A trilogy of new bus routes

Thursday 11th September 2925

Catching up on last week’s developments with a look at three more new bus routes which began on 31st August/1st September….

First up is a new link between Leigh-on-Sea and Southend Airport and its adjacent Business Park funded by Southend City Council.

Stephensons are operating the two year contract with an option to extend for a third year using three brand new ADL Enviro200 buses bought for the service and adorned in a bespoke livery promoting the route.

Buses run half hourly until just south of the Airport/Business Park where the route splits to either one or the other destination, both served hourly.

Journeys to and from the Airport are numbered 23A and those to the Business Park 23B. Buses interwork between the two on at the southern terminus outside Leigh-on-Sea railway station.

The timetable looked a bit tight on first glance with no layover time shown at either the Airport or Business Park although there is nine minutes at Leigh-on-Sea but taking a ride last week soon scotched that thought as, particularly in the off-peak, the allocated times between stops are quite generous. Despite a number of temporary traffic lights on the route we paused a few times to maintain the schedule in both directions.

Departures from the Business Park include 11 minutes layover although this is not clear from the timetable and this shifts location on the loop before or after 12:33.

The route through Leigh, Belfairs and Eastwood provides new direct links not previously available as well as a new link to the airport and Business Park.

However to serve the Airport effectively the span of the operating day needs to be longer and I doubt just five daytime journeys (every 90 minutes) on a Sunday will be of much use.

But, that aside, it’s good to see Bus Service Improvement Plan funding being used for this initiative – it’s Southend-on-Sea City Council’s first tendered bus route for about 20 years I’m told – and it was encouraging to see half a dozen to ten passengers travelling on the journeys I made and others I observed bearing in mind it was only on day four when I travelled.

Posters on display at Leigh-on-Sea railway station promoted the new route and a leaflet with map and timetable was available..,

… on board buses.

Timetables had been posted at bus stop’s along the route although…

… I spotted one without a display in the Business Park; apparently the Council gave Stephensons the wrong size so initially the displays wouldn’t fit, but that’s now been rectified.

Next up is a quick review of uno’s new cross Potters Bar links which as explained in a recent blog involve an extension of routes 242 (from Waltham Cross) and 84B (from Barnet and now renumbered 243) from their erstwhile Potters Bar terminus continuing half hourly north to Hatfield in place of the curtailed hourly 610.

Uno has been running double decks on the 242 for a while but it’s now also upgraded the new 243 to a double deck operation albeit I think it’ll be a long time before numbers travelling justify that capacity.

I had a look at both routes on Monday aiming to catch the 242 scheduled to leave Waltham Cross at 10:35 by boarding in Cuffley at 11:10 and travel over to Hatfield.

It turned out to be a long, uncomfortable and frustrating wait. Facilities at the bus shelter outside the railway station are limited for what turned out to be over an hour’s wait with a paucity of information.

The real time sign was unhelpfully blank.

The printed departure information in the bus shelter hadn’t been updated since 2021 and 2022 telling passengers erroneously the limited service on the 242 is run by Metroline and Arriva.

I rang the uno customer service contact number only to be put on hold despite my call “is important to us; our staff know you are waiting; thank you for your patience”. My patience ran out after 15 minutes when I hung up.

The uno tracking web page wasn’t showing any buses on the 242 east of Cuffley. Nor was Bus Times.

The driver of a Waltham Cross bound bus arriving on time at 11:50 told me he’d no idea where the 11:10 bus was and his bus wasn’t tracking either.

I nearly gave up but luckily saw the bus eventually appeared on the Bus Times website showing its late progress towards me, finally arriving at 11:56, running 46 minutes late on an hourly service.

I asked the driver if he’d broken down, to which he replied ‘no just problems with traffic in Waltham Cross and roadworks’. They must have been quite some roadworks to cause so much disruption.

The interesting thing was three passengers on the upper deck stayed on the bus at Potters Bar and looked like they were students at the University, so they’ve benefitted from the newly extended route already. We picked up one more passenger boarding on the outskirts of Cuffley who was just travelling the short distance to Northaw but didn’t look overly perturbed at having to wait so long for the bus.

The other three passengers on the lower deck all alighted at Potters Bar station as would have been the case when the route terminated there. A couple more boarded including one travelling to Brookmans Park, where another boarded, looking somewhat weary with the wait although she had the benefit of what is now a half hourly frequency from there (with the 243).

I continued on as far as Welham Green, changing my plans because of the lateness and picked up a southbound 243 there rather than in Hatfield, as originally planned. Three passengers got off that bus at the next stop leaving just me and two route learning drivers on the bus to Potters Bar with two boarding at the station travelling on towards Barnet. I left the bus in Potters Bar.

The routes taken by the 242 and 243 in Potters Bar take some getting used to with buses on the former towards Hatfield routed in from Northaw, passing the Metroline bus garage then Tesco, then the Station and then on towards Little Heath and to Brookmans Park. Whereas the 243 comes in from Barnet, goes past Tesco to the Station then doubles back to Tesco then past the bus garage and on through Little Heath towards Hatfield. So travelling from Tesco to Brookmans Park you have to be on the south side of the road for a 242 and the north side for a 243, although the 243 will also stop on the south side too on its double run to the station.

Thankfully Hertfordshire County Council’s map on its Intalink website has been updated as understanding the route intricacies is not helped by once again out of date timetables on display at Potters Bar station detailing the pre-change routes and times.

The same was the case in Welham Green…

… and a rather tatty bus shelter too.

Sadly this is becoming a recurring theme on these reviews.

And finally for this trilogy to Dartford to give the new half-hourly go-bus route 477 to Swanley a try out. This competes with Arriva’s hourly 477 (both are using the same route number) along the same roads to Swanley from where buses continue south to Orpington via Crockenhill making it a cross Greater London boundary service.

Even before go-bus began operating Arriva deregistered its operation taking effect from the end of next month leaving the road clear for go-bus to Swanley and as yet no news of what will happen south of there to Orpington, but I guess there’ll be an hourly extension funded by Kent County Council.

Update – it’s just been announced Go-Ahead has won the contract to provide a replacement for Arriva’s journeys on the 477 – see link provided in the Comments. It will be intersecting to see if go-bus continues it’s commercially operated 477.

Further update. I now understand Go-Ahead’s entry into the 477 market is a commercial venture not tendered which makes the future of the go-bus 477 even more intriguing.

I caught the new go-bus departure at 10:58 from Dartford yesterday but was in time to see Arriva’s 10:39 leave a bit late at 10:45 with six boarding.

Go-bus left with just one passenger besides myself but three more joined us at the next stop in Lowfield Street although one alighted at the following stop. Two more boarded in Wilmington and three in Hextable making nine on the journey all told.

The return journey at 11:30 from the rather bleak bus stop alongside Swanley’s Asda left with three picking up one in Hextable and one on the outskirts of Dartford.

Passing the bus on the opposite half hour’s running to the one I caught had four or five heading towards Dartford and an impressive 10 on board towards Swanley.

In both cases that bus was followed by the Arriva journey (its timed six minutes in front northbound and 11 minutes southbound) which had four or five on board each time.

It looks like go-bus has already become the leading operator and passengers seemed to know about the service, and importantly, the new timetable.

This is obviously helped by go-bus displaying its timetables at bus stops throughout the route as well as having supplies of a timetable leaflet, with a map included inside, on board buses.

Indeed, contrary to experience elsewhere, it was good to see every bus stop had a timetable on display including the terminus stop by Asda in Swanley offering passenegers a choice of either consulting the TfL produced rather grubby timetable for Arriva’s 477…

… Arriva’s own departure listing as well as the go-bus timetable.

The go-bus half hourly timetable reduces to hourly in the afternoons to accommodate a journey variation to serve Wilmington Grammar School as well as covering route D12 to Dartford Grammar Schools but passengers will be spoilt for choice over the next few weeks.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS