London Country Revisisted : Hitchin (3)

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!

fbb will start with the easy ones first.

This becomes Hitchin to St Albans 88 …

… but running to a much more understandable timetable, albeit reduced in frequency.

Red Eagle is the operator.

Yep! That’s all the easy ones! The 364 had disappeared from the green bus collection by 1973 and the 386 …

…  had gone soon after 1973.

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!

The two offer a bus every 15 minutes compared with 1973’s every 30. Arriva is the operator.

To add to the fun, Stagecoach is operating their 9B once an hour over a similar route as far as Stevenage.

Stevenage to Hatfield 301

This one hurt fbb’s brain! 

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

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.

Arriva provides the 97 …

… 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.

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.

Sigh, again!