Superloop this Saturday to greatly speed up journeys to Elizabeth line

As you may have heard a brand new bus route is set to hit the streets of south east London tomorrow as SL3 begins between Thamesmead and Bromley.

The route will bring the New Routemaster bus (which isn’t very new anymore) to areas such as Thamesmead, Abbey Wood and Bexleyheath for the first time in routine service.

And when it does, the limited stop nature of the route will greatly speed up point to point journeys from man busy areas.

Firstly, Thamesmead to Abbey Wood. From the most remote part of Thamesmead away from rail in the north to Abbey Wood station for Elizabeth line, Thameslink and Southeastern services will take just six minutes.

From central Thamesmead to Abbey Wood station will be four minutes. Do well with a connection at Abbey Wood and someone in Thamesmead can be in central London in around 20 minutes. Canary Wharf in 15.

There’s a lot of cobblers written and said about how cut off Thamesmead is. Seemingly from people who’ve never been or at least didn’t look at a bus timetable since 1980 when Thamesmead admittedly did have very poor services.

That view now is extremely outdated. But still, an improvement is an improvement and the speed of the SL3 will be welcomed.

The current town centre is mostly mass of 1980s and 1990s retail sheds and car parking. Some housing plans here wouldn’t go amiss given extensive bus routes including the SL3 to Abbey Wood will exist plus a proposed Bus Rapid Transit to Woolwich is on the way.

Linking the rail lines

Then comes Abbey Wood to Bexleyheath. That’s timetabled at 11 minutes for much of the day. Live in Thamesmead and work in Bexleyheath? Fifteen minutes or thereabouts on SL3.

Next up Sidcup. Bexleyheath to Sidcup will take 14 minutes give or take depending on where you board in Bexleyheath, where three stops will be served.

Sidcup will be served by two stops; one at the station and one on the High Street.

Then Sidcup to Bromley via Chislehurst? Twenty minutes generally.

Now of course these are time throughout much of the day and also weekends. Peak times will be slower. There are certainly pinch points. Yet they’ll be many who will certainly benefit from the faster journeys SL3 will provide from tomorrow (Saturday 24th February).

Superloop fares are the same as normal bus routes at £1.75 including unlimited changes to other routes within the hour. Services will run every 12 minutes during the day and 15 minutes in evenings and Sundays.

Help support me in bringing you events and news in London. Adverts are far from enough to cover living costs and and paying hosting fees, URL fees and Theme costs adding up to hundreds.