Richmond Council Rejects TfL SL7 and 285 Bus Priority in Teddington 2026

Key Points

• Richmond upon Thames councillors rejected a £50,000 package of proposed bus-priority design work and feasibility studies for the SL7 Superloop, 285, and N285 routes through Hampton and Teddington.
• The Transport and Air Quality Committee voted on 9 November to refuse all four officer recommendations without issuing a formal reason for the refusal.
• The decision also blocked a recommendation authorising council officers to enter formal discussions with Transport for London (TfL) regarding additional SL7 stops in Hampton and Hampton Hill.
• Councillors Alexander Ehmann, Carey Bishop, and James Chard raised concerns regarding council leverage, the inability of Hampton and Hampton Hill residents to board the SL7, and the distance between existing stops and transport connections.
• Current bus operations, timetables, and road layouts remain completely unchanged, while the future allocation of the £50,000 TfL capital grant remains unestablished.

Richmond upon Thames (South London News) November 14, 2026 – Richmond upon Thames councillors have refused a £50,000 package of proposed bus-priority design work for the SL7 Superloop and sections of the 285 and N285 bus routes running through Hampton and Teddington, while simultaneously rejecting a recommendation to authorise official discussions with Transport for London (TfL) regarding additional SL7 stops.

Why did the Richmond Transport and Air Quality Committee refuse the bus-priority proposals?

The decision was taken during a meeting of the Transport and Air Quality Committee on 9 November, during which members refused all four recommendations put forward by council officers. The committee did not publish a formal reason for its refusal.

During the debate, Councillor Alexander Ehmann argued that the local authority needed leverage to bring about meaningful change and should hold out for a better outcome for local residents. Councillor Carey Bishop highlighted that people living in Hampton and Hampton Hill are currently unable to board the SL7 express service as it passes through their neighbourhood. Councillor James Chard also expressed concern regarding the distance between existing stops and wider transport connections.

What stops does the SL7 currently serve in Richmond upon Thames?

The SL7 Superloop operates between West Croydon and Heathrow Central bus stations, traversing five outer London boroughs. Within the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, the service currently stops at only one pair of bus stops, located on Broad Street in Teddington.

Prior to the 9 November committee meeting, Richmond Council had already been lobbying TfL to introduce additional stops in Hampton and Hampton Hill. At the meeting, the committee was not being asked to approve the physical installation of new bus stops; rather, officers had requested authorisation to enter formal discussions with TfL regarding potential locations that were yet to be agreed.

While TfL retains statutory authority over the London bus network and route stops, the local council is responsible for local highway matters. Refusing the officer recommendation does not add a stop or alter any existing stops. In a statement issued ahead of the committee’s decision, TfL stated that it keeps the bus network under continuous review and monitors Superloop routes to understand customer usage patterns, adding that it works alongside local councils on network improvements.

What did the £50,000 bus-priority design package cover?

The rejected programme carried an approved £50,000 capital budget financed entirely through a TfL grant. The funding was earmarked exclusively for preparatory scheme work—including engineering design and traffic surveys—rather than physical highway construction. How the £50,000 grant allocation will be utilised following the committee’s refusal has not been established.

Had the recommendations been authorised, the preparatory design work would have covered several specific corridors in Hampton, Hampton Hill, and Teddington:

• A312 Uxbridge Road and A313 Park Road: Officers proposed exploring waiting and loading controls along the A312 Uxbridge Road in Hampton and the A313 Park Road through Hampton Hill and Teddington.
• Ferry Road, Teddington: Proposals included designing a widened pavement at the Kingston-bound bus stop on Ferry Road, paired with adjustments to waiting and loading restrictions on the opposite side of the carriageway.
• A309 Park Road, Teddington: A separate feasibility design would have examined kerbside controls intended to assist buses in negotiating existing pedestrian refuges along the route.
• High Street, Hampton Road, and Park Road Junction: The package included detailed engineering design and traffic surveys for potential banned turns at the signal-controlled junction where High Street, Hampton Road, and Park Road meet.

All of these elements were preliminary measures intended for technical assessment and design rather than approved road alterations. Statutory public consultation on the proposed schemes was envisaged before any future delegated decisions would be made. The committee’s vote means the officer programme was not authorised to proceed.

How fast are the SL7 and 285 bus routes currently running?

Council officers presented the bus-priority design package as a mechanism to address slower journey speeds and improve service reliability. General measures available to outer London boroughs include extending the operational hours of existing bus lanes, modifying kerbside parking and loading restrictions, and deploying traffic signal priority technology—though these broader possibilities were not specific works approved for the streets in question.

According to TfL figures, average route-wide speeds stand at 12.31mph for the SL7 and 10.34mph for the 285 across the entirety of each route and across all days and times within the stated reporting period. These figures represent whole-route averages rather than isolated measurements within Hampton or Teddington. Both the SL7 and the 285 recorded approximately 3.9 million passenger journeys each during the 2024/25 reporting period.

Background: How do local highways and TfL bus operations interact in outer London?

Under London’s transport governance framework, Transport for London manages the capital’s bus network, including route planning, service frequencies, timetables, and the designation of stopping points. However, London boroughs act as the local highway authorities for non-red route roads within their boundaries, controlling kerbside restrictions, junction layouts, bus lanes, and pedestrian crossings.

When TfL introduces express services such as the Superloop network—designed to link outer London town centres and transport hubs with fewer stops—local authorities frequently seek a balance between maintaining rapid end-to-end journey times and ensuring local residents have direct boarding access. To facilitate bus priority on borough-managed roads, TfL regularly allocates Local Implementation Plan or targeted capital grants to councils to fund traffic modelling, feasibility studies, and highway design work prior to public consultation.

Prediction: How could this refusal affect Richmond residents, commuters, and local road users?

Because the committee’s refusal halted preliminary design work rather than active roadworks, bus passengers, motorists, and pedestrians in Hampton and Teddington face no immediate changes to bus timetables, stop locations, or parking regulations.

Over the medium term, however, the decision leaves Richmond Council’s push for additional SL7 stops in Hampton and Hampton Hill unresolved. Without formal authorisation for officers to negotiate stop locations or advance highway priority designs, residents in those neighbourhoods will continue to travel to Broad Street in Teddington or alternative connections to access the SL7 service. Meanwhile, local motorists and businesses along the A312, A313, Ferry Road, and the High Street junction will not face imminent statutory consultations regarding banned turns or revised loading controls unless a revised scheme or new negotiation framework is brought back before the committee.