Articulated buses in London conductor. In August 2012, following the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London, it was announced the bendy buses would be withdrawn as their five-year operating contracts expired, starting from May 2009, and completed by 2013 (or 2015 depending on contract extensions). This was brought forward to December 2011. Research by London TravelWatch indicated that such a withdrawal could prove costly to TfL. A study conducted in September 2008 found that replacing articulated vehicles on routes 38, 507, and 521, whilst maintaining overall route capacity, would cost an additional £12.6m per annum, due to the additional vehicles necessitated. Additional
William Laxton (Lord Mayor of London) hanged. As the summer approached the executions of the Countess of Salisbury and of Lord Leonard Gray took place at the Tower. In 1541–42, and in 1543–44, he was again Master of the Grocers' Company: and, having transferred as Alderman to the Langbourn ward in 1543, late in 1544 he was elected Lord Mayor. Before May 1539 he had married Joan Kirkeby, daughter of William Kirkeby and his wife the heiress Alice Whetthill, and widow of Henry Loddington, who had died in 1531 leaving Joan with at least three children. According to heraldic Visitations Luddington, a London Grocer and Merchant