Arriva and Herts County Council unveil new bus for 300 301 route

Hertfordshire County Council successfully secured a £9.7 million grant from the government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund in June.

This will be supported further by match funding from the county, borough & district authorities and developer contributions, providing a further £3.3 million.

The money has been awarded to the local county council’s BIGHERTSBIGIDEAS project and will pay for a number of sustainable transport projects, including; Improving walking and cycling routes, enhancing local bus services, marketing sustainable transport options in and between the three towns and using innovative technology.

Working in partnership with Arriva, the new bus has been purchased and funded for 12 months by HCC to improve the 300/301 service that operates between Stevenage, Welwyn, Hatfield, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead. Paul Adcock, MD for Arriva said “The new bus has been added to the schedule to offer improved reliability and punctuality for this service. In the past the service has suffered from delays as it passes through many of the counties busy town centres. We work very closely with HCC on lots of projects and I am delighted to show off our new bus today.”

“Along with a new timetable, we are confident that the investment in the route will offer a much better service to our customers and will demonstrate to non-users that the bus is a real alternative to taking the car. The service operates up to every 15 minutes and offers good connections for work, schools, colleges and days out”

Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport Stuart Pile said: “It’s great that we have been able develop a strong working relationship with Arriva. I hope we can continue working together to improve transport links around the county in the future.

This bus has been largely funded by our BIGHERTSBIGIDEAS project which aims to improve transport and encourage economic growth around the county. We’ve recently been awarded another £9.7 million to invest in similar projects so we can expect to see more improvements in sustainable transport in the coming months”