Bromley to Croydon express bus SL5 launches today with full journeys from 21 mins
Today marks the latest Superloop express bus to launch in London with the SL5 route from Bromley North station to Croydon.
The new route will speed up journeys and takes as little as 21 minutes between tow of outer London’s biggest towns. Jump on at Bromley South and you can shave four minutes off meaning just 17 minutes.
That is of course at quiet times, with a bus leaving 5:45am reaching Croydon at 6:06am.
During the morning peak its a fair bit slower at 45 minutes. Then during the day journey times come down to around 33 minutes.
Evenings are around 25 minutes.
But those are all end-to-end. Journeys between busy stations such as Bromley South to East Croydon can be achieved in less time.
Arriva are operating the service on a short-term contract and it’s the only Superloop route in London that is single decker.
That didn’t stop many outlets today illustrating it with images of double-decker buses – which London Mayor Sadiq Khan retweeted.
May get new double decker buses if the route is put up for tender again after the current short contract ends. However,if Sadiq Khan is relected as Mayor For London there is a possibility the routes could be withdrawn. As ULEZ will be here to stay unless he switches to pay per mile These routes were introduced mainly in Boroughs fighting ULEZ expansion in court. Personally I hope the routes to remain along with further expansion of the bus network across the Greater London which has seen a lot of cuts to services since 2015.