Looping round London on Superloop Part 1

Tuesday 4th June 2024

The small gang of intrepid (mostly retired) busmen who do occasional bizarre London based bus trips has been at it again. Way back before Superloop was even a glint in a Mayoral eye, in June 2016, some of the team circumnavigated the extreme outer edge of the Capital’s bus network using TfL buses (as well as Ensignbus X80). It took 14 and a half hours to complete the epic ride from East Croydon and back again ….

… then in 2021 you may recall we took a more leisurely four days to do a similar circumnavigation but this time “over the border” using former London Transport green/London Country bus routes to belatedly celebrate that company’s 50th anniversary as described in a four-part blog series that year.

We’ve also recreated former Green Line routes, former trolleybus networks and even crossed every London bridge by bus in strict geographic, west to east, order. So, for our first escapade in 2024 it was self evident we’d be back on the round London tour kick, but this time using the Mayor’s new Superloop “express bus” network to see how the network is faring after the celebratory introductory hype has worn off.

With memories of that 14 and a half hour arduous trek still lingering we decided to spread the 2024 Superloop version into a two-day affair allowing time for a nice leisurely pace with an off-peak start time and a decent lunch stop.

And so it was we gathered at 10:30 outside East Croydon station for the first foray and an intention to travel clockwise and reach Walthamstow Central by around 16:30 having enjoyed four of the seven SL numbered routes.

Our first bus on route SL7 taking us all the way to Heathrow Airport was a 14 year old Volvo B9TL with a Wright Eclipse Gemini body operated by Go-Ahead London’s Metrobus arm from its bus garage in Beddington, Croydon. It’s not exactly in its first flush of youth, as they say, having served its time with sister company Blue Triangle on the East London Transit branded routes EL1 and EL2.

A large luggage rack has been added behind the stairs on the lower deck and the centre doors have been removed but on the upper deck there’s a protruding panel in the floor above where the mechanism for the doors used to be.

This makes for an uncomfortable two-level floor for passengers sitting in the rows above the former doors.

The ambiance of the interior is dated and poor. It certainly doesn’t convey a “Super” image befitting the branding of what is promoted as a high profile network of express routes.

Light rain fell for much of the journey inevitably meaning all the windows soon steamed up making it impossible to see where we’d been or where we were. It doesn’t make for a very pleasant atmosphere for a journey scheduled to take an hour and 47 minutes via Sutton, New Malden, Kingston and Teddington.

Route SL7 begins at West Croydon bus station but we boarded the bus four minutes into its journey in Dingwall Road, alongside East Croydon railway station and with memories of a former bus garage in the road which at one time was part of Southdown and before that National Travel South East and we tried hard to remember which company preceded that…….(update… Ray has reminded me it was Timpson’s which in turn had taken over Bourne and Balmer in 1953 … thanks to the person commenting too.)

About eight or so passengers and the seven of us headed off towards Sutton where a few alighted and more joined us, as was the way at most of the eight intermediate stops between West Croydon and Kingston where there was a significant exodus and minor replenishment of passengers (at both the station and Wood Street stops) with more joining at Teddington for the one lengthy stop ride all the way to Hatton Cross.

Indeed, the 22 minute journey from Teddington to Hatton Cross is the longest gap between bus stops on the TfL bus network but the idea we would travel “express” is soon punctured by the 20 mph speed limit for much of the way which the driver assiduously observed.

The final fling to Heathrow after reaching Hatton Cross is an eight minute trek around the airport perimeter and after diving into the tunnels under the runways at 12:31 we reached the Central bus station at 12:32, three minutes behind schedule.

The SL7 (formerly known as the X26, and before that the 726) is a lengthy 24 miles and had a doubling in frequency to every 15 minutes in August 2023 with 20 buses now needed to run the service. It was interesting to peer through the misted up windows and note buses we passed heading towards West Croydon every seven and a half minutes all having about a dozen passengers on board.

We also noted not all buses have had their centre exits removed and where not, the lower deck luggage rack was not quite so extensive.

After a quick toilet stop we were on our way again on the next segment, on our second bus, heading north to Harrow on route SL9, the renumbered X140.

This was a London Sovereign BYD/ADL Enviro400EV City from the RATP Dev bus garage in Harrow and being only three years old, gave a much better impression to passengers.

It’s a 10 mile, 52 minute, journey with 13 buses needed for the 12 minute frequency. We left Heathrow at 12:56 with about a dozen passengers and picked up high single digit numbers at the first stops in Harlington as well as in Hayes (the railway station and town centre) where the all stopper 140 route joined us.

The phenomenon of passengers ringing the bell to be dropped off at one of the non observed stops, which always seemed to be prevalent on the X140, has continued on the SL9 and was noticeable as we passed through Yeading and on to Northolt, as was the traffic queuing along the A312 which slowed our progress, even being overtaken at one bus stop by a bus on route 140.

We arrived into Harrow bus station at 13:51 having taken 55 minutes and seen a good number of passengers – anecdotally SL9 buses looked busier than 140 buses. There are 21 of the latter running every eight minutes and, as already explained, 13 of the former every 12 minutes.

It was now time for a late lunch break before we began the second half which would take us on to North Finchley on the SL10 and then across to Walthamstow on the SL1.

Except it didn’t quite work out that way.

The bus on route SL10 arrived ready to depart just as we arrived back into Harrow’s bus station at 14:56 and we headed off with ten on board, a couple of minutes later.

It was a two year old London Sovereign BYD/ADL EnviroEV from the same RATP Dev Harrow bus garage as the SL9.

Like the SL9, route SL10 runs every 12 minutes with end to end journey times for the nine miles to North Finchley taking generally just under the hour. Our bus, one of 13 needed for the route, was given a scheduled time of 59 minutes reflecting the fact we’d be travelling through school turning out time and its consequential impact on passenger numbers and traffic levels on the road.

And sure enough at only the second stop after leaving Harrow bus station we arrived at Kenton Road/Kenton Lane six minutes later where a large number of students were waiting to board.

They piled on the bus through both doors – front and centre – and it didn’t take long for the upper deck to become full with three or four students standing and others standing on the stairs.

Many were left behind at the bus stop which we all had time to observe as the driver stayed at the bus stop for 12 minutes with no explanation of why we’d not moved. There was speculation it might be a mechanical issue, or possibly because there were standees on the upper deck. But there was no communication.

When we finally did pull away, the traffic ahead, seen through the misted up windows, and for the rest of the journey, can only be described as ‘slow going’. By the time we’d reached Hendon we were almost 30 minutes behind schedule.

It was an excellent demonstration of a lack of bus priority measures killing off any semblance of the bus route being regarded as “express”. And the onboard overcrowded conditions made the journey uncomfortable and uninviting. “Super”, this certainly wasn’t.

The SL10 parallels the 183 for much of its journey and when the former was introduced the frequency of the latter was reduced from every 7.5 minutes to every 10 minutes with a reduction in requirement from 25 buses to 19.

We’d been scheduled to pass Finchley Central on route to North Finchley at 15:47; 50 minutes after leaving Harrow. We finally arrived there at 16:14 – 27 minutes late on what should have been a 50 minute journey – just over half as much again than it should have taken.

While we were slowly crawling through Kenton and Hendon, I’d been keeping an eye on the state of the North Circular Road, particularly east of Arnos Grove and through the Palmers Green bottleneck. Ominously Google maps was showing a thick red line indicating more congestion and inevitable delays on our next route, the SL1 from North Finchley to Walthamstow.

We decided to curtail our Superloop Part 1 foray at Finchley Central rather than face more frustrating delays through Friern Barnet, Palmers Green and Edmonton with an anticipated arrival in Walthamstow at least an hour later than the original plan.

Looking on the bright side, restarting Part 2 of our round trip back at Finchley Central, and changing buses in North Finchley soon after, should mean enjoying a mid morning clear run round to Walthamstow on the North Circular. Well, you can but hope.

Find out if our revised expectations were met in Part 2, or whether we needed a Part 3 to complete the journey round to East Croydon, in Thursday’s blog.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS except next week is another Bonus Blog Week with a daily posting describing developments in both bus and rail from around the country which I’m out and about exploring this week with a 7-Day All Line Rail Rover.

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