{"id":8240,"date":"2024-08-29T01:29:10","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T01:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/london-country-revisisted-hitchin-2\/"},"modified":"2024-08-29T01:29:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T01:29:10","slug":"london-country-revisisted-hitchin-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/london-country-revisisted-hitchin-2\/","title":{"rendered":"London Country Revisisted : Hitchin (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Of Fond Memory<\/span><\/p>\n Seagoon : This is my plan of attack<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n Eccles\u00a0 : It looks like a nail<\/span> to me.<\/span><\/p>\n Seagoon : No it’s a plan of a tack<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n Ah, they don’t write sruff like that any more!<\/p>\n fbb’s plan of attack is to survey very briefly (sighs of relief from readers!) London Country bus services in Hitchin in the 1950s and 1960s based on Julian’s maps; then to continue with a look at the actual timetables from 1973.<\/p>\n Tomorrow, your delightful delver into dynamic data will then attempt to find equivalent routes (if any) from today’s Intalink timetable c\/o Herfordshire County Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n Does the old man know no fear?<\/p>\n A reminder\u00a0 that Country Buses was the division of London Transport that, broadly, operated routes outside the greater London conurbation. These RTs, for example, are seen at the old Stevenage bus station, right next to the shopping centre.<\/p>\n What a good idea, buses close to where people want to go!<\/p>\n With the creation of the National Bus Company, London’s green buses were handed over to (Sir) Fred Wood’s monster bus behemoth and thus gained NBC leaf green livery, white lettering and patriotic “double N” symbol.<\/p>\n Hitchin 1954<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 304 <\/span>SAT & SUN<\/span><\/span>\u00a0: Hitchin, Kimpton, Wheathampstead, St Albans.<\/p>\n 329A<\/span> TUES & SAT<\/span><\/span> : Hitchin, Knebworth, Datchworth<\/p>\n 364<\/span> THURS SAT & SUN<\/span><\/span> : Hitchin, Tye Green, Luton<\/p>\n 383<\/span> DAILY<\/span><\/span> : Hitchin, Purwell Lane Estate, Weston<\/p>\n 386<\/span> TUES SAT & SUN<\/span><\/span> : Hitchin, Stevenage, Buntingford, Bishops Stortford.<\/p>\n Hitchin 1964<\/span><\/p>\n We have gained a 364A, a 392A and an 801.<\/p>\n 364\/364A<\/span> : Extended beyond Luton to Markyate and Flamstead incoporyating a previous service to those extra 364 destinations.<\/p>\n 392A<\/span> : A variant of 392, runs Hitchin Stevenage and locally in Stevenage<\/p>\n 801<\/span> : Again Hitchin Stevenage and local. London Country were running out of numbers, so started using the 800 series for the ever expanding cadre of town routes in various locations in the north east area. Note also the 808 to Lister Hospital, also part of the Stevenage local network.<\/p>\n Hitchin 1973<\/span><\/p>\n It would be reasonable to assume that these are running much the same as in 1954, but ptobably with some change in running time.<\/p><\/div>\n Now operates Monday to Saturday with an occasional extension to Radlett.<\/p><\/div>\n This looks very much like the 383 of 1954!<\/p><\/div>\n Broadly speaking the 716 ran every 30 minutes (on the core Welwyn Garden City to Addlestone section) seven days a week. Cross London destinations varied over the years and included Windsor, Chertsey and Addlestone in various combinations.<\/p>\n Although it is badly faded in fbb’s purchased timetable book, Green Line times were printed on green tinted paper.<\/p><\/div>\n