After months of deadlock and mounting frustration among protestors, a government minister has finally stepped in to try to broker an agreement to reinstate the missing link in the 84 bus route between New Barnet and Potters Bar.
Transport minister Richard Holden is to ask Hertfordshire County Council and Transport for London to try to sort out the financing of a replacement service.
Mr Holden insists a recent government bus funding settlement with local authorities could be used by Hertfordshire to help restore the route if that is what the County Council could agree to.
The Chipping Barnet MP, Theresa Villiers, who raised the plight of abandoned 84 passengers with Mr Holden, said she was encouraged by the minister’s assurance that there was flexibility in government funding, and that it could provide a solution.
Under a deal already agreed with Hertfordshire, Sullivan Buses operates a replacement 84 service between St Albans and Potters Bar, but the route between Potters Bar and New Barnet has been without a bus connection between since Metroline withdrew the service a year ago.
Despite the possibility of a breakthrough, the Save the 84 campaign says it is not going to ease up in its attempts to persuade Hertfordshire and TfL to reinstate the previous 84 service from New Barnet to St Albans via Potters Bar.
To reinforce the plight of people wishing to travel between Barnet and Potters Bar, the 84 campaign is organising a protest on Tuesday 20 June starting at Hadley Highstone at 1.30 pm.
A group of passengers, with the backing of two councillors, will walk from the Highstone to Barnet parish church to catch the 307 towards Cockfosters, change to the 298 and aim to get to Potters Bar by 3pm – demonstrating, among other ironies, that without an 84 service passengers at Hadley face a 90-minute detour to get to Potters Bar Community Hospital which is only a mile away on the A1000 and would take only a few minutes by bus.
However, the 84 campaign is doubtful whether Hertfordshire County Council will take up the idea of using funds from the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) to fund an 84 service between New Barnet and Potters Bar.
Previously Hertfordshire told the campaign that BSIP funding could not be used to support “a failing commercial service” and Metroline had discontinued the route on the grounds that it was no longer commercially viable.
But Ms Villiers said she had been encouraged by the minister’s promise to contact both Hertfordshire and TfL to try to broker a solution.
“I have already passed on to the leader of Hertfordshire County Council that BSIP funding can be used to support the return of the cancelled 84 service and to ask if it could mean its return.”
Another possibility for funding is to see if a replacement service could be funded by Hertsmere Borough Council through the Community Infrastructure Levy.
Hertsmere councillor Nik Oakley has asked former 84 passengers to explain how they have been affected by the loss of the route.
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