Thursday 23rd April 2026
They keep on coming. Thanks to the Government’s three year award of Local Authority Bus Grant (which has hoovered up BSIP and BSOG previously paid to Councils) we are seeing a number of new routes continuing to start up across the country.
So far this week I’ve taken a ride on three examples introduced ten days ago on Monday 13th April to see what the chances are of them becoming a permanent feature of the bus scene.
All three routes operate on Mondays to Fridays with no weekend service.
First up is route 33 in Hertfordshire providing a new four-return-journeys a day link between Hoddesdon and Bishops Stortford.
Operated by Central Connect for Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) using a one year old Mercedes Sprinter which I reckon is going to have to work hard to gather up enough passengers to make this new route worthwhile.
Dan and the HCC team have so far done a good job introducing enhanced inter-urban links across the county as well as supplementing Arriva’s network but I think this one is going to struggle.
I sampled the route on Monday and sadly no timetable information was on display along the route. Worse than that, in the two villages which have regained a bus service – Gilston and High Wych – the bus stops still had notices on display advising passengers “this Bus Stop is currently not served by any local passenger buses”.
Unsurprisingly no-one travelled on the journey I made (at 12:20) between Hoddesdon and Bishops Stortford and although the incoming journey to Hoddesdon dropped a passenger off at the Clock Tower, Simon, the driver, told me she’d just boarded at the previous stop served by Arriva’s frequent route 310 making for an otherwise empty journey.
The other obvious route characteristic was a ridiculously slack running time – Simon warned me as I boarded we’d be stopping frequently to wait time and he was right. We reached every timing point early and all told spent 21 minutes standing idle on an end-to-end journey scheduled for 62 minutes.
Not only that, but waiting time for six minutes at one of the timing points – in Gilston at the Plume of Feathers pub – involved stopping on a busy road near bends causing a hazard for other road users passing by.
Furthermore, three minutes of the journey sees the bus speeding along the A414 dual carriageway for two and three quarter miles where there are no bus stops and no potential passengers.
Add to that, the journey I caught is timed one minute behind one of the hourly journeys on route 25 which serves similar points leaving Hoddesdon (albeit by a slightly different route), including that stretch of the A414, before turning off for Harlow…
… then after the exclusive section of route through the villages of Gilston and High Wych we emerged in Sawbridgeworth following an Arriva bus on route 510 into Bishops Stortford.
Admittedly the other journeys are not timed in the same way in that the frequency of the 33 is every 70 minutes but it does bring home the only new markets being served by this new route are to those two villages or for anyone wanting to travel between Hoddesdon and Bishops Stortford.
Simon was making notes of where the timetable can be amended each time we paused and had already reported the need to update the timetable displays so hopefully some action will be taken on both fronts otherwise any passengers who do manage to find out about this new route serving their village will soon become frustrated at the prolonged journey time.
When I checked on Monday, a week after introduction, the Hertfordshire network bus map on the Intalink website hadn’t yet been updated to include the 33…
… but I’m pleased to report it has now been added including the exclusive section of route now served by this new route.
Next up yesterday was a visit to Suffolk to sample two of the three routes introduced by that County Council – the third between Diss and Framlingham will have to wait for another day.
These two routes – numbered 51 and 52 – are also operated by Central Connect (albeit currently using the soon to be abandoned Konectbus name)…
… with another one year old Mercedes Sprinter in the company’s livery (and with a fleet name this time) and provides a link between Stowmarket and Hadleigh (51) and from Hadleigh to three nearby villages (52).
Route 51 comprises six return journeys every two hours from 07:00 to 17:00 (return times from Stowmarket 07:40 to 17:40) with a 34/36 minute end to end journey time.
On arrival into Hadleigh at 10:16 and 12:16 the bus and driver do an anti-clockwise circuit on route 52 which takes 31 minutes. I guess at 08:16, 14:16 and 16:16 the driver has a break or there’s a changeover.
Sadly once again there was no timetable information on display throughout the route which is particularly unfortunate at Stowmarket railway station where the number of bus departures on other routes is severely limited with no indication to passengers this situation has now changed very much for the better.
Route 51 provides new travel opportunity for people living in the villages of Great Finborough, Hitcham and Bildeston…
… while route 52 gives an out and back journey opportunity to Hadleigh for an 89 minute visit from the villages of Aldham, Elmsett and Whatfield.
I did a round trip on both routes leaving Stowmarket at 11:40 (51), Hadleigh at 12:20 (52) and Hadleigh at 13:00 (51). I was encouraged to see three passengers alight as the bus arrived at Stowmarket at 11:34 but only one person travelled on the next 51 journey (Hitcham to Hadleigh) with two going home from Hadleigh to Elmsett (on the 52) and no one travelling to Stowmarket at 13:00.
Still, its early days and with no publicity out there at bus stops the aforementioned numbers must be considered credible.
More positively, Central Connect (Konectbus) has produced a Hadleigh Bus Guide, with copies available on the bus, containing timetables, fare and route information for both the 51 and 52 and also its route 53/53A which provides a Wednesday only shopping journey to Bury St Edmunds.
This is very commendable but it’s a shame it doesn’t include other bus routes in Hadleigh to make it more useful for passengers especially as I’m sure they’re probably all funded by the County Council including another operated by Konectbus – the hourly route 50 to Sudbury.
These new routes 51/52 have significantly improved travel opportunities for people living in the aforementioned villages. Until now residents have had a once a day route 461 operated by Hadleigh Community Transport (which has now been made somewhat superfluous but is still running)…
… as well as route 111 operated by Mulleys Motorways with three return journeys between Hitcham and Bildeston to Ipswich.
Both routes 51 and 52 offer some lovely Suffolk scenery to enjoy including the charming village of Bildeston with its clock tower…
… some lovely countryside…
… as well as narrow lanes around the 52 route.
I just hope the current £9 million per annum funding stream enjoyed by the County Council continues beyond 2029….
… so the routes don’t just become a three year piece of bus route history, as numbers travelling will never make for a commercial proposition.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
I don’t how Roger does it! I had been thinking that I ought to e-mail him and tell him about a couple of new routes that have just started in rural Suffolk. Not only does he know about them, he has already been on them which is more than I’ve done.
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In VERY round terms, and assuming that a bus route with 1 PVR and a single-shift operating day costs around £150K pa, that’s around 60 PVR that could be funded!! That’s substantial, especially as any route funding does not now need to be for “new” routes, as early BSIP funding was. Of course, the BSOG funding has been subsumed into the overall pot, but even so . . .
This area of Suffolk was originally served by Corona Coaches, and was where John Hibbs “cut his teeth” in operating buses in the 1950s. It was Hibbs, of course, that was the original architect of the 1985 Transport Act, which spawned bus deregulation of 1986, and which is now being steadily dismantled in big urban areas, and being left alone elsewhere.
I’ll need to check . . . but wasn’t the road between Hadleigh and Stowmarket via Bildeston one end of the Corona London route? A through service from Bildeston to London every day (and with weekend duplicates as well) . . . seems inconceivable now!!
This new Route 33 was served by various LT Country Bus and Coach incarnations, as part of various longer routes, but the “freehold” section hasn’t been served for many a long year . . . I can’t help thinking that any local passenger traffic would be to / from Harlow, so like Roger, I can’t see this one lasting very long.
I hope that Herts CC have some vigorous monitoring in place to see if any passengers do actually use the route . . . I’d be surprised if more than 10 passengers a day travel (excluding the St Margarets – Hoddesden section, of course); or is there a school movement at the Stortford end?
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Without looking it all up, I think the 33 freehold was served until very recently by the Epping Forest CT 347 “bread van” which trundled between Harlow and Hatfield Broad Oak. It ran almost without any identification, and thus only “those in the know” and those pretty quick on their feet were able to stop it at places en route! But how on earth did they get the timings so wrong? I had to look twice when I saw the timetable, and now this has been confirmed.
Good to see the Bildeston-Hadleigh road being served once more regularly, as together with the lost Sudbury link, the whole area only had a normal service to Ipswich. Sadly, none of this is likely to last as it is almost too much for passengers who have been used to virtually zero for years. Unless of course our beloved London-centric Politicians are planning to build over yet more farmland!
And I do hope John Hibbs is looking down and smiling, seeing such developments on his “patch”. I was once trapped in a lift with him for almost an hour, and learned what a fantastic Suffolk accent he could imitate.
Terence Uden
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Doubtless the 62’00 on the 33 could be whittled down to 55’00 to give an hourly frequency, but really there is no shame in standing waiting time every now and again. Wait til the winter, Black Friday, an accident on the A10/A414 or the inevitable roadworks, and all that slack time will come in handy. The bus I get to work [Stagecoach East X5] arrives 15’00-30’00 late every day in both directions because of hopelessly optimistic scheduling. That’s a worse situation.
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I can’t help but think this funding would be best spent on improving the existing network, providing timetable information and bus stops, putting on extra evening/Sunday journeys, etc. Spending in this way would hopefully increase ridership and perhaps tip some routes over into being commercial. This only results in moving fresh air around that will stop when the funding runs out. It seems such a waste of money.
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Bury St. Edmunds – Bildeston – Hadleigh
Konectbuses have renamed the service 379 to service 53.
53A (461)
Whatfield – Elmsett – Hadleigh
Konectbuses have renamed the service 461 (Wednesday only service) to service 53A. The Hadleigh CT service 461 (non-Wednesdays) remains as 461.
A lot of housing is planned for the Gilston area
Harlow and Gilston Garden Town
To help meet the challenging level of housing need in East Herts, the council has allocated land in the Gilston Area for a new development of 10,000 homes.
The allocation was approved after a lengthy independent examination by the Planning Inspectorate and the site forms part of the development strategy identified in the East Herts District Plan 2018.
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Some updates from Central Connect:
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Interesting , where space allows should bus stops have a “coming soon . from date . bus route number. from/to” advert put in them with website to have the timetable on ? then ensure panels swapped – for m/f services can be done in a weekend – with the times for the go live date.
Maybe that Hoddesdon terminator should also visit the other recent bit of west development there for a northern transport option or drop down to the other development area also recently mentioned if the 33 times allow for such within a 58 min running time, departures not being full clockface is not overall a big worry more that departures are timed to be useful
JBC Prestatyn
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While I note narrow lanes and I have previously not been against the privatisation era colourful bread vans on town services it does seem a Spinter has a welfare transport air about it. Somehow something like a proper bus engine at the back and doors at the front seems better.
On the other hand providing hand additional wheelchair capacity can mean those apparent duplicated timings might prove to be useful if people who need it get to know
JBC Prestatyn
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I think it would be more sensible for the 33 to just run between Gilston and Bishops Stortford
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Thanks, Roger, for your observations.
Note that the 33 is being funded through developer contributions from the St James’ Park housing estate in Bishop’s Stortford and not through BSIP/Local Authority Bus Grant. This should give the route a bit more time to establish itself as the funding stream is quite generous.
It is always going to take some time to generate patronage when you are putting villages back on the bus map. As Terence Uden says, in the later years the 347 had become something of a half-hearted attempt to serve Gilston and High Wych.
Greenline727 is right to mention school movements. I am convinced there is unmet demand on this route for school travel as the 33 serves both Leventhorpe School in Sawbridgeworth and the recently-relocated Bishop’s Stortford High School at St James’ Park.
The 33 also provides a quicker journey time from St James’ Park into Bishop’s Stortford as the existing 511 service does a rather circuitous loop around Thorley.
As mentioned elsewhere, a revised timetable will start in July which should address the running time on this route. Those Sprinter minibuses do live up to their name, however, and I do wonder whether the timetable is more easily achieved with a small Enviro 200, even though the capacity is not (yet!) required…
Dan Tancock
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