Two designs go forward for new bus for London

Two entrants have been selected from a field of more than 700 to go forward as designs for a new Routemaster for London. The two winning bids will share the competition first prize of £25,000.

Aston Martin teamed up with awarding winning architects Foster and Partners to produce a design (pictured below) which included solar panels built into the roof, wooden floors, 'warm lighting' and full accessibility.

A Wiltshire based design company, Capoco Design, tendered the other winning bid (pictured above) with a design that combined the best of the traditional design with innovative new features.

The winning designs will be presented to bus manufacturers, with the intention of developing a final proposed design.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London said: "We now have, in our joint winners, two stunning stunning designs that allow us to go forward and produce a truly iconic bus."

The original Routemaster bus proved massively popular with Londoners and visitors alike.

Routemasters still run along Heritage Route 15. Independent minded travellers can hear about the history of the Routemaster with The Ride & Stride London city walking tour.

When, in 1954 the prototype Routemaster first made its appearance it was hailed “the most modern double deck bus in the world”. Large numbers of Routemasters first entered service on London's streets five years later.

Design consultant, Douglas Scott, was engaged in the design of the Routemaster. He had made his reputation styling the Aga cooking stove and the traditional British phone box.

Safety and access concerns over the open rear platform meant that time was called on the icon in 2005.

Passengers undertaking the Ride & Stride podcast guided tour alight at St Paul's Cathedral. Listeners to The Ride & Stride mp3 guided tour hear about Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece, before crossing over to the South Bank of the Thames via the Millennium Bridge. To hear an audio sample from The Ride & Stride mp3 guided tour please click here.

See the Tate Modern. Discover some of the ways in which Shakespearean Theatre differed to theatre today. Hear about the origins of terms such as Winchester geese and in the clink, before crossing back over the Thames, via London's most photographed bridge, Tower Bridge. The Ride & Stride London travel guide concludes outside the once notorious Tower of London.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London travel guides. In addition, each Walk Talk Tour London audio walking tour is available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Unlike with a conventional guided tour, listeners to a Walk Talk Tour London city walking tour are free to stop, start and listen again to any part of their professionally produced commentary as they wish, or as their interest or the weather dictates.

Each Walk Talk Tour London iPod travel guide costs just £5.95. Buy two tours simultaneously and get twenty per cent off. Purchase three at the same time and get a thirty per cent discount. All of the Walk Talk Tour London audio guides - with the exception of the longer City & South Bank Circular mp3 guided tour - can be completed in two hours.