Bus services face the axe (From Watford Observer)

Bus services face the axe

11:37am Tuesday 23rd December 2008 in Search Module By Paola Dellafiora

Two bus services which provide a vital lifeline for shoppers and the elderly in Watford and Abbots Langley are to be axed.

Metroline has announced that it is to cut its 346 and 318 services from February next year because of ‘rising costs and an increasingly uncertain economic climate.’

The distinctive red buses with their friendly drivers and half hour service have become a familiar sight on the streets of Watford linking residents in Abbots Langley, Woodside, and Meriden with the town centre and the Asda shopping complex.

Furious residents, backed by their local councillors and Watford and Abbots Langley MP Claire Ward, have started a petition to try and get the decision reversed and have so far collected 800 signatures.

Woodside resident Lily Hendley said: ‘The 346 service is totally reliable and the drivers are so helpful and friendly - it makes the journey positively enjoyable.

“More elderly people in the area are using public transport since the service came into being and they say it is a lifeline for them.”

“It’s a tragedy that it’s going. The older generation rely on this service. The drivers are lovely. We're just like a family.”

Gertie Smith, 89, of Oak Green, Abbots Langley

She added: “They can shop at Asda on a regular basis and many have discovered that they can now enjoy lunch there regularly too in the company of others people. Now the lifeline is being withdrawn.”

Mother-of-four Claire Kipps relies on the 346 service to get her children to Berrygrove School in Garston. She says that a withdrawal of the bus route will cause the family much hardship.

The Watford Observer caught up with Abbots Langley residents as they were waiting for a 318 bus in the village.

Gertie Smith, 89, of Oak Green, uses the service at least four times a week to do her shopping in Watford town centre.

She said: “It’s a tragedy that it’s going. The older generation rely on this service. The drivers are lovely. We're just like a family.”

Pamela Toohey, who has lived in Abbots Langley for 40 years, continued: “The 318 bus has liberated the people especially the pensioners.

“The service we have at the moment is just perfect. It’s so quick we’re in the town centre in 15 minutes. The drivers are so pleasant to everyone they really look after us.”

Villagers fear that when the service goes they will have no other option but to use the number eight bus which they say is not as frequent and often packed.

At times passengers have been left waiting for several hours before the bus comes.

Meriden ward Councillor Jan Brown said: “I cannot understand the lack of caring shown towards local people. This service has meant a new lease of life to so many residents, particularly the elderly. So far, Metroline has refused even to discuss the matter, an attitude which we councillors find almost contemptuous.

“Withdrawing two little bus services means absolutely nothing to a large company like Metroline, but they appear to neither know nor care what impact that will have on our community.

“Let us hope they can be persuaded to change their minds when they see the overwhelming effect it has on public opinion and that they will do something nice for our residents in the New Year.”

A Metroline spokesperson said that to sustain the services required substantial investment which is not available at this time.

Ms Ward has written to the chief executive of Metroline asking him to re-consider the decision which she says will have a 'detrimental' effect on hundreds of her most vulnerable constituents.