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 which have now dropped to below 10mph. SL11 will run every six minutes during the day, which is more frequent than the 472. Hybrid buses are operating on this route pending the delivery of new battery buses.

This is the first time that a Superloop route has replaced rather than supplemented an existing route. Although it will be of great value for those who use the Superloop stops there will be a penalty for those who use the former 472 stops at which SL11 will not stop.

TfL said the route would support regeneration plans in Thamesmead and align with proposals to extend the DLR from Gallions Reach to Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead. It provides an express route to connect Thamesmead with the Elizabeth line at Woolwich.

Solar power for TfL

TfL are proposing to generate their own electricity through solar arrays on or near their premises for use by the tube network. In the long run the power will be transmitted directly to the point of use bypassing the national grid and giving TfL cheaper power and security against price volatility. Arrangements might be made to allow surplus electricity to be fed into the grid.

TfL is the largest user of electricity in London and hopes to source 100 per cent of its power from renewable resources by 2030 including its buildings and its bus fleet.

National Rail are also planning to negotiate deals with energy suppliers to obtain power directly from newly built solar facilities near the railway although this is for station, depot and signal use and does not include power for traction.

New bus shelters

TfL are trialling new bus shelters of different designs and are deploying them at 27 sites across London, some at sites which currently have no shelter. The locations were chosen based on the condition of existing shelters, the number of customers using each bus stop, as well as those in high crime areas. The new shelters incorporate low level seating and improved lighting. Some will also be equipped with CCTV. The final design will depend on feedback received from the public.

Michael Roberts, CEO of London TravelWatch, said: ‘Many people – particularly women and girls – can feel unsafe waiting at bus shelters after dark, so better lighting and CCTV will go a long way to help them feel more safe and secure’.

Payment methods change

Payment for travel in and around London continues to evolve. Paper tickets have largely been replaced by contactless technology, starting in 2003 with Oystercards, on which passes and/or cash were stored, and expanded from 2012 to contactless payment with almost any debit or credit card or mobile phone. Oyster technology remains limited to a maximum of nine zones, but contactless can, in principle, be used to charge point-to-point fares between any two locations.

Reading and inspecting tickets is also getting cheaper. Inspectors at stations have been replaced by gatelines, but these put magnetic tickets through a complex and expensive arrangement of rollers and readers which could go wrong. Season tickets worth thousands of pounds had to be entrusted to the mechanism … and occasionally searched for in the gate mechanism when they did not emerge at the far end. Oyster and contactless use Near Field Communication (NFC) which can read a card still inside a pocket tapped on the reader.

SUVs targeted

Campaigning against the rise in the number of SUVs on London’s roads, particularly by Clean Cities (see our article in newsletter 56), is beginning to bear fruit. Mayor Sadiq Khan is unfolding plans to charge SUV drivers to compensate for the harm they cause. The charge will probably take the form of higher parking charges including residential CPZ permits.Campaigners say, and the Mayor agrees, that SUVs are more likely to kill or injure pedestrians; they also produce more pollution and increase congestion. Many SUVs are too big to fit into a conventional parking space.

The Tory opposition on the Greater London Council are critical of all the Mayor’s initiatives to cut pollution, congestion and road deaths and describe them as a ‘war on motorists’. Thomas Turrell, transport spokesman for the City Hall Conservatives, said the proposals ‘would be a disaster for Londoners trying to get around and would fall on the backs of poorer Londoners the hardest’, notwithstanding the obvious fact that the poorest Londoners do not own a car.

The Mayor’s ‘Vision Zero’ initiative seeks to end serious and fatal injuries in London by 2041 but with an average of 100 road deaths a year for every year since the start of 2022 and more than 3,000 serious injuries a year TfL is currently well short of his target.

More for accessibility

It was only relatively recently that the needs for people with reduced mobility on the railway were recognised. The result is that most stations, and indeed most trains, were inaccessible to large numbers of people and it leaves a legacy which is hard and expensive to overcome. This is particularly true for underground stations where new shafts have to be dug to accommodate lifts.

According to TfL passengers are able to get from the street to the platform without having to negotiate stairs at more than a third of tube stations. All 41 Elizabeth line stations have step-free access and 60 Overground stations. The next stage is to assure access not only to the platform but to the train. A number of stations have so-called Harrison Humps where a section of the platform is raised to match the level of the train floor. Elsewhere ramps are available to bridge the gap between the train and the platform.

Progress to increase the number of accessible stations is proceeding but at a pace which many campaigners find frustrating. Currently 11 tube stations are shortlisted for the next phase of step-free access work.

Crossing the Thames

The saga of Hammersmith Bridge continues. The local authorities which have responsibility for the bridge – the GLA and the boroughs of Hammersmith and Richmond – lack the funds to repair it and the Government has been reluctant to help. There is now, however, a possible source of funds from the Government’s Structure Fund set up in 2025 to help with ‘repairing run down bridges, decaying flyovers and worn out tunnels across Britain’. The ‘funding will be contingent on identifying a cost-effective engineering solution within a reasonable timescale that is affordable within the constraints of the fund’.

Hammersmith is not the only bridge which is showing signs of wear. Nearby Albert Bridge is closed and will not reopen for up to a year.