BUS DRIVERS are fighting to work on new bendy buses because they do not have the hassle of selling tickets.

Since a fleet of 30 articulated buses were introduced on the 436 route from Lewisham to Paddington, applications to drive the £190,000 vehicles have been flooding in at London Central Buses.

Staff prefer the buses, which take an extra day's training to drive, because passengers have to pay for their journey before getting on board and so drivers do not have to deal with issuing and checking tickets.

Customers buy tickets from one of the machines at every stop along the route and enter the bus at any one of its three doors.

London Central and General Buses commercial manager Colin Farrant said: "We have had no problem recruiting staff for them. They are very popular. The drivers have a real pride in driving them and don't get as much hassle from customers as they do not have to deal with payment."

The 18-metre-long buses are made by Mercedes and shipped over from Germany.

The tickets cost the same as on old routes, £1 for journeys in Zone 1 and 70p outside central London.

Stagecoach has bought 35 of the articulated buses which have been running on the 453 service from Deptford to Marylebone since March 15.