Public Transport
Basically doesn’t exist in the branch area. Whilst the major towns, Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth and Stevenage are well served by bus routes during the day, virtually all services stop by 8:30pm. Weekends and Bank Holidays are even worse.If you find yourself in the rural areas the buses run to the nearest town on market day and Saturday. You have say 3 hours before the return trip, or a whole week till the next one. It’s no wonder that the county council is always going on about how much traffic there is on Hertfordshire’s roads. If you are interested in finding out more details here is a link to Arriva Bus . Or probably easier to use, and more complete is the Intalink website, run by Herts CC. The intalink Explorer ticket is good value all day travel in Hertfordshire.
One little spark of light in the gloom is the 700 service from Stevenage to Stansted Airport. This actually runs till quite late one way.The last bus leaves Stansted at 2220 and gets to Stevenage Bus Station by midnight, even on a Saturday. There are some 30 pubs right on or a few hundred yards from the route.
Rail services are better if you happen to live near a station. Trains run both ways till gone midnight even on Sundays. Timetable information is available here . If you are travelling off peak in a group ask for a Groupsave discount. This allows 3 or 4 adults to travel for the price of 2, but is not available on all rail companies, National Express East Coast being the prime example. However they do very good deals if you want to book ahead. Venturing further afield on a regular basis makes it worth investigating the Network Card. This will give you discounts on journeys all over the South East and East Anglia.
CAMRA is not responsible for the content of external websites, nor late or non running of buses or trains.
Despite the number of pubs closing in the branch area in the last few years, it is still difficult to find yourself much more than a mile away from a pub anywhere in the North Herts branch. If you are able to, why not just walk or cycle to your local. Chances are they will be glad to see you. As the slogan goes, “Use it or Lose it”. One day it might not be there and you will have to go by car to the next one. A brisk mile walk and back will burn off the calories in a normal pint.
Out of interest, the furthest place from a pub in the branch area is the Radio Communications Agency earth station on Royston Heath.
