Completing The Incomplete

Removed  from the above (by fbb!) are three routes SL4, SL6 and SL8 which are not part of the “Loop” and never will be. Nobody can offer a good reason why they are numbered in hr Superloop sequence.

(click on the map to enlarge) For those of our readers who have been exiled on the planet Zog for several months, or for those who only have a passing interest in things of the Metropolis, the above is a crude (it’s VERY crude) diagram of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s vanity project in his election year.

Perhaps fbb’s cynicism is misplaced, but your perceptive blogger (?) imagines a conversation something like this at London’s mayoral HQ.

So, after one renumbering and one second thought south of the Thames, the whole caboodle is now operating. Publicity has been poor, as usual, with no timetables or maps and the last to appear (SL2) couldn’t even manage proper destination blinds!

Above is from Roger French’s blog about the last super link recently added.

A bus boing it …

… and a timetable extract.

The planned journey:-

The gap is actually much more yawning than the diagram suggests. You need to insert another bus route in addition to tunnel/ferry from Woolwich to Thamesmead to “mind the gap”

fbb has chosen the 472 to fill the yawning as it stops near the Woolwich end of the fluvial gap!

He has allowed 30 minutes for the river crossing which gives a backup if the foot tunnel is closed. The Free Ferry can be much slower. 

Woolwich Arsenal station times are shown.

SL3 – Thamesmead to Bromley

All stops diagram

For some reason this timetable has a very large number of time points!

SL5 – Bromley to Croydon

This is the only single deck Superloop route …

SL9 – Heathrow to Harrow

This was formerly X140 and before that 140. A simple renumbering …

The final map …

… and the final bus in what would be a very long day!

 The planned journey:-

The whole circuit, using Saturday times, would take a smidgen over nine hours with a generous easy interchange at Woolwich.

Extra breaks would be needed for “personal purposes pertaining to the letter P” and some form of refreshment would also be essential. The bonus of Mr Khan’s profligacy is that frequencies will allow multiple breaks without compromising the total circuit.

It is more likely to be compromised by the participant running off from an interchange screaming with an onset of omnibological insanity!

There is a bit of detailed research to be done at Woolwich and Croydon but with those exceptions, buses arrive and depart from the same locations.

fbb will, as time progresses, take a look at each segment, with an eye to revealing all the excitement that can be seen en route and at the interchange points; and yes, very yes, the old bloke would just love to have the energy to do the whole lot in one go.

But, simply, that energy level is gone for ever. It has to be a dream.

Whether the whole circuit remains, as Transport for London wrestles with repeated budget crises, is very debatable indeed. It is odd, is it not, that at a time of increased stringency, TfL can pour resources into, possibly, up to 100 extra buses** on these routes when cut-backs are the order of the day elsewhere in the city.

Vanity project indeed!

See also “Borismaster”!!

Nuff said!

Advice from fbb to Mrs fbb.

Wouldn’t the fried eggs cook better without their shells?

It’s Election Year For The Mayor!

And everything is really lovely!