The 'Bakerloop' bus service — running along the proposed Bakerloo line extension — will begin operating on Saturday 27 September.
The BL1 route, to use its official name, will run between Waterloo and Lewisham town centre, with a fork from Lewisham station also ending at Molesworth Street outside Lewisham Shopping Centre.
We can also reveal the buses have their very own Bisto-brown livery.
The new route — launching on Saturday morning, and becoming the next spoke in the ever-growing Superloop network — will run every 12 minutes Monday-Saturday daytime, and every 15 minutes during Sundays, evenings and early mornings.
Passengers will not be charged during the first week of travel on the Bakerloop — although they will still need to touch in on journeys (presumably for data collection).
Says Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan: "A Bakerloo line extension will take years to build, and I don't want to wait any longer to improve transport connections for Londoners. That's why I’ve introduced the Bakerloop now – a faster, greener service, building on the success of the Superloop, that delivers the links people need immediately, while showcasing just how transformative the Bakerloo line extension could be for our city and economy."
In other Superloop news, a consultation on the SL13 service (Ealing Broadway-Hendon) is open until 22 October 2025. Consultations on the SL14 (Stratford-Chingford Hatch) and the SL15 (Clapham Junction-Eltham) will open in autumn 2025 (so pretty soon).
Two more upcoming Superloop routes, the SL11 (Abbey Wood-North Greenwich) and the SL12 (Rainham-Gants Hill) had consultations earlier in the year.
When can we expect the actual Bakerloo line extension to Lewisham? TfL tells us: "[We], alongside the London boroughs of Lewisham and Southwark, continue to develop plans for the Bakerloo line extension, including tunnel design, station designs and plans for a possible extension beyond Lewisham."
Even so, that could still another 15 years in the making — and may take even longer. For now then, it's the BL1 all the way.
