From Saturday 19 August, the X26 will become the SL7 with an increased frequency. Route SL7 will run an enhanced service every 15 minutes all day every day, instead of every 30 minutes on route X26. Around half of the buses will have dedicated luggage space for customers travelling to and from Heathrow airport.
Route SL7 will run an express bus service between West Croydon and Heathrow Central, serving all the same stops as route X26 except the last bus stop at West Croydon will move (about 175 metres) around the corner, into West Croydon bus station.
Some bus stops in Kingston, New Malden, North Cheam, Teddington and Wallintdon Green have been renamed to better reflect their location.
The main change to buses will be the introduction of the Superloop express buses around London:
As a result, the new route from Croydon to Bromley will become SL5 and the X68 will become the SL6. There wil be no change to existing toute 119 from Croydon to Bromley.
Further information is available on the TFL website.
In our area all booking offices would be closed and replaced by a ticket assistant who would be based at the station. It is not clear if they would be able to sell all tickets including those that you can’t buy from the ticket machines such as Boundary zone, CIV Eurostar tickets, Plusbus tickets etc.
Would the ticket assistant take cash? Where would they be positioned? Special arrangements would be in place at large stations such as Victoria and East Croydon.
East Surrey Transport Committee have listed 24 questions/issues that need to be resolved before they could consider supporting the closures. These can be seen on the Transport page.
A public consultation has launched regarding moving station staff out from behind the counter (which would then close for good) and in theory, onto the station concourses making them more visible and accessible.
For full details of this consultation (including a comparison of current and proposed hours when ticketing assistance would be available), and details of how to have your say, please visit the Southern Railway Public Consultation website.
Further information regarding proposed closures can also be found on the Transport > Trains page.
To facilitate these works, there will be traffic management in place consisting of a full road closure and bus stop suspensions on Old Lodge Lane during the planned times. During the weekend only phase of the works, Old Lodge Lane will be closed from 2300 Friday to Monday 0500. During the mid-week night works, Old Lodge Lane will be closed from 2330 to 0500 each night from Monday to Friday.
Pedestrian will still be able to walk from one side of the structure to the other within a protected scaffold tunnel during closures. BAM will install additional signage to ensure customers know businesses are still open as usual. During the four weekend closures, there will be a shuttle bus service operating in substitute of the normal bus services.
Shuttle bus services will operate as follows:
Shuttle buses will operate on Saturdays and Sundays from 5:30 am to 11:00 pm during the weekend closures.
The shuttle bus will travel up and down Old Lodge, stopping at each bus stop from Reedham Station to New Valley School.
A separate bus service will run from Old Lodge Lane at the bridge to Tesco Extra in Purely. This bus will also stop at the Grovesdale bus stop on the way to Tesco.
During mid-week night closures, the last bus service passing through Old Lodge Lane will be at 11:30 pm. The normal bus service will resume at 5:30 am.
Work will be carried out as follows (click to view larger):
The London Mayor and the government have now come to an agreement over funding of TfL. The Mayor will also obtain some additional funding from the GLA. However, in the agreement TfL still needs to raise additional Funds. One of the ways they are proposing to do this is to withdraw the One-day paper travelcard. The travelcard has been the main integrated ticket for travel on all forms of transport in London for the last 40 years.
TfL would seem to accept there is a need for an integrated ticket in the zones as they will keep the all-day capping on Oyster and bank cards. To travel in London, you will need either an Oyster card or a Bankcard. Otherwise you will need a separate ticket for each leg of the journey.
The main problem would seem to affect children and families taking a day out in London which could be become complex, financially expensive or even prohibitive.
This means to obtain off-peak child fares, children will have to have a child Zip Oyster photocard. This requires a £14.00 admin fee and a digital photo and can only be obtained online and can take up to 10 days to arrive. Most children in London who need to use public transport already have Zip Oyster photocards. It is those that do not use public transport and don’t have a Zip Oyster photocard and want to make the occasion journeys that will be negatively impacted by the proposed changes.
This will apply equally as the move to cashless bus fares, to those visitors from outside London. They will have to buy single tickets and will not be able to use the bus. You can engage with the consultation be visiting the TfL Have Your Say website: Engagement to withdraw Day Travelcards | Have Your Say Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk). East Surrey Transport Committee have objected and are asking you to object and contact London TravelWatch .
Update 29/8/2023: ULEZ starts today and if your vehicle does not comply you will have to pay the ULEZ £12.50 charge to drive within Greater London each day you drive within the zone. When paying the charge please ensure you are on the TfL site and not one of the unofficial scam sites: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/ulez-payments.
Petrol vehicles after 20207 and diesel vehicles after 2015 normally comply. It is possible that some older vehicles can also be exempt if their engine complies with Euro 6 standard. These can be individually registered, but you will need confirmation from the manufacturer: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/compliance-registration/before-you-start.
This means from the south you can drive to and park in Lion Green car park, but you can’t drive into the town centre
There are ULEZ cameras on the following roads:
Sandown Road
Woodcote Grove Road (at the Post Office)
Brighton Road (at Lion Green Road and the Methodist Church)
Coulsdon Bypass
Marlpit Avenue
Stoneyfield Road
Cannons Hill
Keston Avenue
Waddington Avenue
Lacy Drive
It is possible additional cameras may be installed at a later date.
On Tuesday 29th August 2023 the London Mayor intends to extend the Ultra-Low Emission Zone scheme (ULEZ) to all of London, charging non-compliant vehicles £12.50 per day. Although this is proving controversial with many MPs opposing this, it is in line with Government policy which wants to move to road pricing. At present the implementation date is subject to a Judicial Review (JD) brought by 4 London Boroughs and Surrey County Council. This could allow it to go ahead, delay it or ask the Mayor to revise it.
Why is the Mayor doing this? One of the unforeseen results of the change to Diesel vehicles was that there has been an increase in emissions of nitrous oxides (NOx) and particulates at street level. These particulates are one of the major causes of poor air quality in London and are particularly harmful to children as they can get deep into their lungs. One child death in London has already been attributed by the Coroner to road pollution. A study carried out for the Mayor in 2017 showed that pollution in all of London was above World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. Some days even on Farthing Downs pollution was one level above WHO standards and in the Coulsdon town centre it was two levels above.
From 26th October 2020 the existing Low Emission Zone was extended to all of London including Coulsdon, but this only applied to all Lorries and vehicles over 3.5 tonnes which must comply throughout London from the borough boundary at Coulsdon. From 25th October 2021 the ULEZ was extended from central London to the north and south circular roads. Vehicles with a registered disabled driver or disabled passengers will be exempt until 2025. From 29th August 2023 all vehicles across all of London will have to comply with ULEZ or pay a £12.50 per day to drive in London. To comply and not be charged you will have to have a vehicle that complies with the following standards:
Motorcycles Euro 3.
Petrol cars, vans and minibuses Euro 4 – most cars manufactured after 2007.
Diesel cars, vans and minibuses Euro 6 – most cars manufactured after 2015.
However, if you look at the map (click here to view) there are a number of roads in Coulsdon that are exempt. These are to provide what are called escape routes for HGVs so they do not have to U turn, but can drive out of the ULEZ.
These are the roads in Coulsdon: Coulsdon Road from the borough boundary to Marlpit Lane, Marlpit Lane, Brighton Road from the southern roundabout to Lion Green Road, Lion Green Road and Chipstead Valley Road and all roads in between. In Purely it is the Godstone Road from the GLA Boundary to Purley Cross, but no other roads. These exemptions still appear on the consultation map. This would mean that if your vehicle doesn’t comply, from the south you could drive to Lion Green car park, but not to the town centre or along the bypass.
