Trouble Travelling To Thamesmead (4)

Always fearless, and always desirous of helping his world-wide following understand the complexities of the bus and rail service in the UK, fbb has decided to provide his readership with a full list of the current bus routes serving all or part of Thamesmead.

Broadwaters 

Hill View  (route 380 with roads unnamed on the Harris map)

Belmarsh

Nathan Way

Eynsham Drive

Abbey Wood Estate

Abbey Wood

Abbey Road

Yarnton Way

Central Thamesmead

Central Way Morrisons (bottom left)

Town Centre (top centre)

Bentham Road (lower right)

Crossway is the big loop

So, fbb, take a deep breath and do your elderly best. Remember, a list in this form is not published by TfL; indeed is not published by anybody!

Peckhan, Greenwich, Woolwich. Plumstead, Eynsham Drive, Crossway, Town Centre.

North Greenwich, Greenwich, Woolwich, Plumstead, Abbey Wood, Yarnton Way, Erith

Q M Hospital, Sidcup, Bexleyheath, Erith, Abbey Road, Abbey Wood, Crossway, Town Centre

Q E Hospital, Woolwich, Plumstead, Broadwaters, Belmarsh, Central Way Morrisons,  Bentham Road, Abbey Wood.

Woolwich, Plumstead, Nathan Way, Central Way Morrisons, Bentham Road, Abbey Wood, Bexleyheath.

Lewisham, Woolwich, Plumstead, Broadwaters, Hill View, Belmarsh.

Bexleyheath, Belvedere, Yarnton Way, Crossway, Town Centre, 

Q E Hospital, Woolwich, Plumstead, Eynsham Drive Abbey Wood Estate, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith

North Greenwich, Greenwich, Woolwich, Plumstead, Belmarsh Central Way Morrisons, Bentham Road, Crossway, Town Centre.

Bexleyheath, Yarnton Way, Abbey Wood, 

Tottenham Court Road, Waterloo, Bricklayers Arms, Surrey Quays, Greenwich, Woolwich, Plumstead, Abbey Wood, Crossway, Bentham Road.

After a few tranquilisers and a lie down in a darkened room, fbb will continue this blog.

And so we move to a brand new Thamesmead service due to arrive very soon. It will be a limited stop express route and will be additional to any of the above. TfL have announced that parallel routes will not be changing.

Sadly, you might think, it will not be running to central London! Once upon a time there was an express 177.

Mike Harris even offered a picture of a very un-London livery …

… and Ian Armstrong provides a sample timetable.

It provided just four Monday to Friday peak hour, peak flow journeys taking one hour and twenty minutes.

Hmmm. It lasted barely 5 years. Then, as now, the 177 ran from Peckham to Thamesmead.

Anyway, we all know that the incomplete Superloop is a genuine attempt by Mayor Khan to improve the omnibological lot of those living in the suburbs. 

Of course it isn’t a vanity project designed more for election year thank for a real purpose. No really, it isn’t.

Readers may remember that at its eastern flank Superloop comes to s shuddering halt at North woolwich with no route across the Thames except the foot tunnel or free ferry.

But this well planned and useful public transport project (?) has undergone a late change. When it starts, the SL3 will now continue its limited stop trajectory to arrive at Thamesmead! It will still be a significant non Superloop ride from Woolwich – and slower overall.

There was a period of “consultation” when TfL provided a plethora of well designed maps. First there was the route itself …

… which runs as you would expect.

It is not clear from the map above …

… where, exactly, its terminus will be, but it does travel along Carlyle Road, straight down the middle and omitting the unusual Thamesmead loop. 

It uses a currently unserved bit of road. Those who collect “new” bits of road served by buses should take note and ready themselves to be on the first departure from Thamesmead.

No. fbb won’t!

Neither is it entirely clear where the limited stops will be.

Also in the “consultation” (which is now ended) we have a wondrous cartographic creation, showing every possible route that you might wish to change onto or fromto when using the SL3.

Indeed?

The bit at Thamesmead might be of use …

… and it does confirm that the new SL3 will terminate in Thamesmead “Town Centre” – which really isn’t.

fbb, a bit of an ignoramus in these parts of London and Kent, feels that a series of smaller maps for each main interchange point would have been easier to understand and thus more useful.

The timetable (not yet published) will offer a 12 minute frequency daytime Mon to Fri and every 15 minutes evenings and Sundays, The service “duplicates” existing routes from Bromley to Bexleyheath and from Bexleyheath to Thamesmead.

If you are travelling the non-Loop anti-clockwise, do bear in mind that the entrance to the foot tunnel in Woolwich …

… is in Glass Yard …

… hidden between the back door of the Leisure Centre (where they keep the bins?) and the river.

It is not very inviting!

The packet duly arrived and as Sam Turner (of Sam’s Trains videos fame) tends to say – very often – and as fbb expostulated,

“I’m very excited!”

A full unboxing will follow in tomorrow’s blog.

Mr Tubbles (left) and regular intruder Big Ginge (right) in venomous aggressive mode by the back door of fbb mansions.

After the above tooth and claw confrontation (NOT), Mr Tubbles left the building followed soon by Big Ginge, disappointed that no catering service was available.

 Next Cardiff Snippet blog : Friday 17th Feb