Missing for several days from the bus stand beside The Spires shopping centre has been the 399 service from High Barnet to Hadley Wood station.
From the start of August, Sullivan Buses, an independent bus operator based at South Mimms, withdrew from eight Transport for London routes because of a funding dispute.
Alternative operators are being signed up to take on eight affected services -- 217, 298, 299, 327, 389, 399, 549 and W9 – and TfL have apologised for any disruption.
A replacement operator has now been found for the 399 service which serves stops at Hadley Green, Dury Road, Monken Hadley, and Hadley Wood station.
But TfL say that although it hopes to provide a full service there might be some disruption due to driver availability and route training.
Other routes to be taken on by new operators include the 299 Potters Bar to Arnos Grove and the 299 from Cockfosters to Muswell Hill on which there might be reduced services to begin with.
The 399 service from The Spires has been relied on increasingly by passengers heading towards Hadley Highstone and Monken Hadley following the withdrawal last year of the 84 service from New Barnet station to St Albans.
The Potters Bar to High Barnet section of the 84 route is now served by the 84B, operated by Central Connect, and users of the service say punctuality has improved following recent changes to the route.
The 84B provides a service roughly every hour with 13 departures from Potters Bar station, calling at Potters Bar community hospital, Barnet parish church, High Barnet tube station and Barnet Hospital.
The return service to Potters Bar has been speeded up by reducing the length of the route: buses leave Barnet Hospital via Wellhouse Lane and Wood Street, turn into the High Street at Barnet Church and then proceed direct to Potters Bar station.
In a statement about withdrawing its TfL services, Sullivan Buses’ managing director Dean Sullivan said it had decided reluctantly that it could no longer continue the contracts because of higher costs and the failure to reach a funding agreement with TfL.
The two sides met in June when TfL said it struggled to incorporate a small business such as Sullivan Buses within their corporate model.
“Sullivan Buses is the only small business operating bus services for TfL in London,” said Mr Sullivan.
“At that meeting we were unable to agree a way forward and the meeting ended with TfL requesting a date for our business to hand back all contracts.
“At the time of that meeting, TfL owed our business over £130,000...the matter was resolved shortly afterwards, but not before TfL asked if they could repay in instalments.
“Coupled with delays in payments by TfL, we have decided that we can no longer sustain the further cuts necessary to meet the decreasing income received by TfL.”
Sullivan Buses says that all the bus services which the company operates in Hertfordshire – including the 84 service from Potters Bar to St Albans – are unaffected.
