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My first time around the area by bus, and I went out on a Intalink Explorer ticket. For those not aware, Intalink is a partnership that encompasses the public transport unit of Hertfordshire County Council. The Explorer ticket is priced at £7.00 for one day, and is valid on most commercial bus services around Hertfordshire, most services (except school buses) ran under contract to Hertfordshire or Essex County Councils. The ticket also (as far as I remember) doubles up as an Arriva The Shires Explorer, thus allowing travel further afield. The ticket can be used for one or two adults travelling together, one adult with up to three children, or two adults and two children, all for the same price.

To get the ball rolling, I took the train from Royston to Stevenage, then had a look around the town. The former Sovereign Buses (Hertfordshire) operations around the town are now all under the corporate Arriva umbrella, but there were still a few buses in blue & cream. Other operators such as Centrebus and Trustline were also represented in the bus station. It was the former Sovereign “Central Line” 300/301 services that I went for, getting Volvo 3309 from Stevenage to Welwyn Garden City bus station.

From there, I timed that a 724 would be along heading east soon. The service was relaunched last autumn with new Mercedes Citaro single deckers, and some stops were taken out to speed up the service (in areas where the service was previously all stops, it is now limited stop throughout). So I took the almost new first of the batch 3901 from Welwyn through Hertford and Ware to Harlow, into Essex.

Harlow Bus Station has been refurbished since my last visit, back in 2001!

The area around the council premises has been remodelled more substantially, including sculptures and water features.

I tried to find copies of the Essex County Council timetable for the area. Since my last visit, these have changed from an A5 sized wedge, to an A4 stapled booklet (168 pages!), and the price has gone from £1.00 to £0.50. The library, WH Smith, and the shop near the bus station, have all sold out (new issue due next month). I remember when a member of the London-Bus group asked the libraries why they didn’t stock them, and they were told (seven years ago) that it was not cost effective – and now look, they’ve sold the lot. The last newsagent that I could see before going for the bus had four copies left! It was when I was leaving Harlow Library that I got a text from Caroline, and she said we were going to meet another friend of hers tomorrow night.

So, from there, I went for the 510 from Harlow Bus Station to Stansted Airport – end to end. The bus (3858) had been tracked on the realtime system in the bus station, and initially it was expected at Gates 5/6 in “12min”. The bus came in, and the outgoing driver parked up the bus, and departed (presumably at the end of his duty).

The new driver came out a little bit late, and (to avoid looping the loop and going around the block again to get to the right stance in the bus station), pulled into 1/2 instead of 5/6. This is where route branding works, as the amassed passengers knew to go and chase the bus!

So, we got to Stansted Airport...

...and I could see a former Travel Greyhound Volvo/Paragon coach (as used on Citylink) in the layover area.

After a quick look around the Airport, it came out in service, on the new A4 to Golders Green (the A6 to Victoria no longer stops at GG).

I then went for the Trustline MAN on Service 700 (with route branding), with newish MCV Evolution bodywork, built near Cambridge.

This had been my first time on one of this company’s services, and the driver was well mannered and presented. The service ran a mix of all-stops and limited stop to Stevenage, but I alighted at the Tesco Store in Baldock, planning to go around the corner for the train back to Royston. Unfortunately, Baldock is split into two on my Philips Atlas of Hertfordshire, and I went up the wrong road – although I checked the street name when I got to the first close (other signage is bad). The problem stemmed from “Superstore” being shown where I thought it was on the other side of the road, as there was a pointing arrow. Turns out the arrow was pointing out at a street name… never mind, after some trial and error (maybe more error), I made it to the station (just outside the town itself), and got a train back to Royston. I sent Caroline a text asking if she’d like anything brought home, and directions to the local chipper were supplied! That was somewhat different, and very well done.

So, lugged the load home, and we munched before talking about our days. You can see all my pictures here.