I hope this in not OT, as it is about a bus service which starts in London but finishes well outside.

A new route has been introduced, linking New Barnet with Luton Airport and town. It is numbered 714, presumably as a nod to the old Green Line 714 whose northern leg ran from London through Barnet to Luton. It runs seven days a week, but at irregular times with seemingly a concentration of services in the very early morning and evening. Could this be due to the needs of airport workers or travellers?

I rode it last Saturday, and my thoughts a-

The vehicles used are not really suitable for long journeys, being ordinary single deckers with barely padded seats. After 90 minutes you are certainly feel them! Also, there is no extra luggage space, something which I would have thought was a priority on an airport service.

It seems rather slow for a limited stop service. A few kinks in the route could be straightened (does it really need to go into London Colney shopping park which is already quite well served?)

The timetable (see http://www.metroline.co.uk/uploads/p...EL_2006151.pdf) is utterly irregular, and so impossible to remember. The frequency varies between 60 and 90 minutes. It is not sufficiently frequent to be a 'turn up and go' service so it needs some sort of clock face timetable for passengers to remember.

On my journeys patronage was low, and it seemed mostly made up of customers diverted from the 84/321 routes. Of course it is early days - I hope Metroline have the courage to stick with it, tweak the service as required and we could end up with a genuinely new and useful service which would attract more custom. I wish it well.

Peter