| Superloop buses - London's Whippets Posted by grahame at 08:04, 15th November 2025 |     |
From Timeout London
Five new Superloop bus routes are coming to London over the next couple of years, Transport for London (TfL) has announced.
TfL has been rolling out speedy Superloop buses across London since 2023 as it attempts to improve connectivity between London boroughs, particularly those on the city’s outskirts. Most recently, Londoners in the southeast saw the arrival of the Bakerloop, a new rapid route between Waterloo and Lewisham town centre.
[snip]
Here are all the current Superloop express bus routes in the capital:
SL1 (North Finchley to Walthamstow Central)
SL2 (Walthamstow Central to North Woolwich)
SL3 (Thamesmead to Bromley North)
SL5 (Bromley North to Croydon Town Centre)
SL6 (West Croydon to Russell Square)
SL7 (West Croydon to Heathrow Airport)
SL8 (Uxbridge to White City),
SL9 (Heathrow Airport to Harrow)
SL10 (Harrow to North Finchley)
Bakerloop (Elephant and Castle to Lewisham)
[pins]
New Superloop bus routes planned for London
SL11 – Greenwich to Abbey Wood
SL12 – Gants Hill to Rainham
SL13 – Hendon to Ealing Broadway
SL14 – Stratford to Chingford
SL15 – Clapham Junction to Eltham
TfL has been rolling out speedy Superloop buses across London since 2023 as it attempts to improve connectivity between London boroughs, particularly those on the city’s outskirts. Most recently, Londoners in the southeast saw the arrival of the Bakerloop, a new rapid route between Waterloo and Lewisham town centre.
[snip]
Here are all the current Superloop express bus routes in the capital:
SL1 (North Finchley to Walthamstow Central)
SL2 (Walthamstow Central to North Woolwich)
SL3 (Thamesmead to Bromley North)
SL5 (Bromley North to Croydon Town Centre)
SL6 (West Croydon to Russell Square)
SL7 (West Croydon to Heathrow Airport)
SL8 (Uxbridge to White City),
SL9 (Heathrow Airport to Harrow)
SL10 (Harrow to North Finchley)
Bakerloop (Elephant and Castle to Lewisham)
[pins]
New Superloop bus routes planned for London
SL11 – Greenwich to Abbey Wood
SL12 – Gants Hill to Rainham
SL13 – Hendon to Ealing Broadway
SL14 – Stratford to Chingford
SL15 – Clapham Junction to Eltham
I remember the journey on the 229 - which is/was more or less the route the SL5 takes - when we went shopping from Petts Wood to the Arndale Centre in Croydon. A messy journey with the 94 bus into Bromley and a changed to the 229, or the train Petts Wood - Beckenham Junction - Crystal Palace - West Croydon.
On low flows a single bus route covering all stops makes sense. Once the travel volume gets over a certain level and there's no adequate rail service, either fast and slow services, and/or services that fan through different intermediate routes and share out the traffic and the lower volume stops. In Wiltshire, the 231 takes an hour and 15 minutes from Chippenham to Bath and serves just about every shack along the way; it runs twice and hour, but once a strengthening of the service was added, it was in the form of a limited stop, shorter route x31 service every hour - taking just 45 minutes (so 2 extra vehicles not 3 which an extra 231 every hour would be) and being much faster and more attractive to main-stop passengers such as Chippenham to Corsham and Corsham to Bath. These faster buses are known as whippets
Now where I see a screaming need for a Superloop is between main London termini that are not directly tube connected. Shall we say Paddington - Marylebone - perhaps Baker Street - Euston - St Pancras - King's Cross - Old Street - Liverpool Street. Could run through the east end - perhaps to Bow Church - perhaps call it the SL205
