Councillors in Richmond are refusing to approve funding for improvements to a Superloop bus route until Transport for London (TfL) commits to adding extra bus stops, creating a stand-off between the borough and the transport operator.
The SL7 Superloop route, which runs between West Croydon and Heathrow Central across five outer boroughs, currently has just one pair of stops in Richmond, on Teddington's Broad Street. TfL has no plans to introduce additional stops in Hampton or Hampton Hill, according to local officials.
Funding withheld over stop demands
Council officers had proposed using £50,000 of TfL grants to develop plans to improve the SL7 route, aiming to shorten bus journey times and increase reliability. However, Liberal Democrat members of the borough's transport committee agreed not to proceed with the improvements until TfL commits to providing another pair of Superloop bus stops.
At a hearing on November 9, Alexander Ehmann, a Lib Dem councillor representing St Margaret's and North Twickenham ward, said it was "clear that we need such leverage in order to bring about change".
Proposals to ease congestion
The proposals put forward by council officials included introducing more waiting and loading restrictions on Uxbridge Road and Park Road, widening a bus stop on Ferry Road along the SL7 route, and banning turns at the junction of Hampton Hill High Street, Hampton Road and Park Road. These measures were designed to ease congestion on the SL7 route.
When objecting to the expenditure, Lib Dem councillors said TfL had underinvested in public transport in Richmond for too long. Carey Bishop, representing Hampton North ward, said TfL had given Richmond an "unfair deal" on the Superloop, noting the route travels five miles from Broad Street to Hatton Cross without stopping – the longest gap on the service.
Connectivity concerns in Richmond
Ms Bishop said: "It goes straight through our borough, and yet people in Hampton and Hampton Hill cannot get on. That matters because public transport access in the Hamptons is already poor." James Chard, a Twickenham Riverside councillor, said the lack of service was happening in "one of the worst-connected areas of this borough".
Richmond, recently crowned the happiest place to live in Britain, has long been considered a borough with poor transport connectivity compared with other parts of the capital. The borough has only two stops on the London Underground, with both Richmond and Kew Gardens stations sitting on the District line. These two stations are also on the Overground's Mildmay line, marking the only points the London Overground enters the borough boundary.
A TfL spokesman, in a statement issued previously, said: "We are committed to providing a comprehensive, reliable bus service across the breadth of London and keep the network under constant review to ensure we invest our resources where they are needed most. We continue to monitor and review all Superloop routes to get a full understanding of how customers are using the network, working with local councils, to improve the bus network across the capital."
