SUPERLOOP NEWS - BYD BD11s for Route SL7 (Last Weeks of Gemini 2s) London Bus Changes Explained

Superloop route SL7 will soon be changed. New BYD eBus BD11s will start entering service in the coming weeks. These will replace the diesel Wright Eclipse Gemini 2s that are currently used on the route. The SL7 currently uses Gemini 2s from 2009/10, 2011 and 2012. The LX59 plate buses used on this route are unique in only having one door. They are TfL's only single door double deck buses, also featuring extra luggage space. The BD11s to be used on the SL7 will also only have one door. They will also feature high back seats, USBs, skylights, digital iBus screens and luggage racks. The SL7 is London's longest bus route, being almost 24 miles long. The shortest end to end journeys on the route take around 75 to 80 minutes. While the longest journeys can take over 2 hours. The SL7 runs between West Croydon and Heathrow Airport Central. The SL7 serves Croydon, Carshalton, Sutton, Cheam, Worcester Park, New Malden, Kingston, Teddington, Hatton Cross and Heathrow Airport (Terminals 2 & 3). The SL7 runs every 10 to 15 minutes on Monday to Fridays. And every 13 to 15 minutes on weekends. However, in reality, buses often bunch together with gaps of less than 5 minutes being common. Gaps of over 20 minutes also occur regularly. The first buses leave West Croydon at 4:15am and 5:40 from Heathrow Central. While the last buses depart West Croydon at 11:15 and 00:40 from Heathrow Central. As well as being London's longest bus route, the SL7 is also the TfL route with the longest distance between stops. A one stop journey between Hatton Cross and Teddington takes around 20 minutes. The SL7 is also the Superloop route which travels the closest to the Greater London boundary. At Worcester Park Station, buses stop just a few metres from Surrey. The SL7 is operated by Go-Ahead London, Metrobus. The route runs from Croydon (C) garage, located near Wallington Green. The SL7 has a peak vehicle requirement of 21 double deck buses. The route is allocated Superloop branded Gemini 2s. However Gemini 2s without the Superloop livery and Gemini 3s have made rare appearances. The SL7 is allocated LX59 plate single door Gemini 2s WVL334 - WVL344. And 12/61 plate dual door Gemini 2s WVL454 and WVL484 - WVL495. These Gemini 2s will be withdrawn once BD11s enter service on the route. The SL7 connects to three other Superloop express routes. These are the SL9 (Harrow to Heathrow) at Heathrow Central, The SL6 (Russell Square to West Croydon during peak times) at West Croydon, And the SL5 (Bromley North to Croydon Town Centre) at East Croydon. The SL7 has several stopping equivalents which it follows for part of its route. These are the 285 between Heathrow and Teddington, The 481 between Teddington and Kingston, The 131 (or 213, more on this later) between Kingston and New Malden, The 213 between New Malden and Sutton, And the 407 between Sutton and Carshalton. The 213 and 285 are the night equivalents of the SL7. As the SL7 is an express/limited stop service, it only stops around 14 times. The SL7 stops at West Croydon Bus Station (for West Croydon tram stop and station), East Croydon Station (Dingwall Road), Croydon Road (Wallington Green), Carshalton High Street, Sutton (Grove Road) or Sutton Police Station, Cheam Broadway, North Cheam (London Road), Worcester Park Station, New Malden (The Fountain), Kingston Station or Cromwell Road Bus Station, Kingston (Wood Street) for Kingston town centre, Broad Street (Teddington), Hatton Cross Station and Heathrow Central Bus Station. The SL7 started running around 3 years ago, in August 2023. It became the third Superloop route to be introduced, after the SL6 and SL8. The route started off using using a mix of unbranded and branded Gemini 2s. As part of Superloop 2 proposals, the SL7 was planned to be cut between Croydon and Sutton. The route would be replaced by an extended SL5. Additional stops would also be added around Heathrow and Feltham. The SL7 is a renumbering/rebranding of route X26. The X26 started running in 2005, and replaced route 726. The 726 ran from Bromley to Heathrow via Croydon, Sutton and Kingston. When the X26 replaced the 726, several stops were removed with the route also being cut to Croydon. The X26 ran every hour on all days of the week. The route used Scania OmniCity single deckers. Metrobus operated the route from Croydon (C) garage. The first major change to the X26 happened in November 2008. When the route was doubled in frequency to run every 30 minutes. Mercedes Citaros temporarily entered service alongside the Scania OmniCities. In April 2012, Quality Line began running the X26 from Epsom (EB) garage. Mercedes Citaros entered service on the route. Due to Quality Line's relaxed allocation policy, the route often used double deckers.