Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Brief details.
This film is about London's new Bakerloop BL1 limited-stop bus service and a planned extension of the London Underground Bakerloo line to Lewisham. It includes BL1 buses, some Bakerloo line tube train and station views, a vintage preserved 'Chocolate Express' bus, two front window rides on BL1 buses and a traffic signal sequence demonstrating how these delay bus services.
The full story.
It is intended to extend the London Underground Bakerloo line from its southern terminus at Elephant and Castle to Lewisham, which is one of London's four major 'compass point' suburban railway interchange stations. (The others are Clapham Junction, Willesden Junction and Stratford). The Bakerloo line extension will be routed via the Old Kent Road, which is a rail transport backwater that solely relies upon buses for its public transport.
To raise awareness of this plan and partially demonstrate how it will improve the quality of life of everyone who lives along (or near to) the Old Kent Road corridor, Transport For London (TfL) have introduced a new high-profile bus service which travels from Lewisham to Waterloo - via the Old Kent Road and Elephant and Castle. This is being included in the high-profile London-wide 'Superloop' network which mostly serves London's suburban districts, uses specially branded buses and operates as a 'limited-stop' service that is faster (shorter journey times) than travelling on London's other buses.
To improve visibility as a forerunner of the Bakerloo line service this new bus service is called Bakerloop (a portmanteau of Bakerloo and Superloop) and is numbered as bus route No. BL1. This mimics the Bakerloo line's name, which is a journalistic* portmanteau of the line's official name - Baker Street and Waterloo Railway - so named because it serves Baker Street and Waterloo stations.
*)The name was coined by a journalist and whilst initially disliked by railway officials the public liked it and eventually it became permanent.
It should be noted that despite the TfL marketing label as an 'express' service and provision of much 'bus-only' traffic lanes all Superloop buses are still subject to the often very sedate road speed limits*, traffic congestion and numerous traffic signals - one of which is seen adding 20 seconds to the journey time. To avoid making this film very long only one entire traffic signal sequence was filmed.
*) Whoever heard of anything travelling as slowly as 20 mph / 30 km/h as being an 'express' service? (Surely these are mutually incompatible?)
BL1 uses battery-electric ADL Enviro400 City EV buses which are painted white and Bakerloo line chocolate brown ... in a way mimicking the 'Chocolate Express' buses from the privatised bus era before the 1933 formation of the LPTB (London Passenger Transport Board) which was more widely known as simply London Transport.
This film also includes highlights from two rides on the BL1 buses. One from Elephant and Castle to the first bus stop along the Old Kent Road, and the second from here to Waterloo station.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Credits:
The planned tube train extension:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Underground_proposed_Bakerloo_line_extension_map.svg
Map & license: Isochrone / Wikipedia encyclopædia. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en CC BY-SA 4.0
Background music:
Night in Venice By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1900056
License: CC BY 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Brief details.
This film is about London's new Bakerloop BL1 limited-stop bus service and a planned extension of the London Underground Bakerloo line to Lewisham. It includes BL1 buses, some Bakerloo line tube train and station views, a vintage preserved 'Chocolate Express' bus, two front window rides on BL1 buses and a traffic signal sequence demonstrating how these delay bus services.
The full story.
It is intended to extend the London Underground Bakerloo line from its southern terminus at Elephant and Castle to Lewisham, which is one of London's four major 'compass point' suburban railway interchange stations. (The others are Clapham Junction, Willesden Junction and Stratford). The Bakerloo line extension will be routed via the Old Kent Road, which is a rail transport backwater that solely relies upon buses for its public transport.
To raise awareness of this plan and partially demonstrate how it will improve the quality of life of everyone who lives along (or near to) the Old Kent Road corridor, Transport For London (TfL) have introduced a new high-profile bus service which travels from Lewisham to Waterloo - via the Old Kent Road and Elephant and Castle. This is being included in the high-profile London-wide 'Superloop' network which mostly serves London's suburban districts, uses specially branded buses and operates as a 'limited-stop' service that is faster (shorter journey times) than travelling on London's other buses.
To improve visibility as a forerunner of the Bakerloo line service this new bus service is called Bakerloop (a portmanteau of Bakerloo and Superloop) and is numbered as bus route No. BL1. This mimics the Bakerloo line's name, which is a journalistic* portmanteau of the line's official name - Baker Street and Waterloo Railway - so named because it serves Baker Street and Waterloo stations.
*)The name was coined by a journalist and whilst initially disliked by railway officials the public liked it and eventually it became permanent.
It should be noted that despite the TfL marketing label as an 'express' service and provision of much 'bus-only' traffic lanes all Superloop buses are still subject to the often very sedate road speed limits*, traffic congestion and numerous traffic signals - one of which is seen adding 20 seconds to the journey time. To avoid making this film very long only one entire traffic signal sequence was filmed.
*) Whoever heard of anything travelling as slowly as 20 mph / 30 km/h as being an 'express' service? (Surely these are mutually incompatible?)
BL1 uses battery-electric ADL Enviro400 City EV buses which are painted white and Bakerloo line chocolate brown ... in a way mimicking the 'Chocolate Express' buses from the privatised bus era before the 1933 formation of the LPTB (London Passenger Transport Board) which was more widely known as simply London Transport.
This film also includes highlights from two rides on the BL1 buses. One from Elephant and Castle to the first bus stop along the Old Kent Road, and the second from here to Waterloo station.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Credits:
The planned tube train extension:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Underground_proposed_Bakerloo_line_extension_map.svg
Map & license: Isochrone / Wikipedia encyclopædia. creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en CC BY-SA 4.0
Background music:
Night in Venice By Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1900056
License: CC BY 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
