please empty your brain below
Good to hear about the numtots being out in force. Transport campaignees of the future, Assemble!

Milest | 04.02.24 - 7:39 a.m. | #

I've just checked the TfL journey planner and they are suggesting using this for the final part of any journey I make to Bethlem Museum of the Mind. It might just encourage me to make a return visit to that excellent museum.

Joan | 04.02.24 - 8:30 a.m. | #

According to londonbusroutes.net, the fourth oddity is that it's only a 14 month contract, perhaps because diesels bad - but there is limited charging (and manufacturing) infrastructure for battery powered vehicles.

Alternatively it gives time to build a case for tree trimming and at least put in hybrid double decks for the next contract, you can see the schools putting pressure on the council because the SL5 gets swamped.

Still Anon | 04.02.24 - 9:25 a.m. | #

The age (and condition!) of the vehicles on the SL5 has raised many eyebrows/ruffled many feathers. However TfL needs to get the new Superloop services up and running by the end of this Financial Year, i.e. 31st March 2024 due to the funding arrangements with the Government. The current settlement explicitly allows TfL to invest in increased bus mileage in Outer London. That is also why they are being awarded on short-term interim contracts initially. I hope the new routes prove their worth and justify investment in brand-new state-of-the-art electrics for their full-term contracts when awarded.

Julian Walker | 04.02.24 - 10:06 a.m. | #

Like the SL7, I see the SL5 has the line diagram the "wrong" way round. Eastern Bromley at the left hand end, western Croydon at the right hand end.

Islander | 04.02.24 - 10:15 a.m. | #

…or arguably at the correct end if you consider the loop is numbered clockwise.

Lurch | 04.02.24 - 10:30 a.m. | #

...though the interior maps are the opposite way round with Croydon in the west (as I've just discovered from reading Roger French's blog [as yours comes first!]).

Islander | 04.02.24 - 10:42 a.m. | #

The buses are mere youngsters compared with the elderly vehicles used on the SL7, some of which date back to the first decade of the century, and are (I think) the only non-hybrid or non-electric double-deckers still operating in the area.

Timbo | 04.02.24 - 11:27 a.m. | #

Has your RSS feed stopped? I've had nothing for four days now.

Debster | 04.02.24 - 11:46 a.m. | #

As an ex-Croydonian in exile I consider it entirely consistent that Croydon is the wrong way around. Like everything else in the borough. For everyone who has to use the 119 to get from Croydon to Bromley (or vice versa) this is a very welcome new addition.

Keith the Kraut | 04.02.24 - 11:56 a.m. | #

RSS working for me so whatever the issue with your feed it's not a general outage. Sadly I've got no useful hints about how to solve it apart from trying to resubscribe

Jon W | 04.02.24 - 12:08 p.m. | #

The short contracts also enable them to make changes if needed based on the actual passenger volume and perhaps congestion which no computer modelling, however sophisticated, will properly calculate!

Would be great if the route can get 12 metre electric single deckers if double deckers are still a no-go.

matthieu1221 | 04.02.24 - 12:10 p.m. | #

When I first read that the SL5 would be single-deck, I assumed it was to be routed via the low bridge at Shortlands, but no. Tree-lopping not allowed?

BRUCE PERKINS | 04.02.24 - 12:15 p.m. | #

Debster- RSS feed not working for me either (luckily I visit here automatically every morning anyway). Not just DG though, some other blogs as well. Though some are working fine. I use Feedly.

Greg | 04.02.24 - 12:41 p.m. | #

There is a map here.

I say that not to disrespect your own fantastic map but to maybe save you some time on the next SL route.

I don't understand why the width restriction wasn't altered to allow a camera-controlled bus lane to chicane around altered width restrictions, or just got rid of completely. The SL concept is spoiled by going around the houses and also spoiled by crossing railways without interchange.

Basil Jet | 04.02.24 - 12:51 p.m. | #

I know there was a map in the consultation, but it doesn’t show the bus stops nor adjacent bus routes nor the local railway line. My attempt took three minutes, drawing a line on a proper bus map from 2016.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.02.24 - 12:57 p.m. | #

Are the red Superloop tiles suppose to go at the end of the numbering sequence near those for the night bus?
Because SL9's around South Harrow don't! They've bunged them in the middle of the numbered buses and before the lettered buses! Most irritating and not I've spotted it I can't un-see it!

Cornish Cockney | 04.02.24 - 1:18 p.m. | #

On Saturday lunchtime a wrong turn was taken on a Croydon bound SL5 . AND it was out of the Chinese Garage roundabout!

The driver eventually was able to turn round - by doing a multi point turn on the brow of a hill!!!

When a fellow passenger left the bus, he thanked the driver for doing well and for entertaining us!

Pete Jenkins | 04.02.24 - 2:46 p.m. | #

I was going to take a ride today but I couldn't be bothered when I overslept. As riding buses is better during the morning. I might just wait until the SL3 starts running.

In Croydon, there's the 455 route that's getting withdrawn next month, which I want to try out too. Annoyingly it's a very long route and Croydon is the midpoint rather than the terminus.

PVR | 04.02.24 - 3:36 p.m. | #

I don't live in London, and don't ride the buses when I'm there, so can't quite recall what the bendi-bus furore was all about, but might they be the answer to capacity problems on this route while the trees remain a barrier to double-deckers? They worked well in Sheffield when I were a lad.

Jim | 04.02.24 - 3:40 p.m. | #

Always nice to see a dolly stop being used.

Steven Saunders | 04.02.24 - 6:53 p.m. | #

Hello people commenting on The Bus Forum.

The 356 tile on the Wickham Road | Monk's Orchard bus shelter is correct. I did realise this.

The 356 tile on the northbound stop at the Chinese Garage is however also incorrect, and you have not yet realised this.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.02.24 - 7:19 p.m. | #

The SL5 is largely replacing the bit of the route that got cut off when the 726 became the X26 (now SL7) a few years ago.

Timbo, the SL7 isn't the only non-hybrid/electric double decker route in the area. The 157 (which shares the SL7 route for a short distance through Carshalton) is still a regular diesel bus - or at least it was this afternoon.

Nick L | 04.02.24 - 8:48 p.m. | #

None of the maps on the page Basil Jet links to show the Croydon terminus correctly - the route neither serves nor terminates at Fairfields [sic] Rd, Fairfields [sic] Halls or Katharine St, which is what the three maps variously appear to show as the termini.

Betterbee | 05.02.24 - 12:41 a.m. | #

missing a trick not going to Sutton to augment the service between Croydon & Sutton. Though to be honest when I travel in London rail is my first option with buses only being used if I dont have a choice

Andrew Jarman | 05.02.24 - 1:31 p.m. | #

And three hours ago the RSS feed unblocked and all the posts appeared!

Debster | 06.02.24 - 9:21 a.m. | #

This is the closest you've come to getting my house in a picture of yours. Guess where...

EonLeader | 08.02.24 - 8:33 p.m. | #











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