A new Express bus for Forest Hill?

Transport for London (TfL) is currently consulting on a new addition to the "Superloop" bus network. These buses are designed to be express buses with fewer stops and linking up parts of London that need better connections, or where local bus routes are less suitable because of journey times.

You may already have heard of the Bakerloop which is a new bus following the potential Bakerloo Line extension from Elephant & Castle to Lewisham. Now they are consulting on Superloop 15 which would be a bus from Eltham, through Forest Hill, to Clapham Junction, largely following the South Circular. There is still a week (deadline is 30th November 2025) to leave your thoughts on this via their form here:

https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/sl15-superloop

while the route would be useful ... this could be a missed opportunity to connect even more areas of South London that are not well connected, including Brixton and Woolwich

The Transport Committee of the Forest Hill Society has also looked at this in more detail and has submitted a response which is included in full below.

This is a consultation, and there is no definite answer, but we hope this process can provide more food for thought and planning. In our view, while the route would be useful for some, and we would welcome any new connections for Forest Hill to neighbours in both East and West London, this could be a missed opportunity to connect even more areas of South London that are not well connected, including Brixton and Woolwich. We also note that the South Circular does not have many bus lanes, meaning buses will get stuck in traffic, and would be restricted to a single-decker fleet because of a bridge at Tulse Hill.

As such as we support the SL15 route, but have requested that they take into account some other options for the route and the terminus. If you like either proposal, or even if you have other ideas of your own, then please let them know. The more voices they hear, the better the final solution.

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Our submission was as follows:

The number of stops on an Express route overall seems about right. However, this route does not necessarily connect many local centres, but follows the busy South Circular instead. It would seem that many stops (at least between West Dulwich and Clapham, are either just for commuters connecting to Clapham Junction (CJ), or are already well served along Battersea Rise. We do not necessarily think that this section of the route is a destination, and so any users on that section are likely to only go to / from CJ and not be of interest to anything further East. We also suspect that a single-decker serving such a route for this purpose will be extremely, if not overly, busy at only peak periods, and not used as much at other times.

A major flaw in the current proposal is that there are virtually no bus lanes on the proposed route except for a few stretches between Forest Hill and Catford (and some of these in one direction only) and on Battersea Rise. This means that a bus will be stuck in the same car traffic that already is excessive along this route and discourage any driver from considering a switch to public transport. It will cause delays at the precise moment that the service should be of most use.

As residents and business owners in Forest Hill, we are keen to see the development of Superloop routes, and appreciate the connections it provides towards the East in particular. However, Forest Hill is already connected with Clapham Junction via the Victoria Loop on the train, that also connects us with more destinations along the route - ones that the SL 15 would bypass but still follow (i.e. it is still in the same general area, but be less convenient as a means to reach them).

Starting with the East, while a connection to Eltham is positive, is there any reason that this route should not extend as far as Woolwich to connect with many more services, and other SL routes, there? Reaching Woolwich would connect many more residents to shops and businesses in that area.

What South East London is missing are connections East / West among our key areas, and not just a funnel of traffic to existing busy intersections like Clapham Junction. What would be a LOT more useful and innovative would be a Superloop route that supported not just commuters, but shoppers and socialisers.

We would like to propose that the route terminated at Brixton, instead of Clapham Junction. A route that connected Woolwich, Eltham, Catford, Forest Hill, Dulwich, Herne Hill and Brixton would be a much more attractive solution, and also connect many different transport services (at Woolwich, Forest Hill, Herne Hill and Brixton) which, as well as being destinations in their own right, would be of value to commuters. This would increase usage of the service a great deal.

In addition, this change of route (turning off the South Circular at Croxted Road (note: TfL would have to create a bus-only turn at this junction) would mean avoiding the Low Bridge at Tulse Hill and allow this to be a double-decker route, greatly increasing capacity.

In summary, while the proposed SL15 route might be of value residents and businesses in Forest Hill, a revised route would be much more useful and potentially create a great deal more value for Londoners. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these changes in more detail.