Council axes popular Hatfield bus

A Hatfield bus used by the elderly and commuters will be cut in March.

The 607 bus that does a circle route around Hatfield covering areas such as The Hatfield Garden Village, The Business Park, The University, Hatfield Town Centre and Hatfield Train Station, will no longer exist from March 27 2017.

A regular user of the bus service told the Welwyn Hatfield Times: “It is massively inconvenient and I really feel sorry for all the elderly residents that use the service daily.

“I see a lot of Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School pupils on the 607 every single weekday, as well as commuters. It’s a very handy bus and cutting it is ridiculous.”

A spokesperson from Hertfordshire County Council said: “From 27 March 2017 the 607 bus will be withdrawn from service but by rerouting and extending the current 341 and 641 bus services we are able to replace the 607 at no extra cost to the tax payer. “We have plans in place to ensure disruption is kept to an absolute minimum for all bus service users and there will continue to be two buses per hour in the residential areas which the 607 currently serves.

“The service, which costs in excess of £137,000, has been funded by developers. This funding ends in March and, despite marketing and promotional campaigns, the service has not generated enough demand to become commercially viable and is unaffordable to the county council.

“The future of the other services (routes 600 and 655) which are also supported by Hatfield developer funding will be determined as soon as possible.”