miklcct
Established Member
I went shopping at Meridian Water today and had to get home in Willesden Green. Journey planners suggested a few routes including train to Stratford and Jubilee all the way, bus to Tottenham Hale and change at Green Park, and it also listed taking the SL1 to North Finchley then 460 to Willesden.
As I have a Travelcard which doesn't cover Zone 4, and I was carrying heavy shopping and didn't want to go the long way on the Jubilee or change at Green Park, I decided to tried out the new orbital express SL1 which runs on the A406, combined with the 460 to give a reasonable orbital trip back home.
I boarded a bus at 14:37 with fleet number HA6.
On the A406, I opened the map on my home to check the speed and the top speed the bus achieved was about 60 km/h (the red line shown is route 34 as the SL1 data isn't in yet).
I expected that the bus could be as fast as last time I took 232 between Arnos Grove and Dollis Hill which averaged 30 km/h, more than a double of the typical speed I got on other London buses, however not long afterwards the bus got caught in congestion on the A406 near Arnos Grove.
And the congestion didn't end until Friern Barnet.
The bus arrived North Finchley High Road at 15:16 where it terminated, about 11 minutes late compared to the schedule given, and it didn't carry passengers to the bus station Z4 as shown on Google Maps, which meant I had to cross the road to continue my journey westwards from the bus station.
The average speed for the 9.5 km journey ended up only 14 km/h, which wasn't faster than a normal London bus and was a disappointment for me, considering that the bus ran on A406 limited stop for a significant distance.
As I have a Travelcard which doesn't cover Zone 4, and I was carrying heavy shopping and didn't want to go the long way on the Jubilee or change at Green Park, I decided to tried out the new orbital express SL1 which runs on the A406, combined with the 460 to give a reasonable orbital trip back home.
I boarded a bus at 14:37 with fleet number HA6.
On the A406, I opened the map on my home to check the speed and the top speed the bus achieved was about 60 km/h (the red line shown is route 34 as the SL1 data isn't in yet).
I expected that the bus could be as fast as last time I took 232 between Arnos Grove and Dollis Hill which averaged 30 km/h, more than a double of the typical speed I got on other London buses, however not long afterwards the bus got caught in congestion on the A406 near Arnos Grove.
And the congestion didn't end until Friern Barnet.
The bus arrived North Finchley High Road at 15:16 where it terminated, about 11 minutes late compared to the schedule given, and it didn't carry passengers to the bus station Z4 as shown on Google Maps, which meant I had to cross the road to continue my journey westwards from the bus station.
The average speed for the 9.5 km journey ended up only 14 km/h, which wasn't faster than a normal London bus and was a disappointment for me, considering that the bus ran on A406 limited stop for a significant distance.