Thamesmead and Abbey Wood will be added to Transport for London’s Superloop network, it emerged today as Sadiq Khan rode a bus that will be used on the new express bus network.
The mayor went to west London to launch route SL8 – a rebranded version of the fast service that has run between Uxbridge and Shepherd’s Bush for decades. What was the 607 will become the SL8 tomorrow, with buses and stops sporting new logos.
All Superloop services will now be numbered SL1-10, with TfL planning to have most of them in service by next spring.
They include the SL3, which had been known as the X269 from Bromley to Bexleyheath. This will now run on to both Abbey Wood and Thamesmead. A consultation on the SL3 is expected in the coming weeks, which will provide more details about the route and where it will stop.
The extension of the bus to Thamesmead follows complaints from Greenwich councillors about the lack of north-south services in the borough to serve the Elizabeth Line – although the SL3 is only likely to serve the far northwest of the borough before heading into Bexley.
A route planned for the Silvertown Tunnel, the X239, is renumbered SL4. It will run from Grove Park to Canary Wharf, and in Greenwich borough will only call at a handful of stops in the Blackheath area. Most other services will be orbital routes around London, although it will not be a complete loop around the capital.
But one service will now be within walking distance from Woolwich. North Woolwich, across the Thames, has also been added to the network, with the planned SL2 – previously known as the X123 – running from there to Walthamstow Central. The terminal had previously been described as “Royal Docks”.
Khan said the network would be “a gamechanger for travel around outer London, delivering quicker links to transport hubs, town centres, schools and hospitals”.
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