It's Superloop, supposedly "a network of limited-stop express bus routes that circle the entire capital - connecting outer London town centres, railway stations, hospitals and transport hubs, faster." It's going to be like the Overground but for buses, an orbital network with occasional spokes radiating out.
Ten such bus routes are planned, four of which already exist. They'll form a loop around outer London, in part to mitigate the introduction of the expanded ULEZ. They'll help bus users in the suburbs to get around faster, orbitally at least. They'll be clearly branded on the bus, in timetables and on maps with a multi-coloured roundel. They'll be additional services rather than replacements so should only be an improvement. They'll open up new faster connections, both into the loop and out. I'd happily have used one for a journey I was making yesterday if only it had been running. It's easy to be upbeat.
But they won't "circle the entire capital", they'll skip boroughs and there'll be a gap in the east. They'll mainly benefit those living within a specific ring so those with transport issues elsewhere won't be helped. They might skip past the stop you actually need so won't speed your journey. They'll only link three major hospitals, which on a loop around London isn't great going. One isn't a limited stop service, it's an express, and only runs in one direction for a few hours each day. One won't link up with the rest so doesn't help create part of a useful network. All are being bundled under the Superloop brand when two existing routes are plainly radial and are being included simply to get the name on the sides of buses a bit quicker. It's easy to be cynical.
Most crucially they won't be ready soon, certainly not by August when the ULEZ expands or even this year. Of the seven routes around the loop only two currently exist and the others haven't even reached the consultation stage. Of the missing five just one will have its consultation up and ready by May, best case scenario, and only then will "views be sought on future sections of the orbital network". TfL hope to have the full loop in place by autumn 2024 but that's an aspiration, not a deadline, and so far they can't even confirm where the Superloop will go.
Focusing on the main loop thus far it's only possible to ride limited stop buses from Croydon to Harrow, i.e. the X26 followed by the X140. The Mayor intends to double the frequency of the X26, indeed that's the only practical action he intends to take any time soon, which'll mean a bus every 15 minutes rather than every 30. This is a long-awaited improvement. As for the precise routing of the sections from Bexleyheath to Croydon and from Harrow to the Royal Docks, i.e two-thirds of the circuit, you'll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile the spoke sticking out to the west is the 607, a zippy trek to Uxbridge introduced in 1990 long before any Mayor took charge of the network. It does nothing loopy, it doesn't even start with an X, but has been added solely to give Superloop some stature when it launches. The dashed line downwards from central London to Croydon is the X68, a peak hours commuter service that really shouldn't have been included except it starts with an X so it has. And the isolated boomerang in the middle is the X239, a proposed service through the Silvertown Tunnel with a lunatic three mile express section in the middle, as previously discussed. It's a bit of a dog's dinner.
The Mayor is going to make a lot of fuss about the Superloop as the extended ULEZ approaches, ditto the next Mayoral election. He needs the support of Outer Londoners and also desperately needs something positive to point at as he starts to charge their polluting vehicles. An orbital bus chain isn't going to solve many voters' problems but Sadiq can always mention the Superloop when asked what he's doing, and the project's large enough to look potentially impressive. When the new brand appears on the streets he's counting on the average Londoner not realising that four of the routes already existed and that he only introduced one of them. Look, he'll say, I'm committed to improving transport links in outer London, indeed he's already said just that.
OK, let's dig deeper. Here's the diamond geezer guide to the Superloop loop.
Bexleyheath to Bromley: All we know about this one is that it'll go via Sidcup and Queen Mary's Hospital (which is in Sidcup). This sounds very much like existing route 269 only with fewer stops, suggesting that TfL's intention is to introduce the X269. It also mirrors the former 726, a monster orbital route from Dartford to Heathrow which last saw these roads in 1999 and has its origins in Green Line route 725. That took a slightly more direct route than the current 269 suggesting the X269 might take a few shortcuts, but that's what the upcoming consultation is for. The journey's currently 10 miles long and takes about 50 minutes, so is easily improvable.
Bromley to Croydon: All we know about this one are its start and finish points, nothing about any intended stops inbetween. Several intermediate routes are possible. The former 726 went via Beckenham and Elmers End, a journey which now requires three different buses. But a separate direct route exists via Hayes and West Wickham, the 119, so TfL might instead have the X119 in mind. In the upcoming consultation some intermediate communities will win an express bus service and others will lose out. It would be perfectly feasible for TfL to introduce a combined Bexleyheath to Croydon service rather than two separate routes, but I guess they're aiming for service reliability rather than long distance convenience.
Croydon to Heathrow: This already exists, it is the X26. It's run since 2005, initially hourly and currently half-hourly, and takes up to two hours to complete the 24 mile route. It's a bit of a monster and often disrupted at the whim of congested traffic, so not the most reliable way to get from A to B. But it's also popular and often full, compounded by the need for a significant portion of the lower deck to be taken up by space for airport luggage. Come completion of the Superloop it might be the least efficient section of the orbital ring. But it's also the easiest to brand, given it already operates, plus the Mayor's going for a quick win with an increase in frequency to four buses an hour.
Heathrow to Harrow: This also already exists, it's the X140, which was introduced in December 2019 as part of bus improvements for Crossrail. Its arrival also saw original route 140 curtailed to Hayes & Harlington, so it is possible that the introduction of some new Superloop routes will see existing services tweaked. It's data from the introduction of the X140 that's encouraged TfL to move forward with additional limited stop routes, having seen a 10-15% increase in passenger demand and an increase in customer satisfaction. I've used it several times and what's great is the flexibility to take the 140 for a shorter hop or the X140 for a longer whizz. Here at least the express bus does tend to overtake its slower counterpart, making an X-rated journey properly worthwhile.
Harrow to North Finchley: This is destined to be the first new Superloop route to be introduced, and we know from discussions with the Mayor that it'll be numbered X183. The 183 is already one of Outer London's most frequent buses, a conveyor belt from Pinner to Golders Green via Harrow and Hendon and wholly worthy of expressification. Intriguingly the 183 is a few miles longer than the proposed Superloop route, which would also deviate from its parent at its eastern end. We're promised a consultation for route X183 in May when we'll discover what the proposed route actually is, but it is astonishing that TfL have launched their Superloop brand without even the first detailed plans in place.
North Finchley to Walthamstow: This looks very much like the 34, except starting in Finchley rather than Barnet. We can therefore anticipate the creation of the X34, except shadowing route 221 until it gets to Arnos Grove. This'll be as orbital as orbital gets, being a journey along or quite close to the North Circular Road, which intriguingly is the boundary between the existing and the extended ULEZ. The X34 could also be the fastest of the Superloop routes, traffic permitting, with an emphasis on speedy convenience rather than creating new links.
Walthamstow to Royal Docks: And this is the biggest Superloop mystery, at least in its later parts. From Walthamstow to Ilford it looks very much like being the X123, bringing an express service to several communities but no town centres. Beyond that 'Royal Docks' is a particularly vague destination which could mean Beckton or could mean North Woolwich, but probably means Custom House/Silvertown because the indicative map shows symbols for Crossrail and river services. Numerous possible routes across Newham exist with one of Upton Park or East Ham getting lucky, or maybe even Barking, we'll find out later. But if not the latter then Barking & Dagenham is going to miss out, and Havering definitely will because Superloop won't reach every Outer London borough - at least one gets nothing at all.
Royal Docks to Bexleyheath: And here's the awkward bit, a gap in the Superloop, which it turns out won't be a loop at all. Instead the River Thames gets in the way and TfL have made no attempt to cross it, not even when the Silvertown Tunnel opens. Their previously-announced express route, the X239, leaps all the way from East India to Blackheath so is no use whatsoever in spanning this gap. Instead the fastest connection would be to take Crossrail to Abbey Wood and then the 301 bus, a non-express, so nothing particularly Super at all. Should you have a day spare in 2025 and want to ride the Superloop all the way round, this is where the route will break.
It's possible to introduce a new bus route far quicker than a new railway line, which is part of what makes the humble bus the workhorse of the capital. But a network of orbital routes has been on the drawing board since Boris Johnson's first Mayoral election, just never acted upon, so it is possible that this 'brand new' idea has merely been lifted from an old file and given a 2020s update. But the lack of confirmed detail suggests this is a recent withdrawal, or at least an idea concocted to keep ULEZ miseries at bay, else we'd already know a lot more about how it's intended to operate.
Thus far the Superloop consultation is more a chance to ask questions than offer opinions. You won't learn much by reading it. In the meantime if you'd like to discover what Superloop will be like then go and take a bus ride from Ealing to Southall, or Northolt to Yeading, or Carshalton to Feltham because it already exists, and quite frankly the more the merrier.
