Is It Or Isn't It?
The original Superloop was a series of limited stop bus services forming a super loop following the North- and South- Circular Roads around London. A few oddities were included, being theformer Express route 607, the peak our only journeys from Russell Square and Croydon and the new cross river link viabthe Silvertown tunne.
There are expansive plans for even more Superloop branded routes but none of the part 2 batch will loop anywhere.
Has Transport for London chosen the right brand name?
Neither the original plan, nor the Mark 2 scheme makes any mention of a Bakerloop BL1 express bus between Waterloo and Lewisham.
Both original and Mark 2 maps show the route, brown on the original map and from Waterloo ...
But dark green on the later Mark 2 and starting from Elephant and Castle.
Clearly TfL could not make up its corporate mind.
The bus stop on Waterloo Road offers us a Superloop with an SL6 white-on-red 'C' Plate for the peak hour Monday to Friday occasional journeys to Croydon ...
... and a Bakerloop plate plus a brown on white BL1. So the Bakerloop is not a Superloop route?
At Elephant and Castle there is a solitary poster in the entrance to the Bakerloo Station ...
... confirming that the route is "Express" and advising that this Superloop is "known as" Bakerloop!
... but with a map which suggests that passengers can travel all the way round the loop at Lewisham. The picture is a bit fuzzy but stops are shown beyond Molesworth Street and one stop past The Clock Tower. But we npw know you are thrown out at Molesworth Street.
There is no Lewisham loop on the Superloop Bakerloop!
Whilst the bus branding makes no mention of Superloop ...
... the door to the driver's cab in these new buses shows ...
... Superloop. Several of the bus stops, showing the brown BL1 on the stops, include the multicoloured London Transport roundel for ...
Panel timetables, fairly useless as ever ...
... makes no mention of Superloop, but the illustration does incorporate part of the multi coloured roundel.
In his recent video, sharing a BL1 rude with Uncle Roger French ...
... Geoff Marshall was pointing out the many aomalies and admitting that, as far as branding was concerned, he was ...
... bemused and confused.
Who can blame him?
If that's what you want for Manchester, Andy ...
... pity the poor bemused Mancunian passengers ...
... who would surely be as baffled as Londoners!
Fortunately things have always been so much better oops north! Don't ruin it, Andy, by trying to be just like London.
Autumn Quiz Answers
Doncaster - all local branding has been abandoned by First in favour of the latest weak corporate identity; from brand to bland.
Hi
Cinema CoachThe final six tomorrow.
Next Sunday Variety blog ; Sun 19 Oct
BL1 was originally intended to be a Superloop route, but the Bakerloop nickname started to be bandied about and TfL decided to adopt it formally. It's quite fitting in a way, as the line it links to, the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway, was referred to by many as the 'Bakerloo Line' and the name stuck.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually the Mayor rather than TfL that decided to use the name. But it kind of works even if the whole Superloop brand is a bit muddled.
DeleteWhat's useless about showing the service runs about every 12 minutes? In an urban area would you honestly expect all scheduled departures to be listed and then to turn up at a bus stop at the allotted time expecting the bus to be there bang on the minute?!
ReplyDeleteWhat next? Full timetables for the Underground? A timetable listing all 36 trains an hour on the Victoria line would be interesting...
Not everyone wants a full timetable, but for those that would like to see one, to look at journey times etc, then yes, one should be available to view somewhere in the depths of the TfL website, including for underground lines… and how about a bus map too while we’re at it….. !!!
Delete