Thursday 2nd November 2023
Hot on the heels of last Thursday’s blog catching up with the six month old route 907 between Stevenage and Cheshunt comes another Hertfordshire County Council inspired new bus route introduced this week. It’s numbered 908 and runs between Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City.
Like the 907 it falls under the fledgling network branded as Connect Herts although I could only find reference to that on the online pdf timetable so I’m not sure whether it will soon be receiving new buses funded by the Council and DfT as the 907 has.
Also like the 907, the new 908 operates hourly with last buses around 18:30 but unlike the 907 is a Monday to Saturday only service rather than daily.
The bus I caught on Monday was a 15 year old Arriva Optare Versa with the usual mixed moquette giving away its age.
A complication with branding the buses on the 908 would be the timetable interworks at the Stevenage end with local town circular route SB18 to Bragbury End so it’s probably just as well the two buses allocated to the routes only sport basic Arriva livery.
The interworking makes for quite a tight schedule with buses arriving into Stevenage from Welwyn Garden City at 27 minutes past the hour, leaving at 30 as an SB18, returning at 00 then leaving for Welwyn Garden City as a 908 at 05.
Five minutes stand time is allocated at Welwyn Garden City with a 43 arrival and 48 departure giving a 38/39 minute journey time between the towns depending on direction.
On my northbound journey at 11:48 from Welwyn Garden City we paused for 2-3 minutes in Welwyn and still left a couple of minutes early so the running time looks generous.
Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City have long been linked by half-hourly trunk route 301 on its journey onwards to Hatfield and St Albans. For much of its route between Stevenage, Knebworth and Welwyn the 908 duplicates the 301 but whereas the latter serves the Digswell Park area in Welwyn Garden City, the 908 brings buses to the original (and still named) Great North Road before turning into Valley Road bringing a new and I guess welcome service to this area previously only having school route 366 (see maps below and above).
It’s a shame the timetable doesn’t offer better spacing between the 301 on the long common section of route. Southbound daytime departures on the 301 leave Stevenage bus station at 14 and 44 which isn’t too bad for the 05 route 908 but northbound from Welwyn, St Mary’s Church route 301 is at 10 and 40 with the 908 at 06.
Once on the outskirts of Stevenage northbound journeys on the 908 are also timed at almost the same time as the hourly 907 following the same route with the former arriving at the bus station at 27 and the latter at the bus stop alongside the railway station at 26. Indeed a bus on route 907 passed us on the way into Stevenage (see below).
I acknowledge it’s always difficult to achieve perfect spacing though, especially when different services have different route end destinations meaning you can get it right in one direction but not the other.
All told we carried 10 adults and two young children on the 11:48 but all of these had been abstracted from the closely timed 301. No one boarded in the newly served Valley Road but obviously Monday was only the first weekday and not all timetable displays had been updated.
Stevenage bus station sported a 908 timetable but not Welwyn Garden City although both had departures showing on the electronic displays.
The Where To Board Your Bus Poster in Welwyn Garden City hadn’t been updated and at the time of writing Hertfordshire’s online maps for Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City haven’t been updated.
I also note Hertfordshire has removed its very helpful countywide map from its Intalink website which is a shame as the information is still displayed on the individual area maps (see above maps taken from the website) so I would have thought there was no additional cost in displaying a countywide map.
Perhaps they’re waiting for two more new bus routes being introduced later this month. They’e also funded from the County’s Bus Service Improvement Plan and begin on 20th November. Operated by Arriva, one will also link Stevenage, Knebworth and Welwyn Garden City before continuing via Hatfield, St Albans and Watford to Rickmansworth on an hourly Mondays to Saturdays timetable. Oddly rather than being numbered in the 9xx series, and although still to be part of the Connect Herts brand, it’s taking the number 725 as I assume much of it parallels the 724 which of course still retains (kind of) the legacy Green Line brand. There could be some brand confusion here – is there really room for both Connect Herts and Green Line as brands?
The second route, numbered 721, links Luton with Hemel Hempstead via Harpenden and St Albans and will run half-hourly Mondays to Fridays and be a Connect Herts route too, but like the 908 it’s not clear whether this will be applied to vehicles or just online pdf timetables, in which case it’s rather diluted.
It’s nice to see these new routes being introduced and the County Council developing inter-urban links across the county. Let’s hope they grow the market as route 907 seems to be doing but I think it might help to make it clear what the Connect Herts and/or Green Line brands stand for.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
Comments are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
Hertfordshire still has the county maps on the routes, timetables and maps on the right hand side drop menu.
Although I like improvements services on evenings and Sundays need a better improvement than these routes do.
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Those turnround times look far too tight to me. And if an hourly service isn’t reasonably reliable it’ll soon lose whatever custom it might attract initially.
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Actually, they are proving ok so far. The 908 has a generous running time, but it will be interesting to see how much of this will be needed when the route fits more neatly into other departures from Stevenage and patronage grows.
Dan Tancock
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Thanks, Roger, for another Herts Blog!
The Welwyn Garden City timetables were posted on the afternoon of your visit.
You are quite correct that the 908 sits uneasily with departures on the 301. This changes from the 20th of November when the other Connect Herts routes start. The 908 started early as, like you said, the bus also runs the SB18 Stevenage town service that replaces a withdrawn facility. From November, Monday to Friday departures per hour will be xx05 (908), xx20 (301), xx35 (725) and xx50 (301). This increases buses from Stevenage to Welwyn Garden City from two to four buses an hour at clock face departures.
Incidentally, the same principle applies over the rest of the network. For example, St Albans to Hemel Hempstead goes up from two to four buses an hour (302 and 721); Watford to St Albans goes up to six buses an hour (321, 602, 724 and 725) and Hemel Hempstead to Watford increases to five buses an hour, via varying routes (20 and 322). There will also be new direct links, such as Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead as a result of these changes.
Generic Connect Herts branding is hoped to be applied to ten Arriva buses to help raise awareness of the new routes.
Maybe another visit in November?
Dan Tancock
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That’s all very encouraging to read Dan and makes good sense; many thanks for the update.
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Historically, Valley Road had the earlier service into WGC with Route 330; Route 330A came later via Lemsford Lane after the housing was built. Valley Road has expensive houses along most of its length, so Route 908 looks like a “network filler” rather than an attempt to search for passengers.
The timetables for Routes 721 and 725 are on the Arriva website: https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/herts-and-essex . . . scroll down and look for Hertfordshire Network changes (for once, it’s relatively easy to find!!).
I kind of get the 721 and 725 numbers; they relate to 321 and 724 well, but as to whether they’ll be branded . . . I believe that Arriva hold the copyright to Green Line and charge for its use (reference Reading earlier in 2023), so probably not. Bearing in mind Arriva’s record on route branding in Hertfordshire . . . it’s probably best that they don’t!!
It’s good that Route 907 seems to be doing well. Southbound after 19 November, we’ll have 05;20;35;50 departures from Stevenage towards WGC . . . northbound from WGC they will be at 18;28;48;58; not too bad, but from Welwyn (because of the differing routings) it’s 06;14;31;44 . . . not so good.
The interworkings on the rest of the Connect Herts network look to be pretty good as well, and on a large scheme like this some compromises will always be needed. I would have liked to see some commonality in the route numbers used to promote the CH “network” . . . perhaps there is a reason somewhere??
It’ll be interesting to get Roger’s take on the November changes . . . spoiler alert . . . Watford’s route network reliability has been terrible for the last 19 months, and I don’t expect it to improve . . . simply inadequate recovery times, so delays knock on for hours and hours.
greenline727.
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Thanks for the additional info; much appreciated.
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My post crossed with Dan T’s post, so some of my points have been answered before I asked them!! A tiny correction: Hemel to Watford (and vv) increases to 6 BPH (3 on each route) on weekdays.
I think that including Route 602 in the St Albans-Watford departures is a wee bit ingenious . . . 602 is a lot longer in routing, and I can’t imagine anyone in Watford using it to get to St Albans!!
Nonetheless . . . a laudable attempt to improve the overall Hertfordshire network, and hopefully it will be self-sustaining after BSIP++ money runs out. The £2 fare extension will help no end . . .
greenline727
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Yes, your quite right re. Hemel to Watford.
Intelligence received this morning that passengers were seen boarding in Valley Road!
Dan Tancock
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Yikes!! Every little helps . . .
greenline727
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It’s several weeks since a Saturday morning when I travelled from Luton to Hemel, changing at St Albans from the 321 to the 302. I didn’t know till I arrived at the changeover that my intended onward 302 had been cancelled…. and of course the next was 15 minutes late, so the effective service interval was 45 minutes.. I wish there had been 6 or even 5 bph that day.
Which begs the question – where are all the extra drivers coming from?
Ian McNeil
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There is some thinning going on as well. Hemel local service 2 goes from 15 to 20 minutes and the 321 goes from 20 to 30 minutes. The 335/336 and one of the Stevenage town services are being deregistered by Arriva. There’s also a hugely complex series of amends to the services around Watford (yet again) where its difficult to work out the impact on the PVR without printing out before and after timetables.
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Well we liveim. Bragbury End Stevenage so have really felt the benefit of the 907. My experience is they are generally on time, with more destination options to the south and the buses are far superior to anything Arriva is offering in terms of noise and comfort. My anecdotal evidence is the service appears well patronised.
Personally I would like to see the sb18 removed (apart from late pm) as a service and the 908 extended to replace it. This would mean no change to the actual service but a through route would then be available to destinations from Bragbury End to WGC all be it a little round the houses to start with. This would mean you wouldnt pay twice at Stevenage if you wanted to do this.
Ian Thompson
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I won’t repeat my comments on route branding other than to say that unless it is possible to achieve on 100% of the service, it is pointless and potentially misleading. What would be a very good idea is to adopt the Stagecoach Cambridge Park and Ride system of route colour coded blinds…and PLEASE can we at least have blinds on ALL services that can be read in anything more than a dark November day. The London-style franchise system has many faults, but at least they get the blinds right.
It has become quite ridiculous over that last few years as obviously “bright-tech” orange, or whatever it is called, has faded considerably on many vehicles, and is a nightmare for casual travellers or when trying to access buses at stops with multiple routes.
Whilst the Hertfordshire improvements are to be much welcomed, it seems odd that they could not wait a few weeks until the extensive timetable changes take place on parallel services. Many passengers not quite as up to speed with the bus network as most Readers of this blog, find changes confusing and a differing suite of route numbers in the 3xx, 7xx, 9xx series merely adds to such confusion.
And dare we hope this is all accompanied by having adequate numbers of Drivers available?
Terence Uden
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Re your point about route numbers. I would have thought that passengers might be aware of the 3xx and 7xx series of route numbers but 9xx are new and people may consider that they might be private works buses or closed school buses. Why not number them in the 3xx series – after all if they are happy to use 7xx, why not 3xx?
MotCO
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Might the differet route numbering sequence be because 721 and 725 will be lmited-stop services, whereas 907 and 908 presumaby serve all stops?
Jeremy B
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The maps of the Stevenage, Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City areas remind me of days long ago (1968 – 1972) when either with a Weekender Ticket (London Transport) or a Golden Rover Ticket (London Country) I would wind up in those Hertfordshire towns via Green Line Routes 716 & 716A – Routemaster coaches of course – from my home in Walton-on-Thames. In hindsight I wonder why they went via Richmond???
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Of course, the 366 being a “school route” is a very recent affair, having previously been… almost hourly? from WGC (and Hatfield) to Luton.
I did wonder if the 907 could have served Lemsford which now has no service. (Not with the tight diagramming of the bus as you note, however!)
And it’s interesting the 366 is unsustainable but Uno now run a 610 and an X10 from Hatfield to Luton, so the demand is there in some form!
-Causton
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Perhaps those things are connected, the growth of the 610 focussed on the Uni (whatever the official arrangement between the Uni & the bus company they run there clearly will be financial advantages for the Uno routes in serving the Uni flows with students directed to use ‘their’ bus service, many of whom used to use the 366) has undermined the viability of the traditional 366 flow. This means most passengers don’t lose out but flows into Welwyn GC have been lost as a result of this focus on Hatfield.
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Demand for the 610 and X10 (the latter in particular) from UH students/staff is very much driven by the relative affordability of accommodation in Luton, I’ve been told.* I’ve been on a Luton-bound X10 double-decker that had to leave many passengers waiting at the de Havilland campus, so some Batford/Wheathampstead calls are likely skipped every day.
There are some B8L Evosetis on order, but they might not be delivered until next year.
[* Those with UH ID cards also benefit from discounts on singles/returns/10-trip bundles]
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I think the 366 was all-stops and via Wheathampstead, whereas the X10 is limited stop and avoids Wheathampstead. Uno provide the X10 specifically for students living in Luton and studying at Hatfield . . . accomodation is much cheaper in Luton. Uno is (and always was) aimed mainly at UH students, with “normal” passengers accomodated where possible. Agreed that the balance has shifted over 20 years, but even so, student travel needs will always come first.
greenline727
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The 721 and 725 will be limited stop so it makes sense to number them in the 700s. I agree however that the 900s numbering a bit confusing, I’d rather they were slotted into existing 500 or 600 series both of which are used for regular services.
But I guess we should be happy they aren’t duplicates given that we have duplicate 1s, 20s, 398s, 508s and a 9 which has nothing to do with the 9A-9C
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The choice of 9** series is a bit odd; you would ideally want some connection with the routes that they are augmenting. West of England Combined Authority has done something similar with their new BSIP routes with 5** (although they might claim that they do have the last vestiges of the former Avon numbering system that has some 5** routes).
Disappointing that for this new venture, they’ve selected some rather careworn vehicles.
BW2
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