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Superloop - round London bus service

ska invita said:
a south circ bus route would be good
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That’d be brilliant, actually. Even in areas that are actually served by tube or train at both ends, it can take an absurdly long time to travel between certain two points. Tulse Hill to Clapham South is 7-10 minutes by road, but you’d be lucky to do it below the half hour mark by public transport.
 
hash tag said:
More bus services have to be a good idea. Anyone know much about this? Puddy_Tat ?
www.bbc.co.uk

Superloop bus maps revealed as consultation begins

The new network is part of an effort to compensate for the impact of the ULEZ, due to begin in August.
www.bbc.co.uk
Click to expand...

Was aware of it a few weeks ago - think the political idea is it's partly to balance extending the ULEZ to outer london.

The previous london mayor (can't remember his name or what happened to him) had promised to expand bus services in the outer suburbs including orbital services and then didn't.

Some of the routes are already there - it's not going to be one bus route that would take about a day to get round.

The X26 is what's left of 'Green Line' limited stop route 725 that started in the late 40s, and ran Gravesend - Dartford - Sidcup - Bromley - Croydon - Sutton - Kingston - Windsor (a later variant, the 726, went to Heathrow instead of Windsor) - combination of ever increasing traffic congestion, and the political / regulatory problems of trying to run a service that crosses the London boundary, have led it to be reduced.

Some 'orbital' links in London aren't good and any improvement is a good thing.

What I'm not sure is being addressed is links across the London boundary. There are some TFL bus routes that venture outside London, but a lot of links have been lost, and there's a difficulty that TFL don't want to fund services that go outside London, TFL fares undercut the commercial bus operations outside London on the bits where they run parallel, and it's not easy for 'non London' routes to come in to London and then there's difficulties over accepting Oyster card and so on. There isn't a simple solution, and would require government intervention...
 
The X183 certainly might have been useful in my pre-driving days and could still be useful for getting the train to Luton from our way.
 
hash tag said:
I don't suppose you have any idea how long it would take to complete in one go Puddy_Tat as I'd really like to give it a go.
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Not possible for a while - not all the routes have started yet, think the plan is they will all be running by the end of 2024.

At the moment, West Croydon to Walthamstow (via Heathrow, Harrow, Finchley) is as far as the 'loop' goes. A quick look at the timetables suggests that this part could be done in about 5 - 6 hours (depending on how long you have to wait at each terminus and so on) so think the whole lot when it's finished could be done in one bus operating day.

To add to the complication, there's a few routes branded as 'Superloop' (like the peak hour express Croydon - London that used to be the X68) that are not part of the loop...

And of course it's not going to be a complete loop - Thamesmead to North Woolwich would have to be done by other means. The plan is there will be one route through the Silvertown Tunnel, but don't think it will connect with any other Superloop route.
 
Puddy_Tat said:
And of course it's not going to be a complete loop - Thamesmead to North Woolwich would have to be done by other means. The plan is there will be one route through the Silvertown Tunnel, but don't think it will connect with any other Superloop route.
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Much like the M25, then.

London is no better at loops than Elon Musk.
 
I had to get the bit of the super loop that isn't part of the loop (what used to be the x68) this week to go somewhere different for work.

Pleased with the time it took. But timetable said 8.15 at West norwoord Station and it came at 8.11 and left at that time.

Useful information if I get a job I am going for which will mean I need to use it every day.
 
Me76 said:
Pleased with the time it took. But timetable said 8.15 at West norwoord Station and it came at 8.11 and left at that time.
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:mad:

(unless of course it was the one that should have been before that, running late...)


for future reference, the times are a bit different in school term / school holidays as well (the 'school days' timetable will often run if the school is in for part of the week - doing a timetable change midweek can get complicated)

this site is not official, but it's a bit better than what TFL offer.
 
Me76 said:
I had to get the bit of the super loop that isn't part of the loop (what used to be the x68) this week to go somewhere different for work.

Pleased with the time it took. But timetable said 8.15 at West norwoord Station and it came at 8.11 and left at that time.

Useful information if I get a job I am going for which will mean I need to use it every day.
Click to expand...
The x68 was always a bit ... Temperamental! If you needed to get it you kinda had to aim for a bus earlier than you needed as there were a large array of variables which could impact the journey (bus early, bus late, roadworks, wind/rain/leaves, aliens, other buses starting fights, passengers). It was nice (and cheap) to just get on and stay on and for me it is/was pretty door to door. I haven't used it since it changed to the SL6 so maybe if they are more frequent that's a bit better. I sacked it off when we changed to fewer days in the office in Russell Sq.
 
I had never looked at the TFL website for the Superloop, and had assumed the circle route considered as one bus route. But I see that it is in fact made out of seven separate Superloop routes. Which is not quite a loop route at all when you think about it.

I've just checked the scheduled journey time for just the section between West Croydon and Heathrow, and it is 1h 47m :eek: . So by the time you factor in the additional time of changing buses six times, it must take you well over 12 hours to complete a loop. No doubt some bus enthusiasts will have done it already :D
 
T & P said:
I had never looked at the TFL website for the Superloop, and had assumed the circle route considered as one bus route. But I see that it is in fact made out of seven separate Superloop routes. Which is not quite a loop route at all when you think about it.

I've just checked the scheduled journey time for just the section between West Croydon and Heathrow, and it is 1h 47m :eek: . So by the time you factor in the additional time of changing buses six times, it must take you well over 12 hours to complete a loop. No doubt some bus enthusiasts will have done it already :D
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I guess you could have one that does do a loop, doesn't stop anywhere other than at the single pick up point and disobeys the laws of physics and the road to achieve this in a speedy fashion.

?


How quickly do you think a bus should be travelling between West Croydon and Heathrow? :hmm:
 
Callie said:
I guess you could have one that does do a loop, doesn't stop anywhere other than at the single pick up point and disobeys the laws of physics and the road to achieve this in a speedy fashion.

?


How quickly do you think a bus should be travelling between West Croydon and Heathrow? :hmm:
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Or you could do the same overall route, with the same number of stops, but making it a single route rather than seven different ones? No need to disobey any laws of physics that way.

As to the time it takes to reach Heathrow from West Croydon, it was mainly to illustrate how many hours might take to complete the full loop. Having said that, given that buses are more prone to delays than trains or trams, I suspect the scheduled 1h 48m can expectively turn into well over two hours. Which, if one is catching a plane, might become highly problematic.
 
So Mrs B & myself have now completed the (real) Southern section of the outer Sloop; we've done Thamesmead Town Centre to Heathrow Central bus station, oh yes. Anyone else? We'll be turning our attention to the North London section next. :)

Took a few pics on the wander over from Abbey Wood lizard line to Thamesmead:




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tempImaget2NUa7.jpg



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