(train rumbling)
- It's November, but it's sunny.
Hello, I'm at Hadley Wood.
I've just got off the train,
so I'm taking the face covering off,
but by way of celebration,
I'm putting a bus moquette
(car engine revving)
face covering on
It's a bus video,
I've come to Hadley Wood to do the amazing,
the delightful,
it feels rural,
even though it's in London,
least used bus service in London.
(train rumbling)
So I'm at the bus stop outside Hadley Wood Station
about to catch the 399, which is a circular route
and you know what?
Here's a quick diagram and a voiceover,
to explain everything you need to know before I get the bus.
- [Voiceover] The 399 is contracted by TFL to be run
by Sullivan Buses,
a lovely, small friendly company based nearby.
And they officially run this service in the following way,
a bus that has been used in service at the 299
in the morning that terminated at Cockfosters
runs empty towards Hadley Wood,
where it then becomes the 399.
It's a circular service, and the first 399 of the day
only does part of the loop, which then terminates at Barnet.
And when it gets there, the driver changes the blind
and it then becomes a completely different route number,
the 389 for just half an hour,
where the same physical bus goes and operate that service.
When done, it comes back to Barnet
and changes back to being the 399,
and goes off on its circular route again
around Hadley Wood and back to Barnet.
In total, the 399 does five loops
while also being the 389 for four times in between.
And on the last run of the day,
the 399 finishes at Hadley Wood Station
before going off empty to form an afternoon service
of the 299 again, that starts at Cockfosters.
- And it's 10:58 now,
and yeah, the first bus is at 10:03.
10, 11, 12, there's only five a day that stop here.
It's 11:01 now, any second,
(car engine revving)
399.
(bus breaking)
(bus rattling)
- [Geoff] Morning.
(bus rattling)
So in these COVID times, there's a sign saying
maximum of 11 passengers.
There were only three on board already,
and I've just made it number four.
I believe, I'll do the stats later,
it's about 10,000 a year.
I think it only gets around 26 passengers a day in total,
but we'll see.
So a lot of this is all Hail and Ride.
There's only a small number of actual full way stops,
bus stops.
The rest of it, you just stick your arm out
like a request stop.
(bus rattling)
Just about the same, no one's got on and no one's got off,
but as we approach Hadley Green,
some people have ding the bell,
and before we get to Barnet, they're getting out.
(door screeching)
- [Announcer] 399
- I believe we're now in Chipping Barnet.
- We've got to The Spires,
which is the main sort of shopping point in,
I think that's the shopping center over there in Barnet.
And what I think is magically about to happen
is that the 399
when they'll become the 398.
(Bus engine roaring)
- I meant the 389
Did the 3, did you see it, the 399
I got it wrong, became, it transformed
into the 389 and it does a loop of
London's shortest bus route.
And I believe the second
[Bus Engine Roaring]
and it's the same bus.
I started here this morning and I've come down
and later it'll come back and loop around going that way
and go back to Hadley Wood.
But when it gets down here
into Barnet, there's The Spires there.
It becomes the 389.
Can you see that? That's that green one here?
And it does a loop around the 389, comes back.
And at this point here, it transforms back
into the 399, and does another loop of that.
So I've got to work out how long I've got
until the 399 comes back.
- [Geoff] Is it always the same driver, always the same bus?
- Yes.
- And the same passengers.
- [Geoff] And the same passengers.
So you, so you all know each other.
- Pretty well.
- [Geoff] Love it.
- Alrighty, it'll be a bit later now,
I need to get to the loo.
- So the drivers just going for a wee
and these lovely ladies tell me that they're 399 regulars,
which I love.
- I'm Fran.
- [Geoff] Hello Fran, you're a regular 399 user.
- We live in Hadley wood, which is the bus's destination.
And apart from a rail service,
we don't have any of the buses at all.
- Okay. So we're off again.
Two lovely ladies behind me, Fran there says
they get the bus, maybe two or three times a week.
There's a mix of drivers.
Some of them are chatty, some less so
but some you know, they're on first name terms with,
and there's a little bit of a social event.
If you get from the bus and you see other
regular passengers
and it's an essential lifeline to
coming to shopping in Barnet,
and then going back out to, I guess,
the suburbs of Barnet.
[Bus bell dings]
- [Geoff] Fran, thank you so much. Bye-bye.
In the Hail and Ride section, she just dinged the bell,
we stopped in Camlet Way.
- [Geoff] See you again.
- Thank you Kofi.
- Bye.
- [Geoff] Bye.
I didn't get their names.
[Announcer] To Hadley Wood station
- They did tell me that this area, this Beech Hill?
(indistinct)
It's quite a nice area.
A lot of football players live round here.
Hugo Lloris, the Tottenham goalkeeper,
lives in a house, just down the way.
As a Tottenham fan, thrills me greatly.
(bus braking)
To come off Beech Hill, you are going to turn left
on to Cockfosters road. Down there to our right,
is the Piccadilly line, Cockfosters station.
But it goes up the main road here,
and then it'll go around the loop
and turn left and goes back down to Hadley Wood
where I started earlier.
(bus bell dings)
I've dinged the bell.
Everybody told me to come and look at the church.
- I've learned the driver's name.
Kofi thank you.
See you later.
It's Kofi ... the 399.
Oh, Monken Hadley Church!
(bus engine roaring)
- [Geoff] So behind me, the Parish Church for Monken Hadley
I'm not sure what the white gates denote.
I'm sure one of you will know and you'll tell
me there's two sets of white gates,
obviously a boundary of something,
but just seemed a nice place to stop
for a backdrop to quickly do the passenger figures
of the 399.
- [Voiceover] And here you remember is
how the previous line stacked
up with their annual figures
with the least used tram stop being
at the bottom of the pile.
And the 399 gets just 10,412 passengers a year
which is less than that.
And that's just 28 a day if you divide it by 365.
Also the other route the same bus serves,
the 389, is actually the second least used
with just 15,097 passengers per year.
- So still at the church.
I'm amazed at what a nice day it is, the sun's out.
Doesn't feel like autumn or winter at all!
Now there, this is the exciting part.
I quite often go to request stops
and have what we call 'Stick your hand out stations'.
The 399 has a hail and ride section.
Can't remember the last time I got a hail and ride bus,
but then again when I see the 399 bus coming in a second,
it's just been the 389. It's going to come back
as the 399. I'm going to stick my arm out
and try and hail it down.
So I've come to like this car park area,
outside the front of the church.
And I assume just wave at Kofi driving the 399
when I, see the bus on the approach.
Let's see if it works.
(bus door opens)
- [Bus Driver] So back again
- [Geoff] Thanks Kofi.
- So Maria here, she doesn't even have to ding the bell.
She's such a regular, Kofi, knows where she lives
and he's just going to stop the bus right outside her house.
And you're just going to walk up your path,
where else does that happen in London? On a bus!
- Thank you Geoffrey! thank you Kofi!
You must take a picture of Kofi as well, you know?
- [Geoff] I'm gonna.
- Oh.
- So 20 minutes after getting the bus
going that way outside of the church,
I've looped all the way around coming back past the church.
Heading for, and I am the only one on board,
and I am heading for The Spires again.
See if I can get a picture with Kofi the driver
and then I might call it a day.
Maybe I should just ride the 389, just for the heck of it.
This is my new favourite bus in London.
(bus breaking)
- [Geoff] Kofi thank you, mate. All right, take care.
- Bye.
- [Geoff] And it's become the 389 again.
So that is the 399.
That also pretends to be the 389, London's least used
bus route.
(bus engine roaring)