughts on East Thames sale proposal.

MILLAR'S TALES
The ignominious end of Yelloway, Hispano Habits, Dutch Leyland and Japanese RM lookalike

STAGECOACH YORKSHIRE: THREE YEARS OF PROGRESS
We find out about the whirlwind of change since it bought Traction Group

LED ADVANCES DATE BLINDS
How electronic technology is banishing destination scrolls to museums

SERVICE EXTRA
Better not to mix the message

THE CONNECTIONS MAN
Julian Peddle recalls his formative years with Stevensons of Uttoxeter

BRITAIN'S MOST REVOLU- TIONARY DOUBLE-DECKER?
The Bristol Lodekka is subject of an important new book