Bakerloop express bus from Lewisham to Waterloo launches this month
Transport for London are set to launch the limited stop “Bakerloop” bus on 27 September running between Lewisham and Waterloo.
The service – named BL1 – will depart Lewisham before heading towards a stop at new Cross Gate before another at the bottom of the Old Kent Road near the junction with Ilderton Road before calling at Burgess Park then onto the Elephant and Castle before terminating at Waterloo.
It’s all in advance of a hoped-for Bakerloo line extension. There’s been plans to extend for a century now which is forever being put off, with the latest being no funding at the government’s recent Spending Review.
New housing is rising in Lewisham, the Old Kent Road and Elephant but not as quickly as it may otherwise have done with a tube extension. Another plan has just been revealed at Lewisham and covered on the site earlier.
Earlier this week this site also covered Southwark Council agreeing to allocate more than £5 million of Section 106 revenue to support the service.
New homes
The Ilderton Road stop is likely to be popular given the sheer number of homes rising in that area and along Ilderton Road itself. An Aldi supermarket was rebuilt and converted from a retail shed to two residential blocks with a replacement supermarket at street level, with a student block built on a KFC shortly to the north.
Ilderton Road has seen a number of large developments spring up in recent years and plenty more are proposed.
Further north and work is underway on Ruby Triangle (1,165 homes when complete) as well as Malt Street which sees 1,400 in total.
I’d be here all day listing all the developments though fortunately a dedicated website covering the area includes them all on a map.
Operation
BL1 buses will operate every 12 minutes during daytimes with services in the evening and Sunday dropping to every 15 minutes. Go Ahead won the tender are will use electric double deck buses.
I can’t see many using it in the peaks for the full length between Lewisham and Waterloo with a timetabled time of 38 minutes compared to 15 minutes on Southeastern Metro from Lewisham to Waterloo East.
Still, it does provide faster journeys than other buses to areas such as the Elephant and Castle which is a major regeneration area and onwards tube connections.
Other bus routes along the BL1 route will see changes along its route such as the 59, 415, 436, C10 and P12 though none are cut entirely. That’s a dubious honour reserved only for outer south east London when Superloop route SL11 launches next year between Abbey Wood, Thamesmead, Plumstead, Woolwich, Charlton and Greenwich which results in the 472 being entirely axed except for services in the early hours.
That’s despite thousands more homes rising all along the 472 route at numerous housing developments where thousands of people will move in just as a net reduction in buses is introduced with the SL11 sailing past their home.
Why TfL have deemed only that area – including Thamesmead they claim to want to support – worthy of such a move has not been explained, though Greenwich Council supported the route cut.
No previous Superloop routes saw complete abolition of a current route, the BL1 doesn’t and neither do forthcoming proposed Superloop routes. They all complemented exiting routes.
Whether the BL1 bus acts to exert pressure on government to support the tube extension, or is used by them to further put off funding or supporting TfL to fund an extension, remains to be seen.
It’s good that the BL1 is happening, it gives Lewisham an extra link to Elephant & Castle, which will be quicker than the 136 and the old 199 which was cut back from E&C to Canada Water in 2000.
But I can’t help but be skeptical that the BL1 is a preemptive bustitution of the Bakerloo extension, if there’s no money now there won’t be money for it in the next decade, the Bakerloo won’t be extended to Lewisham until 2050.
A lot of buses already stop at New Cross Gate and there are four routes – 21, 136, 321 and 436 – that also pass through Lewisham and stop at New Cross Gate. The BL1 should bypass that stop on the grounds of congestion issues.
New Cross Gate is going to be a stop on the extended Bakerloo extension so therefore cannot be skipped, if you look at the stops on the BL1 they’re stopping in places where stations are most likely going to be built
My understanding is the main stops on the bakerloo Line Bus known as the BL1 is where some of the Bakerloo Line Stations were to be built if the Bakerloo Line was extended to Lewisham.
I agree witb N I cannot see the Bakerloo Line extension being built for at least 20 years if then.
So the Bakerloop “BL1” bus route will only be temporary. Whether if the Bakerloo Line extension to Lewisham and Hayes/Bromley does get the go ahead. As well as new tube stock trains to replace the existing 1972 Stock that are 53 years old.
London bus services are not safe under the current Labour Mayor of London and TFL. Has no extra money has promised by the Government before 2029.
When money gets tight and they struggle to.manage budgets. We see bus services withdrawn including busy routes 10 48 168 and the busy 472 is being axed in January 2026. Although route 472 is being replaced by limited stop superloop route SL11. No other bus route in London has been axed where they have introduced a new Superloop route. Others see the frequency reduced or the route cut back
In the case of the 472 and SL11 there is still a need for both routes to serve new developments in the Thanesmead, Woolwich Charlton and Greenwich Peninsula areas adding to demand for local bus services.
Sadly like the Bakerloo Line being extended to Lewisham I cannot see Thanesmead getting an extension of the DLR for at least 10 to15 years at the earliest..
You certainly are not wrong CDT. Routes 53 and 171 which used to travel much further into Central London. Route 53 used to run as far as Camden Town, Oxford Circus and Whitehall (Horsehuards) before being cut back to Lambeth North. It was only the power of the people that stop TFL from cutting the route back to Elephant & Castle and stopped other cuts to bus services in Central London from taking place. That said the 118 and 414 routes were still withdrawn recently.
I too cannot see either the Bakerloo Line extension to Lewisham or the DLR extension to Thamesmead taking place in the next couple of decades unless it has a lot of private investment from the private sector.
You are so right C from Saturday 20 September 2025 route 89 Slade Green to Lewisham is seeing its frequency cut to every 12 minutes Monday to Saturday day times and to every 20 minutes evenings and Sundays losing one bus an hour from the schedule.
This will not encourage people to abandoned their cars and use public transport which TFL and Local Councils want people to do.
The 89 is a major trunk route, akin to the 53 and 177 routes
Then again TfL and other transport services in South East London always over look us, they’re axing the popular 472 route for the SL11 which will call at fewer stops
They messed around with the 180 meaning people in Thamesmead no long have direct busses to Lewisham and overloading the 177 route as a result
Then SE still refuse to improve services on the Woolwich line causing the EL to be overloaded.
@N: this is about a bus and not the mythical “Bakerloo” extension. The BL1 being an ‘express route’ and going over much the same ground as several other buses, New Cross Gate could be by-passed to speed up the journey.
@C: route 53 used to go as far as Parliament Hill Fields. Back in the day, bus routes were so much longer.
A new “Bakerloop” route to be introduced in case if the Bakerloo Line extension does get approved and to see the extension from Elephant and Castle to Lewisham and to Hayes/Bromley. Perhaps add BL2 route if BL1 is successful.