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News Round-up April 2026

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter April 2026 SL11 Neil Roth reports: new Superloop route S11 seems to have made a good start. Its scheduled 45 minutes compares with 60 minutes for the 472 which it has replaced. His journey took slightly more than 45 minutes because of roadworks but loadings were good, enhanced by bus enthusiasts. The average speed of about 9mph for the 472 is now about 12mph for the S11, a good average compared with general London bus speeds

DLR extension to Thamesmead

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter April 2026 By Neil Roth In an article dated 13/01/26, Murky Depths says that TfL ….seemingly fail to realise many in Thamesmead – both existing and future residents – will want to reach Abbey Wood or Woolwich for the Elizabeth line and so persist with the flawed DLR project which will do nothing to improve that situation.’ The current DLR project is intended to serve new housing on both sides of the river: at Beckton Riversi

Lifts, stairs and escalators

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter April 2026 This is the final version of Dick Dunmore’s series on accessing underground rail stations Lifts and locations The provision of lifts at new stations has led to two new issues. First, avoiding steps completely on long journeys still involves careful study of lift guides like the one below, which suggests that merely to cross Paddington from Elizabeth line to Paddington Basin means finding and using six lifts. On a r

The rise and fall of bus passenger numbers

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter April 2026 By Andrew Bosi The recent decline in bus passenger numbers now exercising the Mayor and GLA Transport Committee is not a new phenomenon. From 1958 to the early 1980s there was steady decline in bus usage. In the ten years to December 1969 the scheduled fleet fell from 7756 to 6900, if Country buses and Green Line services are included. Scheduled red buses fell from 6451 to 5785. This decline reflected a growth in p

April 2026 Newsletter Editorial

The Future Transport London newsletter has been produced three times a year. This will now be increased to four times a year so this issue is April. We are still looking for a new editor and I would be delighted to hear from anyone who feels they would like to take this on. Please email me on chrisjbarker46@gmail.com for further information. As usual we cover a variety of different forms of sustainable transport in this issue and conclude Dick Dunmore’s survey of methods of

Shared use bus boarders

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter April 2026 By Vincent Stops FTL Newsletter no. 51 (May 24) led on the controversy around SUBBs – Shared User Bus Boarders, the type of floating bus stops where passengers must cross a cycle lane to get between a bus stop and a bus. In November 2025 a pause in the installation of SUBBs was announced by the DfT. Now SUBBs have come under further criticism, following the publication of updated DfT guidance on the installation o

News round-up January 2026

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter January 2026 Plans for Oxford Street On Sunday afternoon, 21 st September, thousands of people thronged Oxford Street eager to experience it totally free of traffic. The closure of this half mile section was a foretaste of what Mayor Sadiq Khan hopes will become permanent. He was present at the opening of the street and said the one-day trial banning traffic from part of Oxford Street marks ‘the day the fight back began to r

Building around stations

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter January 202 6 In mid November City AM reported Housing Secretary Steve Reed as suggesting that housing developments around railway stations would be ‘permitted development’, ie not requiring planning permission. Mayor Sadiq Khan opposed building on the green belt in his first two election manifestos but more recently has changed his view. There is some misconception of the green belt. It is not all green pastures. It wa

The Wild West of E-Bikes

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter January 202 6 London’s E-Bike Boom: Convenience Meets Chaos E-bikes have transformed the way Londoners travel over the past few years, offering a convenient, zero-emission way to move around the city. They’ve quickly become a favourite for commuters and casual riders alike, so popular, in fact, that it’s often a race to find one for the morning journey to work. But this boom has also brought confusion and frustration. Many

Better access to, from and within Thamesmead

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter January 202 6 Funding was announced in the Autumn Budget for the £1.7 bn. 3-km DLR extension to Thamesmead. The scheme includes one new station at Beckton Riverside (to serve new housing); another in Thamesmead Town Centre (also to serve new housing). These stations will be linked by twin tunnels under the river. The elevated DLR station at Thamesmead is explicitly designed for further extension and, in response to the most r

Carspreading: why bigger cars are becoming a bigger problem

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter January 202 6 At Clean Cities, we recently launched the Carspreading campaign to tackle a trend that is quietly reshaping our streets: cars are getting bigger, wider and heavier and the consequences of this shift are significant. Research shows cars are becoming around 1cm wider every two years, while average vehicle weight has increased by around 400kg in the past seven years. This shift is being driven by the rapid rise o

Lifts, stairs and escalators

Featured in the Future Transport London Newsletter January 202 6 Part 3 of Dick Dunmore’s look at accessing underground rail stations By the early 2020s all was not well with the Cutty Sark escalators, and eventually all four were closed. The limited capacity of the single small lift forces most passengers to use up to 121 steps, or use the next station, above ground at Greenwich. The closures have led to several Freedom of Information requests and petitions, many of them a