Sampled the SL5 today, mid-morning between Croydon and Bromley in grey weather that wouldn’t have encouraged unnecessary travel.
My favourite seat on dual door, single deck buses is nearside, directly behind the rear door. However, a gang of sharp-elbowed twirlies barged on first, denying this meek youth, and I had to settle for a seat further forward, which I then realised was next to the irritating sticker/vinyl logo applied across the window.
Stupid window blockage aside, all was positive. We loaded circa 25-30 maximum, between Shirley Library and Bromley South, and few of the other passengers looked like they were travelling for the experience alone. I thought this was a decent haul for week one, in February.
The chosen route was reasonably free-flowing, and is perhaps the best way to approach Bromley town centre without getting held-up unduly. The end-to-end running time was 35 minutes, compared to a timetabled 50 minutes on the 119 between the same points, at the same time of day: a useful saving.
I’ll be interested to see how this builds over the next few months.