Intalink Explorer - Ingenious or Problematic?

The Intalink Explorer - Is it an ingenious concept or is it more problematic than it ought to be? - Trip: Monday 29th April 2021

First of all: apologies for the lack of reviews as of late. Personal issues have thwarted me recently and I have wanted to get these reviews done in the right frame of mind. Anyway. Hertfordshire is a brilliant example of an area where quality bus partnerships are at the forefront with Intalink, managing the county's transport network on behalf of the county council, and their explorer ticket making it easy for passengers to travel across the county. It also has its benefits of permitting travel into neighbouring counties with participating operators. All of this for £9. It all sounds perfect and that there's very little that could go wrong? Surely right? This report will look into my trip across the Intalink network at the end of April as well as comparing it to past experiences to give an all-round review on the explorer ticket.

Entering from Essex

As previously mentioned, travel into and out of neighbouring counties and municipal boroughs makes this ticket very attractive to those wishing to visit Hertfordshire. Very few realise that the most eastern point you can access the network is from Chelmsford in Essex - very firm First ground (who don't participate in the scheme) - by using Arriva Route 59 to Harlow. However; this common misinterpretation appears to extend to drivers too. Previously when asking for an Explorer I have been met with a rather baffled look, then something on the lines of "I thought you couldn't use it in Essex" and then a phone call to the depot to confirm it - this time was no different. It appears to be a common theme with Arriva Harlow drivers on this route and can even be extended to Arriva Ware, the Essex Saver and using it within Essex on Route 66. I think ticket type training is required at both depots. Harlow's bus station is a rather drab, unloved, untouched place and not somewhere I've ever been keen on waiting more than ten minutes for my next bus. Fortunately, within five minutes my next bus turned up - the one a day Route 10 to Hertford - or the 10 to "UNKNOWN" as the board put it. This route follows TrustyBus Route 410 as far as St Margarets before following Route 310 into Hertford. This was very handy as I had just missed a 724 due to diversion on the 59 ensuring we arrive 10L - 5 after the 724 left. I could have used the 410 then the 310 but I also have an issue with that.

The problem with the Explorer and TrustyBus/Galleon Travel/Central Connect or whatever you call them.

TrustyBus who trade as Galleon Travel who have branded all their buses under the Central Connect banner (I'll leave it to you to decide if there is an identity crisis there) run a number of routes in Essex and Hertfordshire including Route 410: Harlow - Cheshunt. On a trip last summer I needed to use the Route to get up to Hertford only to be met by a small issue. They had just upgraded their ticketing system to Ticketer with barcode scanner with some drivers refusing to even acknowledge any ticket that inevitably wouldn't scan, regardless of validity, if it was bought through another operator. This problem hit me as I had purchased an explorer on Arriva's 59 although instead of being dealt with in a civilised matter, was dealt with abhorrently. Fifteen minutes of having verbal abuse hurled at me, driver stepping out of the cab to try and intimidate me and getting right up in my face later and a supervisor was called to validate my ticket. I have vowed NEVER to use a so-called Trustybus ever again after this experience as it is absolutely disgraceful and shouldn't be tolerated regardless of the driver's inability to speak or understand the English Language (he could barely speak any English) or whether drivers also need ticket type training. I also put this question to other operators and Intalink themselves. Would this issue have occured if it was made mandatory for there to be no barcodes on explorer tickets and make drivers use their eyes like they once had to?

Three counties,

Arrival into Hertford left me with two options. Wait forty minutes and break my boycott on a previously mentioned operator by trying the council contracts they had recently won or wait forty-five minutes and try someone new. Unsurprisingly I went for the latter and after a painful wait at Hertford's Bus Station - somewhere possibly even worse to wait for a bus than Harlow - I made good use of Richmonds Coaches Route 390 up to Stevenage. This is a route conceded by Centrebus in the Hertford area back in January as part of their scaleback in the area and closure of Stevenage depot. Richmonds are a family run operator who I have heard very positive things about in the past and I expected nothing less. I wasn't disappointed. Pleasant driver, fairly comfortable ride, happy customers making the most of a very useful link between Hertford and Stevenage. A wonderful example of where most passengers seemed to know one another and even some being on personal terms with the driver. Stevenage is yet another example of an unpleasant place to wait for a bus. The bus station, despite its convenient location next to the shops, is very grotty and in desperate need of some TLC. Fortunately the long awaited interchange at Stevenage station was given the green light last year so it's now just a waiting game to see if or when it is finished. A quick jaunt on two 101s, with a refreshment break in Hitchin, and we arrive into Luton and its very handy interchange. Although not every route actually serves Luton Interchange with multiple others using and terminating at the large number of stops that litter Luton Town Centre, my next bus did- a Busway Route A service to Dunstable. The Luton-Dunstable busway makes use of an old disused railway line allowing buses to go up to 50mph and avoid the busy streets connecting the two towns together. While regular route 31 takes forty minutes to get between the two towns, Arriva Routes A & F70/77 and Centrebus Routes B and E take on average fourteen minutes. A great advert for bus travel in the area! Around twenty-five minutes of waiting in Dunstable (isn't much to do there) and unusually having to assist with a medical emergency my F77 to Leighton Buzzard turns up. What was supposed to be a simple, uneventful ride also turned into a palaver with this Luton driver hurling abuse at me because of an ambulance being in the stop to deal with the aforementioned medical emergency and myself and a paramedic then having to tell him to pull forward to where there was ample room. Arriva were contacted, Luton depot backed their drivers actions. If telling me to sit down and Shut the Front door up after trying to explain the situation is deemed professional by Luton depot then we must all live on Mars... My two rides across Buckinghamshire on Route 150 to Aylesbury and Route 500 to Hemel Hempstead were both fairly uneventful.

Trying to get back... Via London, Hertfordshire... and then London again!

At this point it was about 3PM and I had now had to begin to think of a plan for getting back to Essex - The 59 wasn't really a flexible option as last bus from Harlow was around 5PM (although it is now 18:20) and Stansted Airport had also prohibited use of the Explorer on services into the Airport meaning using First from Stansted was also out of the equation. The 300/301 corridor between Stevenage, Welwyn, St Albans and Hemel was drastically changed with the route split into three - 300 St Albans to Hemel, 301 Stevenage to St Albans and 302 Hemel to Welwyn. I used the 302 as far as Hatfield and was by far the busiest Arriva service I had used that day with a good ratio of School Kids and commuters. I then picked up UNO's 601 back over to St Albans - again very busy with university students making the most of the cheap fares to and from campus - before using Thameslink for a couple of stops down to Elstree and Borehamwood as the enthusiast in me spotted a particular bus I wanted. Unfortunately, I got this very wrong so the plan had to change very quickly and after a painful rush hour ride over to Barnet on Route 107 at my further expense, I made use of Metroline's commercial Route 84 as far as Potters Bar (where the bus was finishing for the night). A half an hour wait later and it was time to make use of Route 610 up to Hatfield on one of UNO's stylish MCV Evoras. These were the first Evoras in the country when they were introduced back in 2018, many operators have now followed suit, and are definitely a stylish way to get to and from Luton, Potters Bar and Hatfield. Although this has to be the only route where the timetable was far too loose - I worked out we regulated for about fifteen minutes which is about normal I was informed by multiple people and there is surely room for quicker journeys in the off-peak. Final bus of the day was one of the recently transferred in Enviro 200 MMCs from Kent on Route 724 from Heathrow to Harlow. The introduction of the London ULE Zone meant the 724's former Citaros either had to be upgraded to meet Euro 6 emissions or be replaced - of course Arriva went for the latter as it was evidently cheaper and the Citaros were shipped off to Guildford. Unfortunately, the E200 I had was clearly unsuitable for the route running around half an hour late and topping out at a measly thirty-nine miles per hour - absolutely no good on a route with plenty of fifty and NSL sections! A quick chat with the driver in Welwyn, so he could allow the bus a quick breather so it wouldn't overheat, suggested that from a drivers' perspective the Enviro 200s are a huge downgrade from the Citaros that preceded them. Reliability issues, poultry limiters that would be perfect for a bus on a town route, it's no wonder there have been instances where Harlow's sole Mercedes Sprinter has been hurled on there to cover for an unavailable Enviro 200 since its the only other Euro six emission vehicle they have in their fleet. Would it have been easier to split the route into two and have the Heathrow end with the appropriate Euro six vehicles and the Harlow end not having those restrictions? Who knows. After my forty minute hop back to Hertford, Greater Anglia and London Overground got me back home via Hackney and Stratford. Bringing an end to a very eventful day.

The big question: Is the Explorer all its cracked up to be?

The Explorer ticket at £9 is very good value for money in my opinion in regards to what you are meant to be offered. A Multi-Operator ticket that can be used as far east as Chelmsford and as far west as Oxford is brilliant and is something that other parts of the country could only dream of. However... Is it really as good as people say it is if certain companies refuse to accept it if it is printed on someone else's ticket? I'll leave that to you to judge. ^WL