Intalink
Intalink is the organisation responsible for organising the management of public transport services, such as buses and trains, in Hertfordshire on behalf of Hertfordshire County Council. They design, create and promote cross-operator multi-journey tickets and occasionally run competitions. They manage Quality Bus Partnerships maintaining good standards along routes that need it. Along with this, they provide printed timetables, maps and leaflets promoting the above services.
Intalink Strategy
On behalf of the county council, Intalink have a number of responsibilities and duties in a wide variety of areas. These involve making sure that the public is aware of the Intalink brand and the services provided. They also seek to reduce congestion and emissions through the use of careful planning with operators. They also believe that social exclusion, accessibility, travel plans and mode share are important factors in Hertfordshire. They aim to demonstrate the advantages of public transport to users, communities, local authorities, businesses, leisure and health and new members that could wish to join the Intalink community. They aim to keep the public transport in Hertfordshire to a high standard in conjunction with local operators.They also have a number of specific aims, such as persuading operators to submit bus registrations and service change notifications to the council using new Electronic Bus Service Registration techniques, making sure operators do not make an excessive number of changes within a short period of time to maintain stability and to make sure operators keep a high standard of service running.
Publications
As part of their duties Intalink release a number of publications. Many of these are available on the website organised into specific categories. The publications include:- Area Travel Guides. These are divided into 7 main areas of Hertfordshire.
- A County map.
- Intalink Intachange magazines, published bi-monthly, providing news, information of service changes and ticket offer updates.
- Leaflets showing information about contracted services
- Bus stop timetables, where operators do not provide their own.
In addition to the above, they also have a Twitter account detailing any service updates or changes in the future.
Ticketing
Intalink manages a number of ticketing schemes across the county in coordination with bus operators. These are outlined below.Intalink Explorer
The Explorer ticket was introduced in 2001 and started off as a simple £6 ticket for one person that provided unlimited bus travel throughout the county. Since then it has developed and in there are five current types of Explorer tickets available:- Unlimited travel for up to four people, no matter whether adult or child, across the whole network for £14.00 until midnight that day.
- Unlimited travel for one adult across the whole network for £8.50 until midnight that day.
- Unlimited travel for one child, or concessionary travel receiver, across the whole network for £4.25 until midnight that day.
- Unlimited travel for one adult across the whole network for one week for £32.00.
- Unlimited travel for one child across the whole network for one week for £21.00.
Tickets are available and accepted on almost every service within the county, with few exceptions. The main exceptions are school services, coaches and services contracted to Transport for London. It is also not valid on Green Line service 724 between Maple Cross and Heathrow Airport. The Explorer is also valid in a number of locations outside the county, mainly services contracted to Essex County Council and services that are mainly in-county but leave the county for a section of route. All Intalink-produced timetables show the validity of Explorer tickets.