Video: First look at London's North-South Cycle Superhighway

A section of London’s North-South Cycle Superhighway (CS) that opened last week carries the designation CS6 – the number originally given to a proposed route that Mayor of London Boris Johnson confirmed last year was one of two that had been cancelled.

The route’s numbering as CS6 was spotted by eagle-eyed helmet camera user Cyclegaz, who filmed his ride on the new infrastructure, which runs north of Elephant & Castle along St George’s Road, last week.

That section was never on the planned route of CS6, which had been due to run from Penge to the City, joining the existing CS7 route at Elephant & Castle. As a result, it would not have continued onto St George’s Road in any event.

In September last year, however, the mayor confirmed in a written answer to Green Party London Assembly Member Darren Johnson that it had been “deleted from the programme.”

The new route will be officially opened tomorrow, and Transport for London (TfL) have confirmed to road.cc that it will be co-branded CS6. We’ll let you have further details once we have them.

The St George’s Road section of the North-South Cycle Superhighway was in the spotlight earlier this year when it emerged that Southwark Council had written to TfL to point out that it added around 350 metres to cyclists’ journeys compared to an alternative route.

TfL said in its Response to Consultation published in January, that respondents including Sustrans, the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain and the inclusive cycling charity Wheels for Wellbeing, “would prefer the proposed route to use a more direct link between Elephant & Castle and St George’s Circus.”

It said that among the reasons for routing the Cycle Superhighway along St George’s Road rather than London Road were that the latter was insufficiently wide for segregated, two-way cycling infrastructure and that installing it there would require the removal of general traffic lanes or two bus lanes.

TfL said: “Removal of bus lanes would significantly impact bus journey times. The removal of general traffic lanes would require need an additional junction.

“This would require a new design and prevent delivery of the Elephant & Castle scheme by 2016.”