Two London mini blogs

Thursday 29th January 2026

Superloop expands again

Last weekend saw the eleventh (ignoring Bakerloop) Superloop branded route introduced by TfL. The new Go-Ahead London operated SL11 between North Greenwich and Abbey Wood has merely replaced the now withdrawn route 472 between the same locations with the added feature of it being ‘express’ or more accurately ‘limited stop’ with 25 of the former intermediate stops on the 472 now abandoned leaving just 16 served by the SL11 and a more direct routing through Woolwich town centre.

So it’s great news if you live near one of the stops still served and your destination is also still served – then you’re in for a treat especially as buses on the SL11 now run every six minutes whereas the erstwhile 472 ran every 9-10 minutes. But, of course, it’s not such good news if you used the stops no longer served by buses on the SL11 with your journey now destined to take longer and the inconvenience of a change of bus using one of the other routes serving those now bypassed.

It’s the first time this has happened with the Mayor’s pet Superloop project. A route hasn’t previously been completely withdrawn with other launches – frequency downgrades yes, but not a complete withdrawal.

The test will be whether enough passengers are generated by the quicker journey times on the new SL11 to make up for any lost passengers who give up travelling now it’s more inconvenient. Obviously TfL has kept the most popular stops so those benefitting will number more than those at a disadvantage but it’ll be interesting to see how the overall use of the new arrangements pans out in the next few months.

As you can see from the map above, the SL11 serves the all important Thamesmead estate at the eastern end of its route. This residential area has lacked a track based link into central London (National Rail, Underground or DLR) since it was established in the late 1960s, save for the trek down to Abbey Wood station (now also served by the Elizabeth line, of course). Route 472 was therefore a key link for residents living on the eastern side of the estate wanting to reach Plumstead and Woolwich.

It’s unfortunate, therefore, that the SL11 is only serving one pair of bus stops on the eastern side of the estate (marked in green on the above map). I’d have thought picking up at each stop in that area would have made for a more successful and convenient service for residents living there and then go fast towards Plumstead, Woolwich, Charlton and North Greenwich.

The SL11 hasn’t got off to a very promising start with only a handful of buses in the new high profile Superloop SL11 branding. When I took a ride yesterday morning just three New Routemasters were out in service with the other 14 buses registering on the tracking being a ragbag of life expired 16 year old Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TLs which have completed their innings on TfL work and must be ready for downgrading to school work somewhere or even a new life in Cornwall.

You don’t usually launch a high profile new bus route with your oldest buses which have seen better days.

The timing is also odd when there are significant roadworks taking place along a key part of the route between Charlton and Woolwich with bus lanes temporarily out of use while new cycle lanes and beautification of the street environment is taking place.

And you also don’t keep old maps and information on display advising passengers route 472 is very much still part of the network…

… as seen here outside Abbey Wood station. It makes me wonder why TfL proceeded with this introduction date when clearly not everything was ready. Why not postpone it for a few weeks?

I travelled on a journey leaving North Greenwich at 10:14 yesterday morning. We carried 21 passengers with eight boarding at the terminus, two at IKEA, two in Charlton, five in Woolwich, one at Plumstead bus garage, one at Woolwich Crown Court and two as we skimmed around Thamesmead.

It took just 39 minutes to reach Abbey Wood which was impressively quick with the schedule allowing 43 minutes and the 472 used to take getting on for an hour.

However, I understand the number of buses needed to run this more frequent and quicker service is now 20 compared to 16 on the former 472, so costs have increased by a quarter meaning substantially more revenue needs to be generated.

Looking at the numbers travelling on the many buses I saw along the route yesterday morning there’s a long way to go to justify the frequency and resources now deployed.

Hopefully once the vehicle allocation is sorted and more branded New Routemasters introduced on to the route awareness of the new improved service (for those for whom it is an improvement) will increase, and so will numbers travelling.

You can’t catch a Tube from Southgate

There’s been a fair bit of consternation in my old home patch of north London since the New Year when TfL closed Southgate Underground station for entry to access the Piccadilly line until mid March to allow for maintenance of the escalators.

This has closed off one of the escalators allowing the other one to continue to operate in an upwards direction and thereby keep the station open but as exit only.

The consternation comes when passengers see the stairs are still available and it’s argued would be satisfactory for those willing to walk down to the platforms.

Instead passengers are offered a choice of catching a bus either southbound to Arnos Grove on the relatively infrequent (every 20 minutes) route 298 taking nine minutes or the more circuitous (17 minutes) route 382 but slightly more frequent at every 14-15 minutes), or head north to Oakwood on the every-10-minutes route 121 with an eight minute journey. TfL also suggest taking the 298 or 299 (every 15 minutes) even further north to Cockfosters taking eight minutes or 13 minutes respectively. (All journey times are off-peak with more time needed in the peaks).

And this being TfL, there’s no mention of the added cost of paying £1.75 for your journey on the bus, although those reaching a daily or weekly cap won’t pay extra.

And, obviously passengers living on one of the aforementioned routes in between the stations may not have so much of an increased overall journey time, although others living on bus routes such as the 125 and W9 towards Winchmore Hill will face added inconvenience of a change of bus before reaching an Underground station.

I’m sure they would welcome the chance to nip down the stairs at Southgate and not worry about there not being an escalator.

I recently made a journey from Southgate into central London and chose the 298 option as it was the first bus to arrive. As you can see about a dozen passengers boarded with more also picked up along the route all heading to Arnos Grove, where we all alighted to make our way to the platforms.

I’ve never seen Southgate’s platforms so quiet – with no-one waiting to board.

For those unfamiliar with north London’s bus route network, the options present a potentially confusing choice, all the more so if you turn to TfL’s famed ‘Go’ app and journey planner, which yesterday afternoon was confirming a journey between Arnos Grove and Southgate would take three minutes with an additional three/four minutes walk to access and leave the station platforms…

… but in the other direction, the two favoured options were to take a 19 minute walk from Southgate to Arlington Road where you’d catch a bus on route 184 for a one minute bus journey to Arnos Grove.

Something not mentioned on the poster at all. And why walk 19 minutes only to wait for a bus for a minute’s ride? Crazy. But that’s Journey Planners for you.

Interestingly, on my way to Southgate I changed at St Pancras from Thameslink to the Piccadilly line and noticed one of the two escalators from the former line’s northbound platform B to the landing level is also undergoing maintenance…

… and in true Network Rail St Pancras fashion they’ve made the one working escalator downwards and are making everyone climb the stairs to exit the station.

And the sign states wrongly to “please use the adjacent escalator”. But as you can see, there isn’t one!

That notice is more appropriate for the situation between the landing level and the main concourse where there’s a bank of three escalators, so taking one out of service enables the other two to offer both directions.

Thank goodness Network Rail didn’t follow TfL’s lead and make St Pancras exit only for Thameslink passengers during the works – as at Southgate. Climbing stairs is a small price to pay (but I’d prefer walking down).

Roger French

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