Superloop to Woolwich? Calls made to TfL for extension

Calls for an upcoming Superloop route to extend to Woolwich have been made in advance of a Greenwich Council meeting.

A motion from the Conservatives at a full Greenwich Council meeting tomorrow night calls for the proposed Superloop route SL15 to extend from Eltham to Woolwich. It also calls for diverting the route via Mottingham.

Both seem unlikely given the SL15 is already looking to be an extremely long (and slow route) from Eltham to Clapham via the notoriously slow South Circular.

In addition, adding in Mottingham slows down what is supposed to be an express route. The Tories state it would add “only approximately 10-15 minutes to the service depending on the time of day in normal traffic conditions”.

The word “only” is glaring out there as 10-15 minutes on an express route is rather a lot.

Improved links

However the underlying point of improving links between Mottingham and Eltham to Woolwich makes sense, but probably not via this Superloop plan. A new route may be best.

Then again how likely are TfL to support that? They’ve just announced service reductions on the 178 bus running from thousands of new homes in Kidbrooke heading towards Woolwich town centre and its Elizabeth line, DLR and National Rail stations with Southeastern and Thameslink services.

TfL are also planning to cut buses from hundreds of new homes in south Thamesmead and nearby Abbey Wood station in early 2026.

It’s interesting that the Tories in Greenwich raise the Superloop SL15 issue as they’ve been silent on many others in Greenwich borough such as the 472 cut. Greenwich Labour also didn’t oppose.

Perhaps that’s indicative of how much both parties know (or care?) about areas like Thamesmead. Note both support the flawed DLR Thamesmead plans which may tell us something.

Neighbouring boroughs, different approaches

In contrast the upcoming 472 cut was opposed by both the Tories and Labour in neighbouring Bexley borough despite the cuts impacting many more in Greenwich borough with thousands of new homes in Thamesmead, Plumstead, Woolwich and Charlton set to see a big reduction in buses stopping outside new developments.

The Tories in Greenwich borough didn’t suggest retaining and altering the 472. No constructive response was made from either them or Labour except one solitary councillor in Charlton who mentioned that removing the 472 results in fewer buses serving a rebuilt Woolwich estate now completing as well as the first homes at Charlton Riverside nearby.

Work is now starting on a couple of hundred more homes at Charlton Riverside.

That silence highlights a long standing issue with the Tories in Greenwich borough. They’ve long pushed for improvements in the south around Eltham – which makes sense given it’s their strongest base – but ignore the north of the borough.

With the party in desperate times in the polls it’s probably irrelevant now but they were quiet on improvements in the north of the borough when doing better during the 2010s. That squandered much chance of making headway.

Silvertown

The Conservatives also note in the motion tomorrow how early ideas around a bus from Eltham to areas north of the Thames via Silvertown tunnel were dropped.

In the end just two bus routes were implemented through the new tunnel. One was an existing route (the 129) extended to Gallions Reach and not much use to many south of the river given it serves few areas of note in terms of employment or leisure. The only entirely new route was the SL4 which offered far more given it heads to Canary Wharf, though it barely stops in Greenwich borough.

That was the thanks from TfL for years of vocal support by Greenwich Council. Both Labour and Tory in Greenwich borough supported construction for many years.

Tomorrow’s motion also calls for Greenwich Council to “to use every available means, both publicly and privately, to lobby Transport for London and the Mayor of London to add Mottingham and Woolwich to the SL15 route – and to invest in further improvements in north-south bus routes over the medium and long term in addition to this.”