I didn't ride the extinct bus and you won't believe how long it took
The number 84bus has been running between St Albans and New Barnet since 1969, but as of today is no longer a London service. It wasn't making the previous operator enough money so they threw in the towel, and the new operator doesn't want to run the London bit so are curtailing the service at Potters Bar. Such are the perils of provincial operation.
This has opened up a new bus-free gap between Barnet and Potters Bar, a road with very little in the way of population once you cross the Greater London boundary. The only way to make the former 10 minute journey now is to drive, or of course to catch the train, or to waste your time doglegging aboard two TfL buses. I tackled the two-bus option.
What I should have done was ride the 84 bus because yesterday was its last day of London operation so I could have joined the MWLB for a farewell ride. Instead I donned my public service hat and tested the new set-up in case it's of use to future travellers. Also I've blogged the 84 ride before and I wanted to ride the dinkybus.
The 399 is London's least used bus and for good reason. It only runs six times a day and only between 10am and 3pm, for complicated reasons previously discussed, and ventures deep into car-rich suburbia. Essentially it exists to help a few pensioners go shopping, indeed it's rubbish as a connection unless you happen to be outside The Spires shopping centre at precisely the right moment. I made sure I was.
Route 399: Barnet to Hadley Wood Length of bus journey: 3 miles, 15 minutes
After skirting the shops the 399 heads north into the adorable village of Monken Hadley. The 84 did this until yesterday, skipping past the ducks, ditches and daffodils on the village green, but now only the 399 bothers. It then turns right at the pre-Worboys fingerpost and aims for the parish church, which means the bus stops on Hadley Highstone are suddenly redundant. Everything ahead is Hail and Ride.
I love the section where the 399 twists past quaint cottages with immaculate front gardens, then squeezes through a white-painted gate and emerges onto Monken Hadley Common. The backdrop is all tumbling trees, as you'll know if you've walked London Loop section 16, while the grass in front has ample space for a picnic or a kickabout. There being a public school across the road it was actually being used by three lads for rugby passing practice.
Camlet Way is lined by a succession of detached mansions, or obscene displays of residential wealth if that's your preferred viewpoint. These houses have gates with intercoms, clipped topiary, multiple vehicles out front and signs displaying which interior design company is doing work within. Their owners have no need of buses so the existence of the 399 is mainly moot, but evidence suggests their cleaners find it useful.
The 399 has no intention of going direct, it bears off after the railway in case anyone lives down a handful of leafy backroads. One elderly gentlemen does - he dings the bell and the driver continues for a while before stopping outside what turns out to be exactly the right house. Another woman performs the same trick three bends later. Customer service on the 399, with its regular clientele and regular driver, is second to none.
Once back on the original road it's all about knowing where to get off. Don't ding by the golf club, that's too early, nor by the gated private cul-de-sac, nor by the superprime luxury flats. Instead continue almost to the foot of Beech Hill and ding there, because there isn't a joint bus stop on the Cockfosters Road because that would be too easy. I made sure to say thanks to the driver before alighting because the 399 is that kind of bus.
Onward travel is at the mercy of the next bus which is the 298. According to the timetable it runs every 20 minutes, but traffic is often awful elsewhere on the route so take that with a pinch of salt. I checked my app and was told I had 16 minutes to wait, which was unfortunate, but this actually turned out to be 25. In that time I could have walked almost to the M25, or even back to almost Cockfosters, but instead I admired a ploughed field amid a flurry of snow.
Route 298: Hadley Wood to Potters Bar Length of bus journey: 3 miles, 10 minutes
You never know what's going to turn up on the 298 - could be a single decker, could be a double. I got the big one so enjoyed an elevated view as we sped north, first past the houses on the very edge of Hadley Wood, then out into open countryside. The road ahead is spectacular, at least for London, with the entire valley of the Salmon's Brook laid out to either side. Think rolling farmland with winding hedgerows and pockets of woodland, and think Green Belt which is why somehow none of this is houses.
Hertfordshire starts at the top of the ridge beneath a line of pylons. This is Stagg Hill, as you can tell from the name of a bus stop that almost nobody will ever need but TfL have put in just in case. Junction 24 of the M25 lies almost immediately ahead, which does drag the scenery down somewhat, and then the outskirts of Potters Bar kick in. Multi-storey Maple House is not a welcoming beacon for the town, and if the traffic's bad it may be looming for some time.
Depending on which bit of Potters Bar you want you might be able to get off here. I stayed on past Tesco and the fire station to the main shopping parade, where schoolkids flooded McDonalds and pensioners braved the chill at a cafe with pavement seating. The 298 terminates outside the railway station, or more accurately under the eaves of an ugly Sainsbury's, at what is the northernmost stop used by any TfL bus service.
My bus ride from Barnet to Potters Bar had taken 25 minutes, but unfortunately with a 25 minute wait in the middle so a grand total of 50 minutes. That's about five times longer than the journey would have taken aboard the now-defunct 84. Also it relied on taking a ridiculously rare bus so isn't entirely practical... especially in the reverse direction where you might end up with an hour's wait, or no bus at all.
A more reliable journey would be to take the 384 from Barnet to Cockfosters and change there, except the 384 (still) goes all round the houses so that's 20 minutes all by itself. A better option would be to take the 307 instead, which is both quicker and more frequent but also indirect, so can't beat the 399 on a good day. Basically there are no good options any more other than to take the train, so long as you've got the spare cash.
Barnet to Potters Bar
by train
(any day)
£4.20
5 minutes
by 84 bus
(until yesterday)
£2.90
10 minutes
by two buses
(from now on)
£1.65
30-50 minutes
Ironically the roads north of Barnet and Cockfosters are regularly plied by empty buses running out of service to Potters Bar bus garage. You couldn't timetable them but it does feel like a waste of resources now that the wider public are being told to find their own way. The problem with bus networks based on London and not-London is that cross-boundary journeys are the first to fall by the wayside when funding fades. Services between Barnet and Potters Bar aren't the first casualty and won't be the last.
