New details about the Superloop bus services being planned for the suburbs were revealed on Friday – as 10 central London routes were altered or axed.
Transport for London launched a consultation on the first section of the Superloop, between Harrow and North Finchley, as it published maps showing the limited-stop network in greater detail.
But it came as three conventional routes – the 332, 507 and 521 – ran for the last time. Others, including the “iconic” 11, and the 3, 23 and 59, will be re-routed from Saturday under Mayor Sadiq Khan’s cost-cutting plans.
Mr Khan hopes the Superloop, a mostly orbital network consisting of seven suburban sections, plus three “spokes” heading in and out of central London, will provide an alternative to people forced out of their cars by the Ulez expansion to the Greater London boundary on August 29th
The maps showed key stations and interchanges along each section. The X183 linking Harrow and North Finchley would be an express upgrade on two existing routes - the 183 and part of the 125.
It would run every 12 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 15 minutes during evenings and Sundays and connect to 38 other bus routes and seven rail lines, including at Hendon and Finchley Central.
Other parts of the loop will include:
- X34 (Finchley to Walthamstow)
- X123 (Walthamstow to Royal Docks)
- X269 (Bexleyheath to Bromley)
- X119 (Croydon to Bromley)
Two other sections (the X26 and X140) to be incorporated into the Superloop are already operating to and from Heathrow — one to West Croydon, the other to Harrow. The full loop is unlikely to be completed until 2025.
Superloop buses will be branded in “retro” colours in a bid to make suburban bus travel both fashionable and cheap – the £1.75 fare will be the same as a conventional bus.
Geoff Hobbs, TfL’s director of public transport service planning, said: “The new X183 route would provide a higher frequency of service for everyone travelling in the area, forming a key part of our game-changing Superloop proposals to make it even easier to travel in outer London.”
But bus passengers in central London face having to change buses much frequently as TfL confirmed it was “making changes” to 10 routes.
Three are being withdrawn: the 507 (Victoria-Waterloo), the 332 (Paddington-Brent Park) and the 521 (Waterloo-London Bridge).
The 11 will no longer link Fulham and Liverpool Street – its route will be diverted south over Westminster bridge, meaning passengers lose a connection to Fleet St, St Paul’s and Bank.
Strangely, TfL has chosen an 11 bus to be one of five buses “wrapped” in royal regalia to celebrate the King’s Coronation.
Mr Hands, MP for Chelsea and Fulham and the Tory party chairman, who is campaigning to retain the existing 11 route, said: “Mayor Khan is taking incompetence to a new level: promoting the 11 bus route for the Coronation, forgetting that he is chopping it a week earlier.”
Other changes include:
- Rerouting the 59 at Holborn to St Bartholomew’s hospital, meaning it no longer runs to Euston.
- Rerouting the 3 at Lambeth Bridge to Victoria rather than having it link Crystal Palace with Whitehall.
- Rerouting the 26 at Aldwych to Victoria instead of heading south of the river to Waterloo.
- The 23 will no longer run between Hyde Park Corner and Hammersmith but will go to Aldwych.
- The 6 will run to Victoria not Aldwych from Willesden Green.
Paul Dimoldenberg, Westminster council’s cabinet member for city management, said: “We would rather there were no changes, but we understand the financial pressures that TfL are subject to following the reduction in Government grant.
“The issue for us is that bus passengers are given as much information as possible. We would like to see TfL staff at bus stops where people have to change buses.”
