The original Superloop allowed for a circle of routes around London, but notably quite a few areas were missed out, Havering was a notable area with the Superloop not venturing that far out east initially. Sadiq Khan's re-election saw a promise to expand the Superloop and giving Havering a Superloop route was a high priority. After consideration, TfL decided to introduce route SL12 to cater for their needs.
Initially proposed to run between Rainham South and Leytonstone, the final proposal saw the route proposed to run between Rainham, Ferry Lane South and Gants Hill Station running express via Cherry Tree Lane, Elm Park Station, Queen's Hospital, Romford Town Centre, Marks Gate, Little Heath and Gants Hill. Effectively following routes 165, 252 and 66. The first day of operation was the 5th of September after seeing an initial delay from a proposed Spring 2026 start date. Stagecoach London successfully won the route out of Rainham (RM) garage which the route goes past.
In the weeks leading up to the route's introduction new stops appeared in the Ferry Lane Industrial area, and in the days leading up to the introduction small changes started to be made in anticipation of this route's introduction. I did venture out to ride it on its first day, but being awash with enthusiasts left right and centre, of which a decent number of them did not have any social skills leading to banners being placed on bus windows and rushes for front seats on a bus in a desperate attempt to film visuals, giving little care in the world as to whether members of the public genuinely wanted to use the new route in peace. I eventually decided that it wasn't a great idea to try and get a taste for the route on day 1 and that I would return later. However I still managed to get a good dose of TfL mismanagement for its introduction.
It turned out that TfL had completely messed up the iBus for the route, with incorrect announcements being played. The iBus showed Romford Station as the destination towards Gants Hill, while every single route that terminated at Leytonstone had its announcement changed to Rainham, Ferry Lane. It was not a great start when you have completely wrong publicity for a new route. The last stop at Gants Hill also had its flag completely mangled by whoever put up the new SL12 tile, with the new tile placed below the old 'Superloop' banner on the flag that was already there for the SL2, and also having a 'school buses stop here' tile between the SL2 and SL12 tiles as well which is just completely wrong, at least they got the information about it being an slighting point correct!
What has to be said though is that all the buses were very smartly presented from day 1, which cannot be said for other Superloop introductions throughout London. Although with the amount of time Stagecoach had to prepare for this takeover, you would hope that it went smoothly from their side! Interestingly route SL12 is also the first Superloop route to use Wright Electroliners as an allocation, with the other routes using ADL or BYD bodied vehicles.
I went back out to ride the route a week later, in hopes that it would be a more bearable ride without misbehaviour on board. We had a few people board throughout the route from Rainham to Romford, although due to the roads the route uses it was proving hard for our driver to overtake a 365 which had crept in front of us at Cherry Tree Lane. Luckily there was some room just before Elm Park Station where the driver went in for the overtake and it then wasn't long until we managed to reach Queens Hospital. Most of our passengers alighted at Romford, as did I to go to pop to the shops to grab a quick snack. I then got on another SL12, although notably in this case a 66 had arrived just before this SL12. That would be the last I saw of the 66 though as that would then storm ahead of us while we regulated and we were not going to catch up. We didn't pick up much passengers from Romford onwards, my guess would be that the 66 ahead was hoovering up passengers, should there have been any.
We eventually arrived at Gants Hill and everyone remaining on the bus got off while the route went off to a bus stand on Perth Road.
The introduction of this route arguably raises more questions than it answers. The glaringly obvious one is whether anyone along the 66 or 165 routes were even asking for an express alternative, especially on a route like the 66 which is fast enough as it is. Route 165 had also just recently undergone a double decker conversion increasing capacity considerably on the Cherry Tree Lane corridor, especially at a time when TfL are busy cutting routes both in terms of frequency and in terms of route length. I have always advocated for brand new express routes where necessary, but it's increasingly obvious that this was a political tick box exercise of a route as opposed to one where genuine thought had gone into the route's development and introduction. I have to say that if I were a regular user of the 66, 165 or 365 I would be quite fearful of an impending cut to frequencies.
Route SL12, while a debatable introduction forms part of the direction TfL are continuing to go in. Two more Superloop routes have been confirmed for introduction. Route SL14 running between Stratford and Chingford Hatch and route SL15 running between Eltham and Clapham Junction. Route SL13, currently proposed to run between Hendon and Ealing is yet to get the green light, however TfL have said that we are likely to know whether it's going ahead soon. But in the meantime, we've all got a new bus route to ride!
All photos are © EastLondoner, please click on them to view them in higher quality
0 comments: