Rapid Transit facing further delays

Hertfordshire's ambitious east-west rapid transit system is facing further delays after the county council admitted that details of  the route and mode would not be announced until the summer.

First announced in 2019, the Herts & Essex Rapid Transit (HERT) system is integral to growth in Hertfordshire and addresses the inadequacies of cross country public transport.

The new public transport system would connect Hemel Hempstead to Harlow and provide fast and frequent services for large numbers of passengers - characteristic of Mass Rapid Transit systems found in large cities.

Information about what form the transit system would take, and the route, were initially expected in 2024, five years after the initiative was announced. However, council officers later indicated that it could be as late as the end of 2025 before the information was published.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has now been told that the county council is aiming to release the proposed route, hub locations and proposed mode  in Summer 2026. A spokesperson for the county council emphasised the council's ongoing commitment to improve transport across the county, saying that addressing the challenges of east-west transport and improving passenger transport remained a priority, with work to support the development of the HERT system having continued over the past year. 

And they said the "shorter-term interventions" that would build towards the HERT were embedded in the June 2024 update of the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).

"This document sets out the vision for the HERT and provides more detail to enable the project to be promoted at a regional and national level," said the spokesperson.

"We have therefore taken the opportunity to undertake a major update to our Countywide Transport Model, which has now been finalised.

"We are currently using this model to test the performance of the potential HERT routing, and as such, we are now planning to publish a prospectus in the Summer 2026.

"This prospectus will set out the preferred route, hub locations and proposed mode."

"HERT is a £2.5bn mass rapid transit project that will run east-west across Hertfordshire, linking key towns to our four north-south rail routes and unlocking the potential of over 100,000 new jobs and 100,000 new homes across the county that will otherwise be hampered by already overloaded infrastructure," says the BSIP.

"The core HERT route (c£500m – £750m) will provide high-frequency trackless trams when it is fully delivered, but the investment will unlock the potential of the local bus network well ahead of the first HERT vehicles running.

"An important part of HERT's success will be how the local bus network is adapted to feed onto the HERT system and operate at frequencies and periods of the day to maximise access and interchange potential.

"HERT will also connect to rail services eastwards to Stansted Airport, significantly strengthening Hertfordshire's access to this important transport hub."