When the Silvertown Tunnel opens next week, one thing the Mayor will enthuse about is the new Superloop bus route running through it. People like the Superloop, they know it gets them places fast, so no doubt they'll be enthused too. But the new SL4 isn't going to be as super as people might think, nor as fast, because in this case SL might as well stand for Stopping Lots. the SL4 is about to do. eight times on the way to the tunnel. Every stop between Canary Wharf and the tunnel portal gets an SL4 tile, every single one. Then comes the big dive under the Thames, deliberately not stopping at North Greenwich because that would slow things down. And after climbing to the fringes of Blackheath it then stops at every single stop all the way to Grove Park, every single one. Nine stops, three mile gap, seventeen stops. Hardly Super. This is the last stop before the Silvertown tunnel heading north. It's at the Sun-in-the-Sands roundabout where Shooters Hill Road meets the A102 dual carriageway, two whole miles from the tunnel portal. It's not near any stations, nor an especially easy place to get to, nor somewhere you can reach North Greenwich quickly from. And yet this is the last place south of the river you can board or alight, the stopping pattern assuming that what you really want to do from here is go to Canary Wharf, not anywhere inbetween. It's just as non-stop on the northern side. The SL4 emerges by a snazzy new gyratory but there's nowhere to stop so it doesn't. City Hall is close by, also the Royal Docks, the Dangleway, Royal Victoria DLR and lots of flats, but no way to get on or off. Indeed although the SL4 emerges in Newham it doesn't stop anywhere in the borough so there's no easy way to make onward connections. Serving Newham is the 129's job, the other new bus through the Silvertown Tunnel, but at no point do the SL4 and 129 stop anywhere near each other so potential interchange doesn't work either. This is Orchard Place, a backwater road which ten years ago you'd only have visited if you were hiking to the cultural outpost of Trinity Buoy Wharf. It first gained a bus service in 2017 when hundreds of new flats started to be built at City Island, joined since by hundreds more at Goodluck Hope. Route D3 already terminates here four times an hour and is about to be joined by the SL4, in both directions, running twice as often. That's brilliant if you live here and want go to Canary Wharf, but less useful if you thought you were riding a fast bus and find yourself dawdling down here instead. 2022 consultation TfL asked whether respondents would prefer the new bus to take the most direct route or to go via Orchard Place to serve the Leamouth Peninsula. "Our preferred option is the direct route", TfL wrote. But the public disagreed, quite significantly... A total of 613 respondents answered with the majority, 58 per cent, preferring the route to go via Orchard Place. This is compared to 19 per cent who preferred the most direct routing, and the remaining 24 per cent of respondents who had no preference. ... hence the extra twiddle. My hunch is that the London City Island and Goodluck Hope Leaseholders’ and Residents’ Association strongly encouraged their leaseholders and residents to respond to the consultation, and this pile-on swung the results decisively in favour of Orchard Place. The LCIGHLRA didn't get everything their way. In their submission they also asked for a 'vital' extra stop at North Greenwich for the benefit of their residents, and also could the bus please go to Lewisham because Grove Park lacked useful amenities. But they did get TfL to gift them 250 extra Superloops per day, so you can curse them for the delay should you ever decide to take a ride. remarkably often - every eight minutes from 6am to 8pm - based on the untested proposition that thousands of people want to travel by bus to Canary Wharf from a thin sliver of southeast London. detail on why they chose this particular route. I summarised what they said in this post here, and basically it's because their planning models suggested this was the best way of maximising demand. If you want to mouth off and say "But I don't see why they didn't..." go read that first. My hunch is that the SL4 will be an insanely frequent white elephant of limited use, made worse by the lengthy gap in the middle. But it'll also be free to use for the first year which'll bump up its ridership no end, especially for local journeys in Lewisham where only a fool would board a 202 or 261 when they could board the SL4 for free. It will thus appear hugely successful, its ridership figures inherently meaningless, and the Mayor will clap his hands and say I told you it'd be brilliant. As with so many dubious projects it'll only look great to those who've never ridden it, the frankly baffling SL4, Stopping Lots.

This was a lesson one of my bosses shared with me: most people don’t improve consistently every quarter. Instead, progress ebbs and flows.  Sometimes—maybe many times—you might feel like you’re going through a plateau. Many other people would quit. If you remain confident you’re heading in the right direction, then you need to stick with […] The post Progress ebbs and flows appeared first on Herbert Lui.

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A restaurateur speaks up publicly for what he thinks is right. The people who think he’s wrong take action. They vandalize his restaurant. Glass is shattered. Mirrors broken. Furniture destroyed. He had invited his father to town to dine at the restaurant. That can’t happen now that the restaurant is in such bad shape. He […] The post Don’t fight back, fight forward with forgiveness appeared first on Herbert Lui.

25 things we (genuinely) learnt from TfL FoI requests in March 2025 1) Only two refurbished Central line trains have so far entered service. Three more are planned to enter service by January 2026. The overall programme is planned to complete in 2029. 2) Seat cushions on Victoria line trains are made up from moquette, firebarrier, anti-vandal mesh and graphite foam. 3) There are no current plans to re-open the Waterloo and City line on Saturdays. 4) TfL currently owns 998 New Routemaster vehicles because two have been withdrawn. LT174 was withdrawn in May 2022 after being involved in a fire and LT045 was withdrawn in July 2022 after being involved in an accident. 5) TfL's bus fleet includes 1750 single decker diesels and 1400 double decker diesels. 700 electric single deckers are in use, with about 300 more due to enter service over the next 12 months. 6) TfL is responsible for 6500 sets of traffic signals, of which 248 have fixed traffic light cameras. 7) Excluding schoolbuses, nightbuses and mobility buses, the ten buses most likely to run late are the 492, 273, 228, 42, 246, 225, H28, 223, S1 and 367. 8) Over the last year, the lift with the most outages was Lift 8 at Stratford station (103 outages) and the lift with the most time out of service was Lift 1 at Canary Wharf Crossrail station (3216 hours). 9) Since the closure of Hammersmith Bridge, traffic flow on Putney Bridge has remained stable, traffic flow on Kew Bridge has recovered to 2018 levels and traffic flow on both Chiswick and Wandsworth Bridges has experienced a steady decline. 10) Last year only one passenger travelled from Amersham to Emerson Park, from Enfield Town to North Dulwich or from Ickenham to Chessington North. 11) During 2023 there were 652 'soiled saloon' incidents on the Underground (spillages, vomit, glass, etc) which required the train to be cleaned or taken out of service. 32% of these were on the Northern line and 25% were on a Saturday. 12) TfL has no plans at present to stop printing the pocket tube map. The next is due to be issued in early July 2025 and will have a 12 month life span. 13) TfL hopes to proceed with the introduction of a permanent female voice on the refurbished Bakerloo and Central line fleet as soon as possible to replace the current test voice. This female voice "will better reflect our customer research findings". 14) In 2023 the Lost Property Office recorded one set of false teeth, six sex toys and 23 wigs. 15) In 2024 TfL enforcement officers reprimanded two individuals for singing or playing music without permission. In one case a warning was issued and in the other no further action was taken. Neither was prosecuted. 16) In 2024 passengers on the Central line made 1906 complaints about the temperature, more than on any other line. January was the peak month for complaints. 17) In the financial year 2023/24 the total sale of paper One Day Bus & Tram Passes from Tube stations was 84,661. They are now only available from Oyster Ticket Stops. 18) TfL are considering integrating Oyster with Apple wallets but do not yet have a viable business case. Card readers on buses and in stations would need to be updated. This project is in-flight but will take a further 3-4 years to deliver. There are no plans to integrate the 60+ card with Apple Pay. 19) £1.27m has been spent improving Walthamstow Bus Station after "the incident" that took place last year. 20) There are no plans at present to replace the diversity pedestrian green signals installed around Trafalgar Square. A thorough risk assessment deemed them safe for use as they only apply to the green aspect. 21) Seats across the Underground fleet are brushed and checked daily prior and post going into service. The seats are also further cleaned and hoovered every 28 days, with the Northern Line also receiving an annual steam clean due to the levels of dirt and dust being seen. 22) Celebrations marking TfL's 25th anniversary are expected to cost around £90k and will be funded via sponsorship. The cost to produce 40,000 pin badges was £23,965 +VAT and is covered through TfL's normal Employee Communications budget. 23) On the DLR, direct trains between Stratford International and Beckton only run on weekdays between 10am and 4pm and between 7.30pm and 11.30pm. 24) As far as TfL are aware, they did not exercise any compulsory powers of purchase pursuant to the Croxley Rail Link Order 2013. 25) The Silvertown Cycle Shuttle bus will have space for four standard bikes, one adaptive bike, four folding bikes and five folding e-bikes. If no adaptive bikes are present, up to four standard bikes can use its space.