The new year has brought new bus services to the Royal Borough of Greenwich. We’ve put together a handy guide to help you understand what’s new and what's changing.
Superloop route SL11
The headline change to bus services in Royal Greenwich is the introduction of a new Superloop route, the SL11, which connects North Greenwich with Abbey Wood via Woolwich and Thamesmead.
Introduced after a TfL consultation last year, the SL11’s first journey will take place on Saturday 24 January. Faster and more direct than the 472, which it will replace during the daytime, the SL11 will run every six minutes from 6.30am until 8pm from Monday to Saturday, with slightly altered services outside these times and on Sundays.
It's also free to use during its first week in operation!
Night bus N472
While the 472 will stop operating during the daytime, the newly-numbered N472 will operate every 30 minutes on all nights of the week between 1am and 4.30am to help you get around in the early hours, serving every stop that the 472 previously departed from.
Route 96 (Woolwich to Bluewater)
From Sunday 25 January, you’ll benefit from much earlier services every day of the week, with first departures at 4.30am instead of 6am in Woolwich and at 4.15am instead of 5.05am from Bluewater.
Route 229 (Thamesmead to Queen Mary’s Hospital)
Minor changes will apply from Saturday 24 January with buses departing every 12 minutes rather than every 10 minutes between 6am and 8pm on weekdays, and 8.10am and 7.20pm on Saturdays.
Outside of these days and times, it’ll be business as usual for this route.
Route 469 (Erith to Bluewater)
From Saturday 24 January, this route will be even more frequent, with departures every 15 minutes rather than every 20 minutes before 7.15am on Saturdays.
There’ll also be an increased Sunday service, with buses departing every 20 minutes rather than every 30 minutes before 8.45am.
While most of these changes mean faster, easier bus travel across the borough, there's still more we want to do. We'll continue to request that TfL extend the proposed Superloop route SL15 from Clapham Junction to Woolwich and urge that they reconsider timetable changes for the 386 route. We're also working on bus priority measures to further improve bus journey times on the roads of Royal Greenwich.
Councillor Calum O’Byrne Mulligan, Cabinet Member for Climate Action, Sustainability and Transport, said: “Thanks to your valuable feedback as local people in the borough, the bus route between the Greenwich Peninsula and Abbey Wood is also now quicker than ever after the introduction of the rapid new SL11.
“We’re committed to making travelling across Royal Greenwich cleaner, greener and more sustainable. Not only are London’s iconic red buses globally recognisable, they also help achieve these goals due to being 100% zero or low-emission and, with more frequent services across a number of routes in our corner of the capital, it’s easier to hop aboard whenever you like.”
You can find out more about catching these new services when they’re in action by visiting the TfL Journey Planner.