In message , Dr John Stockton
writes

Read the beginning of "Hornblower and the 'Atropos'" by C S Forester.

Gloucester to London at a penny a mile first class; reaching 9 mph.

"Reaching" is the operative word - unfortunately the average speed tends
to drop markedly when you reach a lock.

Are you a brisk walker?

No, but I'm fast enough to overtake a flyboat negotiating the six locks
of the Hanwell flight.

You are quite right to point out that canal flyboats offered a passenger
service, but I've always understood these to have been intercity routes,
at least so far as London was concerned. I doubt that they stopped to
pick up local traffic.

And, as I say, the average speed of a flyboat depended on the number of
locks in the way - Reading to Bath by flyboat took 36 hours in 1830.

Granted, it does not prove passenger services along canals within 1829
London.

Pickfords were operating a London-Birmingham service, more or less twice
a day, at that time, although the journey took two days. I imagine it
would have terminated at Paddington since I doubt that the Regent's
canal would have supported the fast horses and elaborate overtaking
mechanism needed by flyboats.

However, I see that there was a "well-used" Paddington-Uxbridge canal
service for passengers in the early 19th century that might possibly
qualify for a 1829 map:

http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/history/grandjun.htm

I've no idea of the speed, but there's no more than one lock in the way
so it might well have been reasonably fast.

--
Paul Terry