Outer London Letter

There must be more joined up thinking when it comes to outer London transport, with an outer London transport taskforce suggested to help implement necessary improvements.

More orbital bus services must also be introduced as part of the Superloop, to ensure better public transport access for outer London boroughs.

That is the view of the London Assembly Transport Committee, which has today written to the Mayor outlining the key findings of its investigation into outer London transport.

The Superloop is a network of 10 express bus routes that was launched in July 2023 and, once complete, will form a complete ring around outer London, including four existing routes and six new routes.^[1]

During the Committee’s two-part investigation on outer London’s transport network, the Committee heard from key stakeholders on the impact the Superloop has had on outer London residents’ access to public transport, as well as the issues the infrequency of public transport in outer London has on residents.

The Committee heard that the new Superloop services have been generally welcomed, but that there is a need for more of these types of orbital bus services - to include currently excluded boroughs such as Havering - and also for more bus priority measures.

Because of this, the Committee has written to the Mayor with 12 recommendations, including:

• TfL should look to introduce other new orbital bus services to serve areas not covered by the current Superloop service, including extending new Superloop services to boroughs such as Havering.
• TfL should publish a detailed ‘6-month on’ review of Superloop services by March 2024, including trends in passenger numbers, and undertake (and publish) further research into how people access and interchange with these buses.
• The Mayor should convene a taskforce in 2024-25 to address the specific transport issues of outer London. This would include working closely with neighbouring authorities to agree and implement a detailed series of improvements to address transport challenges in outer London, including ‘orbital’ travel and across the Greater London boundary in the coming years.
• The Mayor should work with the Government and Rail Operators to ensure that all metro rail services in Outer London centres achieve a turn-up-and-go (TUAG) frequency, with at least four services an hour.