Dear TfL, Regarding the Superloop

Dear TfL, Regarding the Superloop...

3 June 2023

ABOVE: RATP London Sovereign BCE 47109 (LG71 DVK), a BYD ADL Enviro400EV (electric vehicle), is at work on route 183 (Pinner to Golders Green). It is passing The Quadrant in Hendon. All pictures in this article were taken on Saturday 27th May 2023 unless otherwise stated. The proposed Superloop route X183, discussed in this article, will parallel part of the 183, between Harrow and Hendon National Rail station, but running limited stop.

Back in March, Transport for London (TfL) announced a plan for a series of seven express bus services, which between them would create an orbital circuit of express routes right around Outer London. The scheme would be known as Superloop, and a consultation was recently launched on the first of the five new routes (two already exist) that would make up the Superloop. This is my response to the proposals.

TfL's illustrative map of the proposed Superloop network. This includes existing limited stop bus services X68 and 607, as well as proposed route X239. I argue below that these should not be marketed as part of the Superloop core network, as they don't fit the core structure.

Dear TfL,

Thank you for inviting comments about the first of the new Superloop bus proposals – that of the X183 (Harrow to North Finchley).

I should say straight off that I am not a resident in the area covered by this consultation. However, I do use buses extensively, so feel qualified to comment here.

I appreciate that the consultation is intended to be about the X183 specifically, but there are a number of issues that go more widely across the overall proposals, and this seems to be the best place to record those comments.

BCE 47121 (LG22 AUL) is another BYD ADL Enviro400EV from RATP London Sovereign. It is seen at Central Parade in Kingsbury, near the Underground station. This is an area that frequently gets very congested, mainly because the parking is along the roadside. Even on a Saturday morning like this one, there is a build-up of traffic here as various drivers slow down for, and / or reverse into, parking spaces, as can be seen here. It doesn't need many drivers trying to park up at the same time to cause severe congestion here.

The idea of a network of express buses providing a circular service around outer London is a good one in principle. However, if the idea has been developed to respond to the extension to the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in August 2023, then it’s a pity that this scheme could not have been ready for the launch of that extension. As presented, it feels like an afterthought.

There isn’t much ambition built into the development timetable for the scheme. The X183 is apparently proposed for introduction in Spring 2024, and others will presumably be consulted on, and implemented, later on.

So when will the full scheme be in place? It feels likely that it will be sometime in 2025, but a lot can change in two years and schemes like this are needed now.

This splendid building is the main campus of Middlesex University London, in The Burroughs, Hendon. This is a section of route 183 that will NOT be served by the Superloop. Will the reduced-frequency 183 cope with the college crowds?

As is always the case, especially in London’s dense traffic, these Express services will only be successful if they are significantly faster than other bus services on the same corridors. So their introduction needs to be accompanied by innovative bus priority measures.

To generate new customers, as well as diverting existing passengers from parallel stopping services, frequencies need to be sufficiently attractive to enable a genuine “turn-up-and-go” philosophy to be applied. A 12-minute frequency is unlikely to do that. Only genuinely high-frequency services will encourage modal shift, so a minimum frequency of every 7-8 minutes is likely to be the lowest where a ‘tempted’ potential customer will give things a punt.

This is the perennial problem with the existing X26 express service (Heathrow to West Croydon, which currently runs half-hourly). If the next bus isn’t due for 15 or 20 minutes, it is likely that people will find another way. Even with the reportedly-proposed doubling of frequency, the X26 is still not especially attractive to casual travellers.

An unidentified BYD ADL Enviro400EV on route 183 calls at the Kenton Station bus stop (the actual station is behind me), en route for Golders Green. Innovative bus priority measures will be needed to prevent Superloop buses from getting stuck in traffic like this.

In terms of branding, the livery presented in the initial publicity looks very smart – distinctive and yet unobtrusive. I am slightly puzzled as to why it shows a section of the existing X140 (Heathrow to Harrow) and a section of the proposed X183 but presume that is just illustrative. It will of course be very important to keep these buses on the Superloop routes, as the brand will be significantly weakened if buses start straying elsewhere (see East London Transit for example).

The East London Transit is a series of three routes (EL1, EL2 & EL3) in the Barking / Ilford areas of East London, which run using specially-liveried New Routemasters, such as LT 922 (LTZ 2122), which is operated by the Blue Triangle subsidiary of Go-Ahead London. But the brand has been devalued by buses straying onto other routes, such as, in this case, route 5 (Romford to Canning Town). The bus, which could do with a wash as well(!), is passing Martins Corner in Dagenham on Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd January 2023. To add to passengers' potential confusion, route EL2 (Dagenham Dock to Becontree Heath), also runs down this road.

The branding recently applied to a Go-Ahead London vehicle on route X26, as shown on Twitter, is poor, though, because no fewer than eight windows on the offside (and presumably the same number on the nearside) have been partially-obliterated. Windows are for looking out of, not for marketing.

Also of course, if the X26 is intended to become part of the Superloop brand, then the livery should be the Superloop livery demonstrated at the launch of the scheme, not something completely different.

The Superloop route X183 would also run along part of the existing route 125 (Colindale to Winchmore Hill), albeit only serving three stops along the way. RATP London Sovereign BCE 47412 (LG71 DWZ) is another BYD ADL Enviro400EV, and is in Ballards Lane, North Finchley.

Presentationally, I am rather surprised that the proposed new routes have not been given more prominent and ‘special’ route numbers. There are seven routes proposed, so I would have thought a special series of numbers could be offered, such as SL1, SL2, etc (though one would have to ensure that the Walthamstow to Royal Docks service did not have a number that could be confused with the EL1, EL2 & EL3 services - local services in the Barking / Ilford areas).

Or how about:

700, 701, 702 etc;
800, 801, 802 etc;
900, 901, 902 etc; or even
700, 710, 720 etc?

Something innovative needs to make these routes stand out from others, alongside the distinctive livery.

I appreciate that two of the services are already established and would need to be renumbered for the sake of it, but perhaps doing so would reduce the potential confusion, where bus routes with similar numbers have different routings or stopping patterns?

The very dark and dingy North Finchley bus station, which doubles up as a service road for the gym and flats that sit above it (hence the overflowing bins and dumped rubbish). This delightful spot is where the proposed X183 is likely to start its journey to Harrow from. There is only one bus stop (in the lighter space, centre left), serving just a handful of routes in one direction only. Other buses stop on the main street outside, or on nearby streets. The 'next' Superloop service round the circuit, from North Finchley to Walthamstow, will presumably start somewhere around here. The number 13 bus in evidence is a Volvo B5LH MCV EvoSeti, awaiting its next run to Victoria. It is operated by RATP London Transit, which rose out of the ashes of the Tower Transit operation, after Transit Systems quit London. To give you an idea of how dark it is here, I had to switch to the "night" setting on the camera to get this picture, at 10am on a bright and sunny late spring morning!

Whenever an express route has been introduced, other services in the area have been reduced. The proposed cuts to the 183 service are modest, and I hope that the same will apply as the other Superloop routes are developed.

But it’s hard to see where the “more than a million kilometres” of bus services are being added to outer London’s network, especially in view of recent frequency or route cuts applied to routes like the 57 (Kingston to Clapham Park), 62 (Marks Gate to Barking), 64 (New Addington to Thornton Heath), 187 (Park Royal to Finchley Road), 213 (Sutton to Kingston), 427 (Uxbridge to Southall), B13 (New Eltham to Bexleyheath) and H32 (Hounslow to Southall).

One thing I would not endorse is bringing the X68 (Russell Square to West Croydon, limited stop), 607 (Uxbridge to White City, limited stop) or proposed X239 (Canary Wharf to Grove Park, limited stop) into the Superloop brand. These are separate services that just happen to be Express routes, but they do not contribute to the core loop and the X239 doesn’t even join up with any other Express service.

The centre of North Finchley is known as Tally Ho Corner, after the Tally Ho Coach Company, which, in the 1820s & 1830s, kept horses here that were used for the first change of horses for the Birmingham mail coach. The Tally Ho Inn was built on the site. Next to the Inn is Metroline Travel OME 2679 (YJ69 DFZ), an Optare Metrodecker EV on route 134 to Warren Street.

Turning to the specific proposals in this consultation, the big issue that jumps out at me is the fact that the X183 will follow a different route in the Hendon area to the 183 (another reason to use a more distinctly-separate number)?

The “easy read” guide suggests that the X183 “should go the same way as the existing 183 bus between Harrow and Hendon”, but that should really say “Hendon Station” as the route through Hendon itself is different.

Route 183 has a common section with route 83 (Golders Green to Alperton). Metroline VW 1373 (LK62 DNE), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, is seen on that section at Hendon station. Routes 83 and 183 follow different routings between Hendon and Golders Green, though.

As far as I can tell, people heading towards Harrow who wish to board at The Quadrant in Hendon will have to choose which side of Brent Street to wait on. The existing 183 comes up Brent Street from the south and turns left onto Church Road, whilst the X183 from North Finchley will turn south into Brent Street, and thus will be stopping on the opposite side of the road.

The reason for this seems to be to allow the X183 to serve Hendon Central station, which the 183 does not. The Quadrant may be the only place where something like this occurs, but have you conducted a road safety assessment on the possibility of people rushing across the road to catch the bus because they have chosen the ‘wrong’ side to wait on?

Worth noting that there are no pedestrian crossings at the Quadrant junction, so people have to take their chance with the traffic in any case.

The Quadrant in Hendon. Buses on route X183 will run in the opposite direction to those on the 183 here. The southbound stop on Brent Street can be seen over the road, and I am at the northbound stop. People may need to switch between stops in a hurry, depending on which bus comes first! Of course, TfL could make it more difficult and stop the X183 towards Harrow around the corner on the right instead of over the road here - then people wouldn't be able to see both stops at once! An ADL Enviro200 on route 143 (Brent Cross to Archway) is crossing the junction.

Finally, a few reflections on the consultation documents themselves.

It’s good to see a plethora of maps, after the Central London consultation last year was launched without any. A picture or map paints a thousand words and enables many, including me, to visualise the proposals more easily. The one thing lacking, unless I have overlooked it, is a map, as opposed to a diagram, of the X183 with the proposed stops indicated.

It is a nonsense, however, to say that “there would be a combined frequency at the common stops on the proposed X183 and the 183 of buses about every six minutes”.

Even if the proposed frequencies were the same – which they are not – this statement assumes that all buses – express and stoppers – take exactly the same amount of time to run between common stops, even if one bus is serving intermediate stops and the other is not.

In practice, there will be times each hour when they are scheduled to arrive together, after which there will be a 10-minute gap.

The main Superloop map also contains an error, in that it suggests that the 607 serves Hayes & Harlington station. In fact, the nearest 607 stop to Hayes & Harlington is at “The Grapes”, just over a mile north of Hayes Town Centre, and that’s where it crosses the X140 routing. There’s no Underground at Hayes & Harlington either.

And a final view of the 125. This is RATP London Sovereign BCE 47150 (LG71 DXJ), yet another BYD ADL Enviro400EV, in High Road, North Finchley, coming into the Tally Ho! bus stop. This is beyond the reach of the proposed X183.

I look forward to trying out the new Superloop; all the way round, and hopefully a lot sooner than 2025!

Yours, etc.

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