Expressa - Superloop

Edited my own map including two suggestions of mine

Today's Expressa 4; 

   the 4th edition of my Expressa - where I analysed other express bus services across the developed world, then incorporated some of that into a fictional map in London.

This time, it's about comparing my years old Expressa map with the current Superloop, now that all routes (bar SL4) has been complete along with the fixated loop of doom that can't be perfectly looped.

Unorm vs TfL

Who has done it better?

Paris has,
they've gone a step further and decided to have an automated light-rail (think DLR-style)

Metro Line 15 (Grand Paris Express) do the orbital loop to go around the city centre.

Tidbit; TfL chose SL prefix instead of X(insert relevant parallel route) as the typical Joe and Jenny passenger don't pay attention to route numbers or destinations FOI request link clicky.

Updated spreadsheet of all express/limited-stop bus routes in London history
(now includes Superloop routes)

Spreadsheet link

Kindly before beginning, I'd like for you to refresh (or read for first time) my initial 

Expressa post (covering express buses around other world cities) and; 

Expressa 2 post (improving London express buses).

Every express bus route created in London as of 2021

Also I swear SL2 is remarkably similar to my... 

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To cut the party of referencing/rereading Expressa 2 short, I came up with some Orbital route ideas as you can see in the screenshot of the spreadsheet below:

this was in 2021 by the way

my X21 X23
real SL1 SL2
Similar

I won.

It would be arrogant for me to assume that at least two routes have come into some reality as a result of me. Too haughty.

However there is basis for that similarity. The use of the North Circular A406 is perhaps obvious. Henceforth, X23.

TfL did also mention lack of stand space at London City Airport which stopped a potential SL2 terminus there.

Another similarity, perhaps.

I really am arrogant.

It's also obvious linking Croydon and Bromley by a speedy vehicle, hence SL5.

It's also obvious linking many ex-726 links east of Bromley by speedy vehicle, hence SL3

     but wait, SL3 goes Thamesmead, my idea was to go east to Dartford.

So far I've scored a lot of points, it's not worth counting, but I've got a lot of points.

But.

Who did it better?

Not me...

...as that 2021 deduction can't apply in 2024, with even worse traffic, more Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in some regions but on the whole, roads speed limits lowered to 20mph, in particular TfL's roads as of recent in 2023.

Furthermore, quite a few of them parallel TfL tube/rail lines which isn't ideal in this case. Here's a secret revealed from me to you: minimise similarities between bus and tube, in order to keep conflict of low-fare bus and higher-fare tube/rail to a minimum. In short; don't reduce your own income for free.

However there are still ideas I've put out that add new long direct links, speed up journeys, even create links that are close by; 

Mitcham to Thornton Heath are close by, not linked by bus. 

Clapham Junction to Crystal Palace - used to be linked by 249 could've been linked by 417 extension; no more.

Examples are endless in scope.

Sort of lastly from my ideas is X108, where the real route has become X239 which serves a different purpose, uses a different tunnel, whilst serving a different area of East London.

I'm clutching at straws here but many an enthusiast had a go at a X108 idea.

TfL's different, interesting in this case, and sort-of-well received, a great idea in my opinion, if only it served Bromley it'd go from great to excellent.

Even before it starts service, X239 SL4 will do well to serve Bromley, allowing Docklands workers a direct one-bus from Canary Wharf business district to nearly home, taking out a modal transfer thus making the service even more enticing, with it's great every 8 frequency to start. I go into a bit more detail in an older post: Elizabeth Line feeder.

Here's my grand map again of all my ideas in the Expressa 2 thread meshed into one massive PNG:

Overlaps like X27/X93 and X25/X25 would preferably be one route
Blue: X20-X25/X27-X30
Black: X13 X15 X18 X25 X29 X36 X59 X85 X185
Orange: X93 X108 X182 X227 
Red: 607 X26 X68 X140
Green: 116X 237X 332X 353X
Standalone Pinkish: 2X 36X

Here is the same PNG (cropped), but only roads Superloop now serve:

The case study for an Old Kent Road express bus has not come to reality yet

I will once again, arrogantly pat myself on the back.

I have nothing to gain from these Superloops yet, I have not ridden any, in addition my X68 was the single route to not have any upgrades in service in it's £100K+ transformation into a Superloop route, bus branding and shelter upgrades the bulk of the cost, with timetable/tile changes still a substantial cost. No schedule changes to X68 to the point it is literally the same, just change X68 for SL6.

What I do gain is showing off my genius; Sometimes my genius is... it's almost frightening.

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View full size PDF

My Superloop map above, folder link.

Since the launch of Superloop, key issues of bus priority has been raised and will be addressed, changing traffic light timings and adding bus lanes where there aren't. That's in the short-medium term future. Great improvements of course, better now than later (hope this includes trimming the low trees in Eden Park to allow double deck SL5s).

However there is one elephant in the room (SL6) and one white large fly (SL8).

The only non-daily full time service: SL6

The "express" limited-stop service whose speed is no faster than it's 207/427 equivalent

The 607/SL8 simply has too many stops.

Historically it has had fewer stops, combine that with less traffic in the 90s meant it really really was a fast service, dare I say express.

Now, more stops, plus more traffic from the 2000s 2010s now 2020s, it's really comparable in speed to 207/427. Passengers blindly prefer the SL8 over the stopping service, meaning the 207/427 at the same stop is less crowded, therefore the SL8 ends up on average with the same speed as 207/427.

A potential daily SL6 would be more than nice

The X68 (now SL6) I've covered in detail in changing it up a bit in this post regarding the 68-group. Clicky linky.

Here's a new idea I have for you, taking in to account the above annotation regarding advertised limited stop being a 'scam' so to speak.

I'd toy with the idea of making SL6 a daily route, then:

SL6 non-stop from Thornton Heath to West Croydon.

Passengers would

also blindly assume it's definitely faster. 

In reality during peak hours it would struggle to overtake 50s/468s on Whitehorse Road.

However during off-peak hours it is a distinct possibility.

A side-effect is allowing for faster journeys between Norwood and Croydon. This would be a nice selling point as an off-peak route, thereby shifting strain from the 468, allowing the 468 to deal more with it's long-distance passengers in areas SL6 seldom drifts by or drifts away from.

Furthermore, a potential addition of stops at Brixton, or more, would mean the time saved from dwell times from multiple stops in between West Croydon and Thornton Heath, are added back here. As opposed to added dwell times to the same journey by adding Brixton as a stop, without removing any existing SL6 stops. Without calculating journey times, it is a distinct possibility this could be the difference between needing an extra bus or not, as Brixton Station is already a long dwell time for existing stop routes 2/196/415/432.

A thought.

Addressing SL8's speed issue.

In the past few years now, half the route has become 20mph between Hayes-by-Pass and White City. Buses themselves have Intelligent Speed Assist, meaning they're speed limited to 30 km/h using a European system, meaning on our mile per hour speed limits, they trundle at 17mph.

If I haven't already made it clear already, 607/SL8 buses tend to travel at very similar speeds to 207s and 427s.

Simple reasoning for that is, many of the roads are congested and/or narrow in some sections, like in Southall. Therefore little opportunity to overtake, if at all.

I did leave out the part where the Hillingdon portion of the route is mostly 40mph, so buses do speed by even with the current stop spacing west of Hayes-by-Pass.

But

Assuming that were not the case, what stops could be removed?

- Shepherd's Bush Green (has Shepherd's Bush Station right before it, and Shepherd's Bush Market Station right after. This is also a convenient interchange coming from the direction of Hammersmith on routes 72 220 283, therefore unfortunately well used)

- Adelaide Grove (not a major stop, well served by 207 228 260, unfortunately is well used)

- Bromyard Avenue (this is a well-used key stop in Acton Vale, however the SL8 already serves Acton Old Town Hall and Acton Central Station back-to-back, with little in between the station and Acton Vale)

- Ealing/Christchurch [towards Uxbridge] and Bond Street [towards White City] (trimming out fat where necessary, this pair of stops are perfect as right before/after is Ealing Broadway Station. Not to mention SL8 then serves Ealing Common Station, so one of the Ealing stops must go and it will not be any of the station stops)

- Iron Bridge for a reason I will go into detail.

In the same vein one can argue the removal of SL3's Sidcup/Carlton Road  stop. Though I am not any knowledgeable, therefore I am none the wiser. As well as changing which stop at Sidcup Station the SL3 serves, allowing buses to manoeuvre better.

Another aspect of speed, is buses on normal stopping routes allowing Superloop buses to overtake, i.e pulling at bus stops.

Pretty hard to enforce I'd imagine, though it is appreciated when the kindness of say, a 301 driver pulls in and the SL3 behind overtakes. Both drivers waving even, cooperation at it's finest.

Express bus and live changeovers?!

One issue with these routes are live changeover, which dramatically slows the routes both in perception to passengers, as well as (hopefully) minor dwell times. Perhaps enough to negate the savings from skipping multiple stops, only to then end up with a 5 minute penalty as a driver gets out, the other drivers get in, sets up the ticketing machine. By then the equivalent all-stops bus route has made up time, potentially even overtook your Superloop express bus service.

Going back to SL8.

Iron Bridge is a stop added on 607 (now SL8) in 2019 upon the garage transfer of the 607 from Uxbridge (UX) where it's been based since 1991 - to Greenford (G) as a result of the loss of 207/N207.

It is definitely convenient for the operator, Metroline West in this case, to have live changeovers.

Is this stop useful for passengers? Hardly.

Iron Bridge is a stop in a desolate area with industrial area right by (and Greenford bus garage), in fact, it even looks gloomy in appearance. You could count the amount of times normal passengers alight/board at the stop and more often confuse bus drivers for passengers.

Iron Bridge shouldn't be a stop on 607(SL8), and it's removal would mean a faster journey time (in addition to moving driver changeover to termini).

In the end, 607 has had a lot of stops added in slowing the overall route from what used to be a genuine fast limited stop service, to a service whose speed is a shadow of the 207s and 427s it shares roads with, all the while people crowd onto the 607/SL8 for the placebo of speed - where if they just took the 207/427 that arrived first, they'd arrive at their destination at the same time as the SL8 would.

With the new Superloop routes you have more routes with live changeovers, the SL2 at Ilford for example.

Therefore, an idea that wasn't mine but now I agree so much that I made it worth this rambling above for.

Superloop routes should not have live changeovers. 

Driver changeovers restricted to termini.

Yes this will be more expensive and perhaps even less fair for operators competing to be the cheapest if someone happens to be on the end of a Superloop route thereby having the route on a silver spoon. However, naming aside (Superloop, political and all), these are express bus services, Express services are meant to be fast. No compromises where possible.

Mid-route changeovers are an unneeded compromise to the passenger.

Did I catch your attention with the font styles?

Loop orbital service now done in London, London has joined the likes of other cities in the United Kingdom that also offer loop bus services, regardless of all-stops or limited-stop.

my GIF from Geoff Marshall's "I Rode The Whole Superloop"

Birmingham: 11A and 11C

Leicester: 40

Glasgow: 90 (similar to our Circle Line tube in shape)

Cardiff: 1 [clockwise] and 2 [anti-clockwise]

An outer loop covering London's boundary, in/out/both, is necessary too. This is to further reduce congestion coming in/out of London... that traffic contributes to traffic inside London too.

However, it's known authorities are pointing fingers at whom to blame. TfL don't have reason to properly provide service outside London. Authorities outside London don't like paying TfL much. Then TfL doesn't have to pay the same authorities when outside London, heck, it doesn't even contribute to any cost of bus fares like it used to until 2012.

This contributed to cutbacks when Low Emission Zone was implemented. Arriva pulled out of Chingford meaning 505 would've been withdrawn if not for intervention, albeit limited service provided by Trustybus. Pandemic came and 505 died too.

Another example; 402 was cutback from Bromley and away from the London border; at Dunton Green

Uno cutbacks too, remember when 614 went further than Queensbury?

Outer Superloop rendition from me:

Superloop in Black
Outer Loop in Red/Yellow
Teal is Arriva 724
Royal Blue is Ensign X80

in the updated Spreadsheet stats

Neither TfL nor the counties help matters, hence, poor public transport around London's periphery.

This is an unfortunate dilemma, practically a dead end. Unless the Superloop has proven that, just perhaps, we can get everyone around the dinner table and discuss like adults, as well as happily take responsible for what you're responsible for, without pointing fingers. In addition, no more of the "do as I say, not as I do" but rather more co-operation, for the best of everyone.

Perhaps even loops that intersect like a Venn Diagram.

Moscow Metro has an amazing system of intersecting loops in addition to normal radial metro. A video I've watched recently explaining it.

Speaking of railway loops services:

M25 median railway, perhaps?
I explored into detail in it's own post, clicky image

Short anticlimactic end.

Just hopeful for whatever Superloop phase 2 is a genuine improvement in regards to my local route, but as for the network as a whole, I look forward to seeing what improvements for other Londoners it could bring. New routes? Reroutes? Who knows.

Extending SL9 to Edgware perhaps, extend SL1 to Golders Green perhaps. Extend SL5 to Woolwich maybe, that'd placate the people who demand an X161.

Thanks for reading, as usual, stay safe until the next one, bless you.

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