Having A Heart for HERT in Herts (3)

At The HERT Of The Matter

The thick green line on the map above shows the routes to be developed as the Herfordshire and Essex Rapid Transit system. The map is a bit fuzzy (like the plan?) but fbb has already reviewed existing bus services along the corridor.

Provisional plans have been revealed as to the pattern of service proposed.

Between Watford and St Albans the HERT network map shows a YELLOW service supplemented by a DARK GREEN service which continues to Welwyn Garden City - similar to today's 321 and 724. FOUR buses every hour.

Between Hemel Hempstead and St Albans we have the GREY route, where current bus route 302 is hourly.

Between St Albans and Hatfield the 302 is joined by the 301 and the 724. THREE buses every hour. Under the HERT plan the two services from St Albans continue via Hatfield to Welwyn Garden City. They are joined by the LIGHT GREEN and the BLACK services.

Currently there is a mixture of routes between the latter two communities.

There may well be 10 buses every hour but some are indirect in order to serve Q E 2 Hospital (centre right).

It is hard to second guess which route the HERT would use, but you would expect it to serve the hospital; but that would be at the expense of a direct and speedy link between the two towns. The planners are going to have some fun responding to "consultation" there!

The LIGHT GREEN and the BLACK HERT services continue to Hertford currently linked by the 324 and 724 every 30 minutes but by different routes.

Today's service from Hertford to Cheshunt is 310 every 15 minutes and the lengthy 724 continues to Harlow (off map, right) every hour.

The Hertfordshire Council press release, summarised in fbb's blog yesterday, talked about continuing to Stansted Airport. This extra chunk of HERT does not appear on any published map of the proposed system because, presumably, it will rely on Essex Council to adopt the idea.

For the record, Arriva runs 508/509/510 every TEN minutes ...

... with three route variations between Bishops Stortford and the Airport.

What seem fairly obvious to fbb is that some of the sections of HERT, as proposed, are nowhere near frequent enough to justify a proper "rapid transit" system. You have to wonder where all the extra passengers are going to come from!

Leaving aside the Stansted airport "unknown", the key question is what form will this so-called rappid transit network take.

Even the BBC has proffered a note of caution.

The idea of laying tram tracks along the road between Watford and St Albans, for example, seems an expensive non-starter. There's not a lot of spare room available travelling north in Watford ...

... then there is a bit of dual carriangeway on the "North Orbital" with room for trams in the central reservation ...

... but getting trams through the centre of St Albans would prove a hefty practical and an even heftier political challenge; not to mention a hyper-hefty price!

fbb reckons that this cunning plan will soon degenerate into a few bus lanes, bus priority at some junctions and perhaps, perhaps, trendy buses in a trendy livery. Something like First's "ftr"?

And we all know what a huge success that was.

It has a family likeness.

Maybe MAGLEV?

Perhaps a politician ...

... should have the last (?) word.

Hmmmm?

 Next Identity Crisis blog : Friday 13th August