please empty your brain below
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Meanwhile buses on the X26 have just been wrapped in non Superloop branding.
Roger French | Homepage | 13.07.23 - 6:20 a.m. | #
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If this was the plan all along for the route numbers I’m surprised that the consultations for the new routes have been for X34 and X183.
I’d not have done it like that!
Dan | 13.07.23 - 6:52 a.m. | #
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How long before the next mayoral election again?
Also, is the West Ealing Broadway in your picture the west side of Ealing Broadway, or somewhere in West Ealing? I don't think I'd have done it like that.
martin | 13.07.23 - 7:04 a.m. | #
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How would you have done it?
Brian | 13.07.23 - 7:23 a.m. | #
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Excellent article. I wouldn't have done at at all. Imagine trying to explain to someone not from London that they're introducing a loop network and they've rebranded an existing route to demonstrate the principle...its not on the loop. TfL is supposed to be short of money. Why waste it on this?
100andthirty | 13.07.23 - 7:27 a.m. | #
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It seems that somebody was told to come up with a cracking idea, but misheard and so it's crackers.
Ian | 13.07.23 - 7:31 a.m. | #
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SLATE!
I don't like the Superloop tile at the bottom, nor the red tile, nor the wrap because I think it makes it appear this bus may so special it's more expensive than the normal ones.
HoosierSands | Homepage | 13.07.23 - 7:37 a.m. | #
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Personally I think the white on red tile is easier to read than the normal black on white.
Anonymous | 13.07.23 - 7:42 a.m. | #
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Red Arrow routes had red tiles back in the day.
The pointless renumbering of routes continues, 13/82, 16/316, now the 607/SL8, followed by the X26 and X140.
What was wrong with X607, as there is justification to remove the 607 from a series now reserved for school routes.
Still Anon | 13.07.23 - 8:03 a.m. | #
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The last photo, with the overload of branding, is the kind of thing that if I saw in real life, would bring out the impish side of me to approach the driver and ask, "excuse me, do you know where I can catch the Superloop?"
Greg | 13.07.23 - 8:35 a.m. | #
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I wouldn’t be numbering London bus routes as Slough postcodes, that much I know.
Philip | 13.07.23 - 8:35 a.m. | #
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What a waste of money - the route is still the same and never going to be part of the Superloop All part of electioneering as the network won’t be up and running by the time Khan is up for re-election
Tfl should have used the money spent to improve other services. Another Vanity project.
dg writes: It costs £4,806,000 per year to run route 607, and I doubt TfL have spent even 1% of that on this rebrand.
Dave B | 13.07.23 - 8:37 a.m. | #
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I would expect the launch to be at a bus stop in Uxbridge. After all the rush to do this must have something to do with next week's by-election.
ap | 13.07.23 - 8:50 a.m. | #
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The SuperLoop had to use rainbow colors. But of course.
Blar Gazon | 13.07.23 - 8:52 a.m. | #
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It's late.
Anon | 13.07.23 - 9:05 a.m. | #
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They may have given the bus a new paint job, but they haven't knocked out the dents on its offside rear.
Timbo | 13.07.23 - 9:10 a.m. | #
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What's right with X607? I'd say. Or X239? or X123?
I recall two old ladies complaining on TV about all the same things on the introduction of the E Routes in 1968. Why can't the old numbers remain? People don't like change.
The idea of the Loop is sound and standardising the numbering of express routes out to it is logical. But I would criticise TfL for consulting the routes with arbitrary numbers and not waiting to introduce all at once. Standardisation doesn't go down well in a country that can't even manage to give all postcodes the same number of letters/digits
As for the dig on the rainbow colours. Pathetic.
Steve | Homepage | 13.07.23 - 9:17 a.m. | #
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Dear TFL,
Have you ever thought about employing DG as a consultant to look over any of your proposed new schemes at an early stage?
He does seem to be rather good at spotting things that your current team unfortunately miss.
Blue Witch | 13.07.23 - 9:25 a.m. | #
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I’ll add a final paragraph.
The 607 is the only Express bus that goes to Uxbridge and there’s a crucial by-election there next week at which ULEZ is becoming a major campaign issue so the mayor had to help his fellow candidate out with a bright white bus that voters will see as they head out to vote and I can see why they did it like that.
Nick | 13.07.23 - 9:28 a.m. | #
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All a bit baffling, after the consultation issued for the new Superloop route X183 which doesn't have an "SL" number, especially as th3 607 isn't an orbital route anyway.
Logically the orbital routes around London would have them in clockwise order e.g. with SL1 starting in Bexleyheath, keeping "X" routes for express ones like the 607.
Mikey C | 13.07.23 - 9:39 a.m. | #
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I hope they rebrand all the superloop buses with mishearable names. S4U, SMT...
Matt | 13.07.23 - 9:40 a.m. | #
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The word 'Loop' will never describe passenger use of these buses. Only bus nerds will ride the Loop. The vast majority of passengers will ride a small fragment within their locality and occasionally a larger part if they are Going Somewhere. Maybe it should be named the Fragment instead, although I don't suppose anyone else would do it like that.
Wendy | 13.07.23 - 10:10 a.m. | #
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The last SL service, Station Link, did not go well and was poorly used. Let's hope this has more success, and does not confuse irregular visitors to London.
Several parts of UK have all the route information bolted on to a plate on the shelter roof, saving the obstruction of a bus stop on the footway, and several thousands of pounds in infrastructure cost, maintenance and regular safety audit per stopping place.
scrumpy | 13.07.23 - 10:20 a.m. | #
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I'd love to know if the renumbering was instigated by TfL or forced on them by the Mayor's office. I certainly can't see it having emerged from a focus group looking at how to make it clearest for passengers. Not keeping a 7 somewhere in the number is the most baffling bit.
Andrew S | 13.07.23 - 10:21 a.m. | #
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Just a coincidence that the SL8 serves the Uxbridge and Ruislip constituency, where the expanded ULEZ threatens to derail what should be a Labour shoe-in. If only politicians would stop interfering with London’s transport, but then they were probably saying that back in 1933. BTW, Vintage Bus Route 100 used red e-plates in the 1970s/80s, albeit made of metal/enamel.
Red Arrow routes had white on blue e-plates, the same as their blinds.
Kim | 13.07.23 - 10:27 a.m. | #
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Early Red Arrow branding was white on red at black bus stops.
I have a Red Arrow map somewhere that uses a black roundel.
ap | 13.07.23 - 10:44 a.m. | #
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I remember when London Country introduced Superbus (in part replacing Blue Arrow in Stevenage) which had been a LT brand. I always thought the SB name was kind of childish and unprofessional, and not up to the standards I had come to expect from London Transport. The same goes here, indeed the dedicated roundel seems to contravene every previous TfL design standard. Hey, ho.
Kim | 13.07.23 - 11:10 a.m. | #
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And now TfL are spaffing out money on TV adverts to explain their purpose.
Sin | 13.07.23 - 11:37 a.m. | #
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The superloop roundel looks cheap and tacky, more like something you’d find on a sweet packet in one of the dodgy “American” candy shops in Oxford Street. An organisation once renowned for its design standards reduced to producing banal retail packaging.
Labourer | 13.07.23 - 11:41 a.m. | #
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Cheap and nasty meets Pride. Ugh.
David B | 13.07.23 - 11:41 a.m. | #
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At least it seems that they've made effort with signage for once. Though I wonder if the spider maps (the ones which still exist) have been updated?
Still very odd to brand a route not on the loop as part of the SuperLoop. At the very least, not numbering it directly after SL1-7 which will eventually form the loop would've been nice.
Funniest one will be X239 which will be 1. neither on the loop, 2. neither have an interchange with a line forming the loop.
SL - SuperLoop & SuperLink could have worked as two brandings with the same letters if they wanted to 'upgrade' some existing radials though I'm sure many people felt that X prefixes were perfectly okay (especially as how without proper bus priority, the SL is no different to any X bus).
matthieu1221 | 13.07.23 - 11:47 a.m. | #
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I wouldn’t have written some of today’s comments.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 13.07.23 - 11:48 a.m. | #
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Cracking last photo.
The Mayor will absolutely do it like that!
Cornish Cockney | 13.07.23 - 11:49 a.m. | #
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Some flags are gonna need bigger boats
MKIan | 13.07.23 - 12:38 p.m. | #
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SL is also a code for Slough (possible extension?), and we know what John Betjeman wanted its fate to be, though I wouldn’t have phrased it like that.
Bruce Perkins | 13.07.23 - 12:39 p.m. | #
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TfL makes my blood boil. The concept of an outer express loop interconnecting radial routes to expedite peripheral journeys needs to focus on interchanges and key origins/destinations. Your SL8 analysis shows it doesn't do that. Neither do most of the proposed new routes.
TfL makes my blood boil. The whole point is express interconnection. SL8 and X26 aren't part of a loop. It should be called eXpress Link, XL1-8. XL says it properly and isn't confusable with Xlough.
TfL makes my blood boil. They've removed long-standing links such as Cricklewood-Victoria to save an amount negligible in their overall budget, for politics. This flies in the face of the Superloop concept.
TfL makes my blood boil. They continually close bus stops to prioritise road traffic for interminable road works, dispossessing the less mobile in an act of blatant hypocrisy. This wanton disregard for their customers makes my blood boil.
Strabismus | 13.07.23 - 12:40 p.m. | #
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Such pettiness and inconsistency will make me strongly want to vote this party out in the next mayoral election. Good thing that I don't live in London and thus have no say on this.
Patrickov | 13.07.23 - 12:55 p.m. | #
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Sorry, I meant X68 (isn't part of a loop) in my post above.
Strabismus | 13.07.23 - 1:04 p.m. | #
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Funny how some people get angsty about the 'rainbow' even when it's nowhere near being one. That said, the stripes and white bar don't make for a strong roundel.
NickW | 13.07.23 - 2:22 p.m. | #
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's late
Timbo | 13.07.23 - 2:36 p.m. | #
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One thing's certain...DG should be put in charge.
dg repeats: but even if I had you'd still have hated my choices and found fault in my ideas and picked everything apart because you wouldn't have done it like that either.
Steven | 13.07.23 - 3:27 p.m. | #
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The white on red is used for "buses on diversion stop here" tiles. For example, this one outside the Home Office.
I don't know how many of these tiles exist or why they are needed - perhaps there are regular diversions along this route.
Steve Rochford | 13.07.23 - 6:37 p.m. | #
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I'm worried about the route numbering of the 2nd route if they ever propose a Fulham Unlimited grouping.
Mr Grumpy | 13.07.23 - 8:20 p.m. | #
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Announcement to TfL staff this morning:
We're also today confirming the new numbers for the existing routes that are becoming Superloop - ie rebranded and renumbered - over the next few weeks:
Route X68 will be renumbered SL6
Route X26 will be renumbered SL7
Route X140 will be renumbered SL9
And we're now starting the process of telling those customers, alongside updating printed and digital information ready to post.
Finally, we're also confirming the numbering of the six proposed new routes: SL1 would be the route initially referred to as the X34, SL2 the X123, SL3 the X269, SL4 the X239, SL5 the X119, and SL10 the X183 - all of which are subject to consultation.
Apart from the X239 (which will only be introduced when the Silvertown Tunnel opens), the other five new routes would (subject to consultation) be introduced between now and next spring.
JP | 14.07.23 - 9:13 a.m. | #
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Oh god what?
So the loop will start from North Finchley and go clockwise...
SL1 → SL2 [gap] SL3 → SL5 → SL7 → SL9 → SL10
Nobody would have done it like that!
diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.07.23 - 9:15 a.m. | #
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Good sleuthing skills dg! That route numbering is almost as bizarre as the cycleways.
Dan | 14.07.23 - 9:59 a.m. | #
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How long before the SuperLoopy routes start charging premium fares for faster journeys (on paper) and conventional ticketing no longer accepted (or restricted) on them, to raise more money for TfL?
Joel | 14.07.23 - 12:45 p.m. | #
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I was ok with it until I read that my local X bus is going to be given an SL number!
And so confusion around the suburbs begins ....!
Cornish Cockney | 14.07.23 - 1:40 p.m. | #
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Steve Rochford - usually when the diversion route is along a road without regular bus services. It enables passengers to not have to walk too far for the bus. On a diversion route where buses run, buses mostly stop at all existing bus stops.
Off the top of my head there's one on Penton Rise and Swinton Street for when the Pentonville Road contraflow bus lane is closed.
matthieu1221 | 14.07.23 - 1:53 p.m. | #
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What the Mayor actually said this morning...
“The proposed Superloop will be a gamechanger for travel around outer London, delivering quicker links to transport hubs, town centres, schools and hospitals, and I’m so excited for Londoners to start seeing the Superloop on the roads from tomorrow and benefiting from the increased and improved services.”
Also, smiley photo with branded bus shelter.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.07.23 - 2:58 p.m. | #
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Strangely the Mayor's office have deleted today's tweet that you linked to. This one has appeared though.
ap | 14.07.23 - 6:20 p.m. | #
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