Empty buses running between High Barnet and Potters Bar cannot take passengers says TfL

28 Apr 2022
Written by Nick Jones

Transport for London has rejected a plea for out-of-service buses to offer a skeleton 84 service when heading back and forth between Potters Bar bus garage and stops where services start and terminate in High Barnet.

Since the withdrawal in early April of the 84 service between New Barnet and Potters Bar, residents in Hadley and other stops along the route have been urging TfL to allow passengers to take advantage of the empty buses that are frequently seen running up and the down the A1000.

263 and 307 buses which terminate at Barnet Hospital and are regularly seen marked as offering “No Service” as they return or leave the Metroline garage at Potters Bar.

TfL has turned down the suggestion saying it would not be possible for passengers to use these buses when they are “light running” between Potters Bar bus garage and their start and end point bus stops in High Barnet.

“There are not enough of these trips to make a viable timetable with most trips either very early in the morning or very late in the evening,” said Andrew Hunter, TfL’s group performance and commercial development director.

“Additionally, and more importantly, by operating these trips ‘in service’ in most instances would extend driving duty spells beyond trade union agreements or legal driving limits.”

In a letter to the Chipping Barnet MP, Theresa Villiers, Mr Hunter says the plea by residents along this section of the former 84 route was a “sensible observation” and it was something which TfL had looked into when considering all the options for trying to save the 84 route.

There were widespread protests when Metroline announced the withdrawal of the 84 service between New Barnet and St Albans.

At a meeting held at the Potters Bar bus garage in March, Sullivan Buses agreed to take over the St Albans to Potters Bar section of the route.

But the meeting, attended by the Hertsmere MP Oliver Dowden and Hertfordshire County Council, failed to identify any viable options for the Potters Bar to New Barnet section.

TfL said it would consider if anything further could be done, but the general feeling was that there were already other public transport options available.

Since the closure of the service, TfL has advised High Barnet passengers seeking to get to Potters Bar to take the 307 service to Cat Hill roundabout and then take the 298 from Cockfosters to Potters Bar.

Alternatively, passengers could use the direct rail service between New Barnet, Hadley Wood, and Potters Bar stations.

In responding to TfL’s letter, Ms Villiers said she believes these alternative routes are not practical for many of her constituents and she will continue urging TfL to find a better solution.

The Potters Bar Society has also been highly critical of TfL’s response and deplores the loss of the 84 service which provided a link between the town, the Potters Bar Community Hospital and access to Barnet Hospital.

In its latest newsletter, the Society says the best route for people visiting Barnet Hospital is to take the 298 to Cockfosters and change to the 384 which goes directly to High Barnet and Barnet Hospital en route to Edgware.

Categories: News

1 thought on “Empty buses running between High Barnet and Potters Bar cannot take passengers says TfL

  1. Yesterday evening (Wednesday, May 17) for the third time I have had to advise someone waiting at the “towards Potters Bar or Hadley Wood” stop on Hadley Green that the 84 bus they are waiting for isn’t coming anytime soon. The bus number has at last been removed from under the main sign but the timetable is still displayed.

    They said they had been waiting for an hour and half and assumed the buses that should have stopped had been taken out of service for technical reasons and were among the many empty buses driving past.

    While we were talking I saw a bus pull up at the stop nearer the junction with St Albans Road and pick up a man who I deduce was a bus driver. Logically MetroLine drivers use the empty buses as, er, buses to get to and from Potters Bar Garage when picking up or handing over buses on Barnet bus stands.

    The previous occasions involved a couple waiting for the bus to visit friends for a drink in PB and the other was with two couples wanting a bus home to Potters Bar having come up by tube from work in London to go to Odos. On both occasions the idea had apparently been to avoid using the car and for everyone involved to be able to consume alcohol responsibly. Given the 8 minute bus run that made perfect sense. The old cynical axiom no good deed goes unpunished clearly applies. The real world one hour plus alternatives make no sense at all, how does TfL have the gall to recommend them?

    Just how many times does this happen? How many bus stops on the cancelled section of the route still display timetables? How on earth can this patently obvious issue not been anticipated or resolved from April 1 by TfL? Is it just a long practical April Fool’s joke? If so it is a very effective one.

    Surely the absolute minimum TfL should have done on its bus stops is 1) replace the timetables with prominent notes saying the service has been withdrawn and 2) replace the 84 marker on the top with one prominently crossed out. This incompetence literally adds insult to injury for would-be passengers.

    I understand the scores of Barnet and Hertfordshire children who used the bus to go to school are now taken and collected by their parents by car.

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