An fbb Bludnet - Nay A Howler!
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Above is all tht is left of the now-closed hospital in Hitchin. Until 1972 it was called The Lister Hospital. In 1964 is was served by a London country bus route 808 as duly recorded in yesterday's blog. In that fateful year of 1972, the hospital in Hitchin was renamed as The Hitchin Hospital - neat name, eh?
The newly opened hospital at Stevenage was named The Lister Hospital. (This Lister guy gets around a bit. There'a another one in Chelsea, London!)
So fbb's reference to a 1973 bus route 800 ...
was misplaced, erroneous and more wally-featured that most of the old man's occasional slip ups. The 1973 800 was taking its out and in patients out to the new Lister Hospital and in Stevenage and had nothing to do with Hitchin.
Sorry, pardon!
1973 Versus 2024!
fbb will start with the easy ones first.
304
Centrebus is the operator.
Yep! That's all the easy ones! The 364 had disappeared from the green bus collection by 1973 and the 386 ...
So we can now tackle the 303
No such through route exists today. You now need FOUR separate services to complete the old 303 excursion if you were foolish enough to want to get from Hitchin to New Barnet by bus!
Hitchin to Stevenage 100/101
Stevenage to Hatfield 301
Hatfield to Potters Bar 610
This is in the hands of Uno ...
... although with better vehicles these days! Again only hourly.
Potters Bar to High Barnet 84B
Central Connect is the operator ...
... and if you wish to continue to New Barnet Station, like the 303, you will need a Transport for London bus. As a weary slacker, fbb could not be bothered to battle with TfL's poor information to add the details.
So FIVE bus routes from FOUR different operators replace one simple London country bus service.
It is good to enjoy the benefits of modern public transport!
383
Sometimes, even back in green bus days, bus schedulers knitted together lots of unprofitable bits of bus route in the hope that the sum of the parts would make a shilling or two, or perhaps lose a bit less.
fbb thinks this 383 is one such operation.
A few buses started from Stevenage (usually n7mbered 386) and found their way to Great Wymondley, where Church Green has a large amount of twee.
The 383 itself started in Oakfield Estate where the 1964 route, back then the titular 383, ran via Nine Springs Way.
Buses then trundled into Hitchin and back out again to Purwell Lane estate which just creeps into the 1973 Hitchin town map ...
... above, centre right. Occasional journeys then continued as on the 1963 map to the village of Weston, also served direct from Stevenage by an 807 back then.
Stevenage to Weston 391
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Oakfield Estate now gets a respectable and tidy service of hourly buses to both Hitchin and Stevenage, much better than in 1973.
Again Centrebus does the honours. Which leaves us with Purwell Lane Estate.
/Puwell Lane Estate has expanded significantly since 1973 and the time point is noted as "opp Chaucer Way" where there is little evidence of any "facilities" like, say, a bus stop sign or little luxuries like a timetable..jpg)
Arriva provides the 97 ....jpg)
... on this route with a number that looks suspiciously like that applied on a former United Counties scheme in the same area.
Again it is a much better service, tidier and easier to understand, than the former 383.
Centrebus 91 ...
... goes thataway, but on Saturdays only, terminating at the Red Lion where Hertfordshire thoughtfully provides a stop with flag, a shelter and a very small layby..jpg)
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The lady is walking dogs and baby, not waiting for a 391.
Hirchin to Oakfield Estate 80
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Hitchin to Purwell Lane 97
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Again it is a much better service, tidier and easier to understand, than the former 383.
Conclusions
It would be fair to say that (almost) everywhere served by London's country buses in 1973 still has a service is 2024.
Most services offer something better than 50 years ago which should be encouraging.
The problem, however, is the mess of different operators exacerbated by the devious wiles of the tendering authority, Hertfordshire.
There is little evidence of a printed route map and printed timetables.
The mess definitely needs a rethink to re-establish an obvious network that fits together and makes sense to newcomers to Hitchin and its district bus travel.
Perhaps network franchising really is the answer - if the money is available which, according to Rachel, it isn't!
fbb has every intention of looking at buses radiating from Watford in a later series of blogs. That will be after a week in the sanatorium to recover.
And a reminder. There is no Green Line 716 these days..jpg)
Sigh, again!
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Next Variety blog : Saturday 31st August
Oh Dear !! Where to start . . .
ReplyDeleteRoute 304 is now . . . Route 304 !! The timetables shown are correct, but the heading for the current timetable is wrong . . . NOT Route 88 (see yesterday's comment).
In re Weston and Route 383 . . . remember that, pre 1970, LT (CB&C) was restricted in Hitchin by the existence of the LT Special Area. UCOC couldn't work south of the town, LT couldn't work north of the town, so Route 383 was a collection of trips serving (then) small estates, plus Weston. FBB is correct in his analysis!
In the Weston photograph, note the bus shelter . . . this is an authentic LT "tubular" shelter dating from the 1950s !!
The current route network is certainly better than 50 years ago . . . one of the benefits of the NBC, although it took some time to be achieved (probably post deregulation, actually).
FBB's comment about Intalink is misplaced . . . actually, the Intalink website DOES prove it's all on-line, with look-up and pdf timetables, with pdf maps (although not always absolutely up-to-date), and the three maps are printed 2-3 times each year !! Contact Intalink and I'm sure they'll post them out to deepest, darkest, Devon !!
And finally . . . as a resident of SW Herts . . . "looking at buses radiating from Watford" . . . oh dear, oh dear !! I think I'll need a week in a sanatorium after that to recover . . . !!
Oh . . . and BTW . . . Intalink DOES post bus-stop timetables, although of the departure list style . . . not perfect, but better than nothing (and better than most of the country now . . . !!).
ReplyDeleteQuite, the 304 is still the 304 and is operated by Centrebus. The 88 runs to Luton.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the 303 it needs to be remembered that Hitchin to Potters Bar via Stevenage, WGC & Hatfield is just running down parallel to the ECML. Thameslink has vastly improved the frequency of local trains on that and journey times simply wouldn't be comparable so the market for any through travel via bus will be much smaller so a series of locally focused links with less scope for delays elsewhere in the county knocking on.
Also the 301 is half-hourly from Stevenage (& every 15-mins from WGC), as shown in the snippet FBB posted, not hourly as FBB claims.
Improvements to the train service (which started in the 1970s with the Great Northern Electrics) also contributed to the demise of Green Line 716/716a. That, and the route's shocking unreliability.
Delete