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.

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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.

25 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in March 2025 1) On average the seat moquette on a New Routemaster bus lasts 7.3 years before replacement. Used moquette is recycled by foreign aid charities. 2) Only 0.003% of Elizabeth Line journeys result in Delay Repay payments even though 1.7% would be eligible. 3) In 2024 the bus routes generating the most advertising revenue through the use of full-coverage vinyl wraps were the 137 (£465,000), the 8 (£427,500) and the 103 (£388,000). 4) For fare payment, Oyster cards were overtaken by contactless cards in February 2018, by smartphones in August 2022 and by smartwatches in December 2024. 5) The thickness of the printed tube map has decreased from 0.17mm in June 2016 to 0.09mm in December 2024. 6) Only three Croydon trams have been officially named - Dame Janet Wiseman, Femi Mahmood and Henry Banks CBE. 7) The oldest passenger lift still in use on the Underground is Lift 3 at Caledonian Road which was installed on 17th October 1936. The newest is the mezzanine lift at Paddington's new Bakerloo line entrance. 8) There are 5017 ULEZ cameras in London, of which 143 have each raised more than £1m in fines. 9) According to traffic counts, the busiest Cycleways over the last twelve months have been C3, C5, C2, C6, CS7, C57, C1, C4, C58 and C90. 10) Since April 2024 there have been 612 incidents involving bus lanes blocked by dockless e-bikes causing a total of 185,263 lost passenger hours. 11) Last year 7% of contactless journeys were incomplete (either no touch-in, no touch-out or both). 12) The middle carriage of a 5-car Overground train is 18mm wider than the other carriages to accommodate air cooling power systems. 13) For taxi drivers learning The Knowledge the most northerly Point of interest is Wood Green Highway, the most easterly is Trinity Buoy Wharf, the most southerly is Streatham Masonic Lodge, and the most westerly is Acton Waitrose. 14) During the financial year 2021/22 there were 16,738 incidents of roadworks on London's roads, 32% of which have subsequently been re-dug by the same utility company. 15) In 2023 the tube station with the highest recorded number of mouse sightings on its platforms was Piccadilly Circus. The peak time of day for sightings was between 10pm and 11pm. 16) Colours considered for the six new Overground lines, but not used, include Primrose Yellow (Pantone 115), Robin's Egg (Pantone 304), Heliotrope (Pantone 513), Laundry Grey (Pantone 421), Lobster Cardinal (Pantone 184) and Hepzibah's Shawl (Pantone 437). 17) Potholes on London bus routes are repaired on average 16 weeks before potholes on other roads. 18) The widest gap between the train and the platform on the London Underground is 279mm at Tower Hill (westbound). The narrowest is 3mm at Colindale (northbound). 19) The bus route with the greatest difference in air quality between its termini is the 14 (Russell Square 22.7µg/m3 NO2, Putney Heath 3.6µg/m3 NO2). 20) In 2024 the Woolwich Ferry operated 18,851 northbound river crossings and 15,964 southbound river crossings. 21) 17% of TfL office staff work from home at least two days a week, and 23% at least three days a week. 22) The Silvertown Tunnel contains eighteen '20' speed limit signs and sixteen '30' speed limit signs because the limit changes midway as traffic passes between the boroughs of Newham and Greenwich. 23) 56% of Underground tunnels now have 4G mobile coverage. This is anticipated to double by 2029. 24) The passenger display screens inside the 94 new Piccadilly line trains will be limited to showing adverts no more than 33% of the time. 25) A scrolling London bus map is expected to be added to the TfL Go app in March 2026.

31 unblogged things I did in March Sat 1: The world is still reverberating after Trump and Vance admonished Zelensky in the White House yesterday, and you can sense that 2025 is going to be a turning point in geopolitical history but not in a good way. Sun 2: Fish and Ships, the smart chippie just west of Victoria Park, has folded and been replaced by yet another cafe doing yet more coffee. Daytime refreshment is increasingly where it's at. Mon 3: Last month I told you about the Algerian visiting London who'd spotted one of his father's poems inscribed by the Millennium Dome and contacted me via Flickr to try to find precisely where it was. I'm delighted to say that I got a message after he'd flown home saying "I was able to find the location thanks to your message! My father was really happy to see that it was still there :)", so hurrah for the internet. Tue 4: If you upgrade your broadband contract in March they let you skip the 1st April price increase. Also, when your 24 month contract expires it's March again. Wed 5: The salon at 733 Leytonstone High Road is called Gent's Barber Shop, an apostrophe error repeated three times across multiple signage. They got Men's Haircuts right on the price list but also claimed these cost 15£, so I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt. Thu 6: A film crew had taken over a street on the eastern edge of the City with a long-armed camera raised in the middle of the street to film what looked liked a police chase along the balconies of the Middlsex Street Estate. Unfortunately I missed the action, merely hanging around for quarter of an hour during a reset, but I now want to know what they were filming and whether I'll ever see it. Fri 7: I walked to a nearby tube station to get my Senior Railcard discount added to my Oyster card. The member of staff looked mildly peeved and said "oh I suppose so", before adding it swiftly and professionally. I won't say where this was, but it is the station I most associate with passive aggressive signage. Sat 8: My body has decided to celebrate my upcoming birthday with a massive blister on my left foot. I managed a five mile walk in the Essex countryside no problem, thankfully, but decided against the eight mile option. Sun 9: There's a colourful poster in the waiting room at Croxley station which says "You are Loved & Wanted in London". This might be a warm, comforting and inclusive message were it not for the fact Croxley is not in London so it looks creepy and weird. If you're responsible for slapping up TfL posters, perhaps don't thoughtlessly post Mayor of London propaganda in Hertfordshire. Mon 10: This new chess programme on BBC2 is very poor, all personality-obsessed and over-excitable with confected tension and barely any focus on the chess. Bring back The Master Game! Tue 11: On the Scott Mills Breakfast Show they were discussing the songs people wanted played at their funeral, then a few records later played the song I want played at mine. It's barely two minutes long so would slot in perfectly at the start. Wed 12: BBC4 have started repeating The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin again, and this brought hundreds of people to the blog keen to find out where in Ealing his house was located. Great! Super! Thu 13: Following a Windows update, my laptop has started showing a row of browser thumbnails every time I accidentally hover over the taskbar. This annoying feature is the default behaviour but previously I'd managed to find a cunning registry tweak which stopped it. Alas they've now nullified the tweak so it's inescapable. What's wrong with giving us choices rather than a single prescribed option? Fri 14: It's been several years since the legendary hot cross bun ceremony was held at The Widow's Son in Bromley-by-Bow, mainly because the pub's suffered repeated ownership crises, but in good news it's open again so things should be up and hanging again this April. The owner said hi anyway. Sat 15: I went for a walk up the Olympic Park and got lucky beneath the cycle bridges, spotting my first kingfisher since 2021. It skimmed low above the river for at least 100m, like a sharp blue dart, and I suspect it was looking for brunch. Sun 16: Walking through Stepney I assumed the gleaming gold-fronted bakery on Ben Johnson Road must be a gentrified interloper but it is in fact the same business as before - Johnny Walls - now focusing on pastries and drizzled treats rather than a traditional but lacklustre selection of pasties and loaves. Mon 17: Had a 40 minute phone chat with my nephew about life and stuff. This never normally happens (and should probably be more normal). Tue 18: I was going to write a post about fractional addresses, having spotted a cafe at 1½ Ardleigh Road in Hackney, but then my 60+ card turned up so I wrote about that instead. Another day. Wed 19: Today, striding across sunny Farthing Downs, was the first "I've worn too many layers I need to take one off" day of 2025. Thu 20: Last time I visited Crewe Market Hall I feared for its commercial success, the sense of tumbleweed being palpable. But I walked in tonight and every table was packed with happy punters enjoying food and drink, and all because Thursday Night is Quiz Night (from 7pm, hosted by The Cat). This is what successful community engagement looks like. Fri 21: I spotted a new Silvertown Cycle Shuttle bus out doing driver training near City Hall. The bus you saw at the press junket might have had a snazzy blue vinyl wrap but this had a bog-standard red exterior, as hijacked off route 323. Sat 22: Merton council are celebrating the borough's 60th birthday with community parties and a festival. The only borough which isn't 60 tomorrow is Harrow which is 90. Sun 23: On a packed purple train speeding into Paddington, a kind younger gentleman offered me a seat. Sigh, I thought, how does he know I've just turned 60? It's not the first time it's happened, the first being when I was 58, but I really don't need a seat (yet) thanks, so feel free to hold off for several more years. Mon 24: On the radio travel news I heard about delays on the M67 in Denton, and previously that would have gone right over my head but this time I was thinking "ooh, I know where that is, just past the station and the KFC approaching that giant roundabout", and this is how travel broadens your mind. Tue 25: Does anyone know why a pub in Rotherhithe might be rammed with hockey players on a Tuesday evening? Wed 26: Some BBC Sounds programmes I've enjoyed this month: a 2 hour Johnnie Walker tribute on what would have been his 80th birthday; X-Man - an 8 part series psychoanalysing the fantasy roots of the Elon Musk origin story; a '5 years on' documentary using archive clips to document the 3-month emergence of Covid; a 60th anniversary look at what the children in the Sound of Music did next. Thu 27: I bought fish and chips at the splendidly traditional Uncle Jim's Fish Bar in Plaistow. While I was waiting at least two youths came in for a kebab but left when they spotted the sign saying Cash Only, and I don't know how the business survives in this modern age. Fri 28: A new Brambly Hedge walking trail is being added on Chingford Plain, looping round Connaught Water with 17 delightful wooden hedgehog sculptures to spot. Author Jill Barklem lived locally in Loughton. The official launch will be in the summer once they've finished the all-weather path, but given the lack of rain recently the usual mudbath is absent so you could delight your toddlers now. Sat 29: If you're wondering where my final Bow Roundabout roadworks update is, they still haven't removed the cones in the contraflow lane, three weeks after everything else vanished, despite everything looking fully complete. Rest assured a lengthy write-up will appear eventually. Sun 30: I was waiting at Bus Stop M this morning when a 276 bus approached and pulled over. I boarded and the conversation went like this... Driver: You're supposed to hold your arm out. Me: But it's not a request stop. Driver: Are you telling me how to do my job? Me: Are you telling me how to do my bus stop? Mon 31: I managed to write today's post by tethering my laptop to my mobile, opening up a blank Blogger window, de-tethering to save on data usage, writing for hours, then finally tethering again and pressing publish. Links and photos will follow after I'm reconnected.