Bexley call for proposed Superloop bus to Welling and end to TfL’s proposed 472 cut

Bexley Council are calling for a proposed Superloop route to extend to Welling and Belvedere alongside the retention of a route threatened with cuts.

In a report before a council meeting next week Bexley Council’s leader Teresa O’Neill has called for a SL11 between North Greenwich and Abbey Wood to head to Welling:

“In our response to the consultation, the Council, firstly, recommended that the SL11 be provided in addition to the existing 472. Other key recommendations included an option for the SL11 to be extended to Welling and either the SL11 or existing SL3 be extended to serve Belvedere.”

Whilst the vast majority of Superloop routes – both existing and proposed – are supplementary to existing routes, TfL proposals for SL11 would completely replace the 472 except overnight when the N472 would operate with no SL11 services.

Bexley have long sought improved transport for Belvedere as one of the borough’s main designated areas of housing growth. At least 2,000 homes have approval or live applications.

They’ve previously called for an Elizabeth line extension, DLR extension as well as Thameslink stopping at the town’s station. Thameslink recently revealed they may do so.

Currently Thameslink skip Erith, Belvedere and Woolwich Dockyard. All three areas are set to see substantial housing growth.

By far the cheapest option for rail capacity improvements in Belvedere is to see Thameslink call and/or Southeastern adding two previously cut services. That’d also increase links between Kent and Abbey Wood for the Liz line.

Thamesmead gets a bad deal – again

Why Thamesmead gets a raw deal with proposed bus changes is an unknown but it would mean many growth areas both in Thamesmead and beyond see a net reduction in stopping buses.

I recently travelled the full route seeing how developments are shaping up and it starkly showed how thousands of new homes – let alone existing dwellings – would see a reduction in buses calling alongside.

That includes areas of development in south Thamesmead, west Thamesmead, sites in Plumstead including a new college and hundreds of homes, various Woolwich plots as well as Charlton.

It also does little to help much of Thamesmead given in the Woolwich direction it’d stop as much as the existing 472 whilst towards Abbey Wood station it’d barely be any quicker than the 472, deviates around east Thamesmead and is slower than the SL3.

Whilst Thamesmead has benefitted in recent years from SL3 (which TfL didn’t initially include in Superloop plans) that doesn’t head to Woolwich which the 472 currently does.

When announced Greenwich Council appeared to welcome the change including cutting the 472 despite much of the borough seemingly getting a raw deal compared to the rest of London.

Money saver

What the change appears to be is a cut disguised as an improvement. Fewer buses would be needed to operate if the 472 is cut entirely.

That’s something most of London didn’t see with new Superloops. It’s true that in place existing routes were trimmed when the SL routes appeared, though they weren’t entirely cut as TfL propose with the 472. That seems shabby at best even if the route didn’t pass some of London’s development hotspots linking residents to rail, tube and the Elizabeth line.

A £23m project for buses from Thamesmead to Woolwich has also been delayed until 2029.

It again raises questions about just how knowledgeable TfL and Greenwich Council are about Thamesmead in particular when the current proposal is being held up as a good thing. See also the flawed DLR plan which won’t help much of the town.