The second addition to the Superloop is the X68, now the SL6.
It's not especially super and it's very much not loopy.
It only runs at peak hours in one direction only.
In the morning it stops at every stop between West Croydon and West Norwood, then runs fast for five miles to Waterloo (which is the first time you can alight), then runs 6 more stops to Russell Square.
In the evening it stops at every stop between Russell Square and Waterloo, then runs fast for five miles to West Norwood (which is the first time you can alight), then runs 27 more stops to West Croydon.
Bus shelters served by the SL6 now have now Superloop roundels, such as here in West Norwood.
This is the last stop before the morning hyperleap.
It's only served by Superloop buses between 6am and 9am.
But that's enough to get a roundel.
Here's another one, this time on the southbound route at Aldwych.
It's only served by Superloop buses between 4pm and 7pm.
Only 0.1% of the buses which stop here are Superloop buses.
But that's enough to get a roundel.
Four of the seven southbound stops in central London have roundels.
But the first three stops, including Russell Square itself, are roundel-free.
Nobody ever said this was going to be consistent.
Here's another one, this time on the northbound route at Waterloo.
This is the first stop after the morning hyperleap.
By this stage the SL6 is just an ordinary bus.
You can't catch an express bus here, only a bus that's just stopped being an express.
But that's enough to get a roundel.
Here's another one, this time on the southbound route at Crown Point.
This is seven stops after the evening hyperleap.
By this stage the SL6 is just an ordinary bus.
You can't catch an express bus here, only a bus that's no longer an express.
But that's enough to get a roundel.
Here's another one, this time southbound at Hogarth Crescent in Croydon.
This is twenty-seven stops after the evening hyperleap.
By this stage the SL6 is just an ordinary bus, and has been for the last half hour.
You can't catch an express bus here, only a bus that's no longer an express.
And it's only going two more stops because the end of the route is 500m away.
Nobody is going to make a special effort to board a Superloop bus here, nobody at all.
But that's enough to get a roundel.
Here's another one, this time southbound on Waterloo Bridge.
What's bonkers about this one is that no buses stop here.
This shelter hasn't been used since Hostile Vehicle Mitigation Barriers were introduced in 2017.
All buses now stop 100m further down the bridge.
But there isn't a shelter there, so the muppets who install Superloop roundels installed one on the disused shelter instead.
Muppets.
The route of the SL6 is littered with roundels that serve no useful purpose because you can't catch an express bus from that stop.
Only half the SL6's roundels are genuinely useful, on one side of the road only, and for only three hours a day.
If you're the idiot who decided the X68 should be part of the Superloop brand, look what you've done.
