Barry Rawlings, Labour leader of Barnet Council, is increasingly hopeful of a breakthrough in the campaign to the get the restoration of the 84-bus service between Barnet and Potters Bar.
Transport for London is said to be looking “very seriously” at the possibility of one of the buses which currently terminates at The Spires shopping centre extending its route to Potters Bar to provide a much-needed connection.
Metroline withdrew the 84 -- which ran from New Barnet station to St Albans – last April.
The loss of the service has led to a storm of protest with aggrieved residents writing to local councillors and the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.
With the support of Hertfordshire County Council, a private operator, Sullivan Buses, took over the route from St Albans to Potters Bar but Transport for London refused to subsidise a continuation to Barnet.
Parents and hospital patients have been seriously inconvenienced.
Pupils heading to and from schools in Barnet, Potters Bar and St Albans have been forced to find lengthy or costly alternative routes or means of transport, as have patients heading to appointments at either at Potters Bar Community Hospital or Barnet Hospital.
A journey that previously took eight minutes can take as long as 40 minutes.
After two meetings with Transport for London, Mr Rawlings – see above -- said progress had at last been made.
He told the Barnet Society he hoped to see TfL again in January and after that meeting, he expects their planners to consider which service could extend its route to Potters Bar.
If agreement can be reached, there is every possibility a bus service to Potters Bar could be restored at the start of the new financial year next April.
The likeliest candidate is one of the three services currently terminating at The Spires:
234 Barnet Spires to Highgate Wood
326 Barnet Spires to Brent Cross
383 Barnet Spires to Finchley Memorial Hospital
Mr Rawlings said a priority was to provide a bus route to connect Barnet High Street to Hadley and Hadley Highstone and then on to the Potters Bar hospital the other side of the M25 motorway.
TfL would have to consider where the replacement service should terminate, at Potters Bar Hospital, Potters Bar bus garage or Potters Bar station.
“I am more hopeful than ever that we can re-instate a bus service on the old 84 route and for TfL the most obvious solution is to extend the route of one of the buses that currently terminates at The Spires,” said Mr Rawlings.
“A solution like this would be far more preferable than trying to persuade TfL to support Sullivan Buses to continue their service to Barnet.
Emails demanding the restoration of a bus service between Barnet and Potters Bar have been filling the inboxes of local councillors.
Emma Whysall, Labour councillor for High Barnet, and Richard Barnes, Labour councillor for Barnet Vale – see above -- have both taken up the campaign and are delighted that Mr Rawlings believes a breakthrough is imminent.
Ms Whysall said the obvious solution was to extend one of the existing routes that terminated in Barnet. “If it is a TfL bus there are lots of advantages. It would mean elderly passengers could use their Freedom passes and Hopper fares would be valid as well.”
Metroline withdraw the 84 service because it was no longer commercially viable.
Lockdown undermined their efforts to create a new and reliable timetable as there were fewer passengers. Reliability suffered owing to a shortage of drivers and without funding from TfL at the level required, the service was no longer financially sustainable.
