The DRT renowned for its success

Sunday 30th July 2023

For this week’s DRT travel experience I returned to Hertfordshire to give the Herts Lynx service another try. Along with High Wycombe’s Pick-Me-Up and South Forest of Dean’s Robin, both of which I’ve recently reviewed, Herts Lynx, introduced in September 2021, really is being held up as a massive DRT success story; one to be emulated by other local authorities.

Indeed a second scheme for the Dacorum district west of Hemel Hempstead is due to start soon.

So successful is Herts Lynx it got a mention in a Sunday Times article last summer about how it’s solving the ‘rural transport problem’ and the scheme also featured as an exemplar of best practice in a recent online ’round table’ discussion I was invited to attend about the future of rural transport. During the presentation it was explained how four buses used on the scheme cover a large area of 150 square miles centred on Buntingford.

It was said Herts Lynx offers 4,000 residents access to a regular bus service previously not available in this very rural part of Hertfordshire as well as improving access to public transport for up to 40,000 more.

Journeys from Buntingford north to Royston and west to Stevenage are the most popular ride requests although the link to Royston is also covered by Richmond Coaches’ scheduled route 18 but it only has five/six journeys a day (06:59, 08:29, 10:02, 12:55, 15:55, 17:55 from Buntingford and 07:41, 09:09, 12:00, 15:05, 17:05 from Royston).

There’s no direct bus service between Buntingford and Stevenage.

While the ’round table’ was taking place at around 11:00 one morning earlier this month I tried to book a journey on Herts Lynx from Royston to Buntingford using the app but was only offered a departure at either 12:35 or 17:56 which didn’t strike me as being an improvement on the options offered by route 18, although the later journey was a 51 minute late afternoon bonus compared to the rather early last departure at 17:05 in the timetable.

Undeterred by this experience, and hearing the praise heaped on Herts Lynx I found myself in Stevenage on Wednesday last week and thought it would be a good opportunity to take a ride over to Buntingford.

It was midday.

I tried to book a journey at “Leave now”.

Sadly buses were “committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”

You’re not given any idea of what “specific time” buses might be able to “serve your trip request” so I thought I’d spend an hour having lunch in Stevenage and tried to book a journey in an hour’s time at 13:00 thinking a bus might be available to take me by then.

Sadly buses were “committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”

Undeterred, I tried again for a ride at 14:00.

Sadly buses were “committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”

Undeterred, I tried again for a ride at 15:00.

Sadly buses were “committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”

Undeterred, I tried again for a ride at 16:00.

Sadly buses were “committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”

Undeterred, I tried again for a ride at 17:00.

Sadly buses were “committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time.”

As Herts Lynx packs up at 19:00 hours I decided I was now deterred and didn’t want to risk a journey at 18:00 for fear of getting stranded in Buntingford for the night, and also I didn’t think I could amuse myself for six hours hanging around in Stevenage waiting for the ride.

So I gave up and returned home to Sussex.

Now, on a positive note this experience could be demonstrating just how well Herts Lynx is doing, because all four buses are so busy with passengers who probably booked days or even a week or two in advance that a chancer like myself thinking “Demand Responsive Transport” means I’ll get a response when I demand a journey right now or perhaps later the same day simply has unrealistic expectations of the revolution in rural public transport that DRT offers.

For example, as part of the presentation extolling the success of Herts Lynx it was explained that 2,600 trips are being undertaken a month, making for “30,000 across a rolling 12-month period”. But while big numbers like that sound impressive in a presentation, when you divide 30,000 by 52 weeks and by 4 buses and by 78 hours (six days at 12 hours and one day at 6 hours) you get 1.85 passengers per bus per hour.

Yet, apparently 74% of trips are shared with other users. So that must mean some operating hours see no passengers travelling at all to bring the average up to 2 or more passengers per bus per hour especially as trips are averaging 8.5 miles and around 20 minutes duration.

But I also have some previously unblogged good journey experience news to impart about Herts Lynx in the interests of presenting a balanced report. Back on Tuesday 11th April I took a ride out to Buntingford on Arriva’s hourly route 331 from Hertford specifically to connect with Herts Lynx for a ride over to Stevenage. I’d booked the journey a few days in advance to be sure of securing the time I wanted and connect with the arrival of the 331 which was 12:42 (the 11:55 from Hertford) and Herts Lynx came up trumps with a ride offering to pick me up at 12:52. I grabbed it and booked it.

Luckily the 331 was running on time and I waited in Buntingford with anticipation and at 12:55 the smart black and green liveried Mercedes Sprinter minibus drew up at the Crown Inn bus stop in High Street and much to my surprise there were six passengers already on board when it arrived. I tweeted in amazement.

It took me most of the 20 minute journey to get over that surprise, but as we arrived into Stevenage – but not pulling into the bus station as the driver explained Herts Lynx buses are not allowed in (why?) …

… so instead pulling up in the adjacent street I realised that four of the passengers were teenagers all travelling together (schools were off that day) and the other two were a mother and child travelling together.

But it certainly increased my DRT average shared riding experiences from 1.05 to 1.25 passengers per trip, so that’s even more positive news.

Back to the ’round table’ and much was being made of an extension to the operating hours of Herts Lynx from April this year to run between 20:00 and 23:30 on Friday and Saturday evenings which must be a boon for young people in Buntingford wanting a night out in Stevenage, Hitchin, Royston or Bishops Strotford (I’m not sure which has the most renowned night life). As I write this yesterday afternoon (Saturday 29th July) I thought I’d try and book a ride out from Buntingford to either Royston or Stevenage for 20:00 last night with a return journey at 23:00.

Guess what happened?

I tried Stevenage as a destination first.

Go on, have a guess what appeared after I hit the “Search” button.

Yes. Got it in one. “Our buses are committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”

Undeterred I thought I’ll go out a bit later so tried again for a departure at 21:00.

Yes. Even an hour later: “Our buses are committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”.

So I imagined I could possibly get a lift from someone and just catch Herts Lynx back home from Stevenage at 23:00 so tried to book that.

Sadly there was no hope of coming home by Herts Lynx either as “Our buses are committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”

Then I thought, maybe Royston is a better bet after all I’d learned it’s the most popular destination from Buntingford so there’s bound to be a bus already going that I could be booked on. So with great anticipation I tried booking a journey at 20:00

I expect you’ve already glanced down to see what the response was….

The familiar refrain “Our buses are committed to other journeys and can’t serve your trip request for this specific time”. But maybe I could leave an hour later at 21:00…

… or maybe not.

Maybe 21:30?

It’s like checking the lottery numbers each week. But then, just for a laugh I thought I’d try going out at 22:00.

Bingo!

Back came my first ride offer of the evening … leaving Buntingford at 22:08 and arriving in Royston 40 minutes later. That’s what success feels like. Wow. Fantastic. Except Google tells me Royston is a 12 minute drive from Buntingford so there’s some serious ride sharing and diversions off the direct line of route going on here.

And then I thought, how would I get back from Royston bearing in mind Herts Lynx packs up at 23:30?

I tried booking a return at 23:00, and yes I know that would only give me 12 minutes to enjoy a quick orange juice and a packet of crisps but DRT users can’t be fussy. And guess what? Another success. In fact a double success as I got offered a choice of two departures.

The first at 22:50, two minutes after I’d arrived and the second 11 minutes after that at 23:01.

As I reflected on this booking experience and began writing these words I realised I was once again being unrealistic in expecting a DRT service in a rural area to be available at four, five or even six hours notice on a Saturday evening. After all, residents of Buntingford have never had the luxury of public transport so late before.

So I decided this blog must end on a positive and went back to the app to book an evening out in Royston in a week’s time, next Saturday. There’s bound to be an uncommitted bus for my “specific journey” seven days ahead.

Err, sadly not. What about in two weeks time?

Err, sadly not. What about in three weeks time?

Err, sadly not. Surely in four weeks time?

I’ll leave it there with no more comment other than …. more DRT riding experiences next Sunday.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS and Su DRT extras.

16 thoughts on “The DRT renowned for its success”

  1. It see.s that HertsLynx has to be booked too far on advance to suit many people. Take an example of being offered a medical appointment next Friday at 10.00. Being offered a ride at 15.30 in 3 Thursdays time would be absolutely useless.
    It will be interesting to see who takes up the Dacorum operation.
    Also, according to the Herts. Advertiser, a small operation funded by the local council is to start sometime in the Potters Bar area as well as a link for the missing bus between Potters Bar and Barnet.

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  2. From the limited data it appears to be no more successful than any other DRT service with between 1 & 2 passengers an hour. Whether the 2,600 trips a month is the Average or they chose the best month is not clear

    There is a bus between Buntingford and Stevenage the 386 it runs from Bishops Stortford via Buntingford Letchworth Hitchin and Stevenage
    The 331 service was going to be withdrawn but it looks as if HCC persuaded Arriva to carry on with it which tends to indicated it is barely commercially viable

    Not being able to book so many trips seems a little strange given the average passenger loading. It may indicate they are not actually using 4 buses

    It might be better to have a hub and spoke network of fixed time but semi flexible routes
    Most trips I would suspect would be between Buntingford and the hub Towns

    By now they should have a lot of detailed information as to when and where they are travelling to and from

    Maybe improve the service 18 and split the 386 into two sections

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  3. A great read Roger, all the more so, as I was brought up in this area of Hertfordshire, and remember better times when it came to public transport.

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  4. Sounds like they don’t have enough buses/drivers, probably both, which is why it’s hard to book rather than because other passengers are using it.I don’t know how they can call it a ‘regular’bus service since it’s neither regular in operation or in how you catch it assuming that you can actually catch it.

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  5. > There’s no direct bus service between Buntingford and Stevenage.
    Cough, 386 Richmond Coaches, cough!
    Mind you, the current four buses a day is a it’s a shadow of the previous two-hourly all-day service from Stevenage to Stansted Airport (the current route 386 extended, which in the Uno era also started back from Hatfield).
    As a North Herts resident I often see the Lynx and a driver about. One day I hope to see it pass with a passenger on board 🙂

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    1. Errmm … Route 386 is now Central Connect.
      I think you’re referring to Route 700 …. which barely lasted two years before being withdrawn.
      North Hertfordshire, outside Stevenage and Hitchin, is very “thin” bus territory … there have never been regular bus services, mist villages being served with market day routes only since, well, forever!!
      HertsLynx will go the way of all other DRTs ….

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      1. Thanks, Greeline727.
        I must admit I haven’t looked at the side of an actual 386 recently, though the nearest stop is only 400 yards away. But the Intalink PDF timetable says the 386 Central Connect is operated by Richmond.
        In my memory, the 700 lasted longer (I used to catch it from Letchworth to the Airport about once a quarter about 10+ years ago), but that could easily be my mind playing tricks on me!

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        1. Route 386 has a Richmond’s TuTh return journey at the Stortford end . . . the rest of the service is Central Connect.
          I thought Route 700 was short-lived, but like you, the memory sometimes plays tricks!!

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        1. The 700 ran through to at least the end of August 2015, I think this was when the service was merged into the 386 to maintain most of the local links but losing the service to Stansted Airport & running at a reduced frequency. Bob is correct that it had started by 2006 in that form with Trustline (that was the year they bought new branded buses for it), passing along with the rest of that operation to Centrebus in 2009 who ran it until March 2011 when it was lost to Uno under tender who ran it until March 2015 when it was won back by Centrebus until August 2015 when it was finally withdrawn. I think Richmonds won the original tender in 2015 but lost it on subsequent tendering to Central Connect but it appears retained a couple of trips that are probably tied in with another contract in the area.

          I assume the reason why the Herts Lynx buses aren’t allowed to use the bus station is that as a demand responsive service it doesn’t have a timetable so can’t be allocated departure slots at a stand in the bus station so to avoid clashes with scheduled services with the bus picking up or dropping off they just don’t go in and just use the drop off stop on the main road.

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  6. The problem with the current DRT obsession is exactly the same the same as twenty-five years ago, when the Blair/Prescott government threw £50 million at Rural Bus Services, albeit with restrictions in disallowing existing services to be propped up. All very well meaning, but £49 million was simply wasted on schemes that stood no chance of survival.

    Governments of all persuasion are not “fleet of foot” when it comes to spending taxpayers money, and simply allocate a fixed sum to some grand scheme such as “solving the rural transport problem” with DRT, the money being invariably wasted…sorry, spent until there is no more left in the pot. Move on to next “whizzy” idea and line up for the group photograph!

    Thus, even if some hapless DfT Official (at his peril) dares to point out to whoever the current Minister may be, that the money may be better spent on strengthening existing fixed services perhaps in the manner of Compass 99, it just will not happen. So, hopeless schemes will continue to pop up until the purse is empty…….

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  7. What this particular blog appears to throw up is a potential issues about the service. It appeared to be almost impossible to book a trip which tends to indicate that the claimed 4 vehicles were not on the road but you have no way of knowing that? It would be interesting to know how many attempted trip bookings actually resulted in being able to book a journey . On the basis of this reports it would appear to be likely to be very low.

    How can DRT be properly regulated and the service monitored?

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  8. Full flexibility just seems too impractical an offer. Even paying full taxi fares it’s hard to get a ride in more rural areas these days. Semi flexibility where a DRT meets a fixed route arrival and then meanders to where the pick ups need to be dropped off and in the other direction guarantee to connect a defined area with a town centre arrival at a specific time so long as you book 30-60 minutes in advance seem the only possible viable model for DRT.

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  9. Two thoughts about DRT in general
    1/ The quality of the result can be scored using Jarret Walker’s “7 requirements of public transit” criteria. Now that would be a good blog post–all Roger’s DRT experiences scored on a grid categorised that way

    2/ DRT is subject to a very challenging tipping point. You want enough people to use it to fulfil its function of social cohesion, but not be so successful that everyone wants to use it as that would be unsustainable (for regular use) and would crowd out the people who need to use it because they have very poor and expensive alternatives (if there was that degree of popularity you would replace DRT with some scheduled buses***, maybe with flexible rail and ride/request stop sections of the route). I don’t know exactly how to resolve that conundrum in a simple to explain, simple to understand, and equitable way. Discounted Taxi voucher schemes is probably the best that you could do.

    US Airport shared shuttle van “DRT” shows us what a popular and financially sustainable service looks like, but it is unaffordable for regular use (these tend to be a bit cheaper than regular taxi for exclusive use, with a fixed price and guaranteed booking unlike Uber/Lyft, but much more expensive than a bus with transfers as needed). “Dollar vans” are something in between where you trade certainty of schedule for cost. (Great video on YT from “Miles in Transit”–not me!–showing real world Dollar van “DRT” experience between NYC and NJ)

    ***The experience of Morgantown PRT is interesting in this context. Morgantown is probably the world’s largest PRT/Pod fixed guideway transit scheme. During off peak the system runs in demand responsive mode, where you call a pod for a specific destination on the system, and you get an express point to point or near express service (minimal stops en-route to pick up only I believe). The pod might be exclusive or might be shared (from start or en-route). Some large buildings now have DRT lifts that operate similarly. But in peak periods the pods run schedules because DRT cannot provide the same capacity PPPHPD that a optimised scheduled service can (rarely seen as a capability in DRT lifts, and I have been in a couple of buildings where the lifts would benefit from scheduled running in peak).

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