Another weekend, another new Superloop route — although this'll be your last for a while now.
With the launch of the SL2 route from Walthamstow Central and North Woolwich on Saturday 2 March 2024, TfL's expansive orbital bus route is very near completion — in fact the loop part of it is now fully complete (if you ignore the awkward gap between Thamesmead and North Woolwich*).
The SL2 is an express bus route comprised of 14 stops; interestingly, taking the route won't necessarily speed up the journey time: you can, for instance, currently get from Walthamstow Central to North Woolwich on the bus in 1 hour 3 mins (though when we say 'on the bus' we mean on three buses — not ideal if you're trying to engross yourself in that copy of War and Peace). On the SL2, you'll be able to do the route in around 1 hour 8 minutes (so five minutes slower), but you'd just need the one bus. Obviously not everyone's going to be using the route to get from start to finish anyway.
The final 'spoke' in the Superloop wheel will be the opening of the SL4, which comes into play a year from now in March 2025. The very simple reason this one's taking so long is because it's reliant on the completion of the Silvertown Tunnel; if it was running right now, the SL4 would be a pretty wet bus journey.
That said, TfL seems to be happy with the public reaction to the Superloop so far, and if it continues to prove a success, perhaps more spokes will be added to the network in the future.
*Here, the Thames has the audacity to get in the way, the dearth of east London river crossings meaning that it takes a stonking 30 minute detour on bus/DLR to plug the Superloop gap.
