The preferred route for the Hertfordshire Essex Rapid Transit (HERT) scheme is set to be published this summer (2026), the Local Democracy Reporting Service has learned.

The HERT is a proposed mass transit system at the centre of plans to improve connectivity across the county, between the east and west.

But despite being championed for a number of years, no route for the scheme has yet been published.

There had been an expectation that the proposed route would be published as early as summer 2024.

Then, in 2025, council officials indicated that it would be available by the end of the year.

Now the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has been told that the county council is now aiming to release the proposed route – along with hub locations and "proposed mode" – this summer (2026).

In response to an enquiry by the LDRS about the progress of the plans for the HERT, a spokesperson for the county council revealed the latest schedule, while pointing to the council's ongoing commitment to improve transport across the county.

They said 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. 

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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."

Setting out the vision for the HERT, the updated BSIP highlights the role of the scheme in unlocking employment and housing potential.

And it points to the importance of the scheme linking into the local bus network.

"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.

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"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."

The June 2024 update of the county council's Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) can be found at www.intalink.org.uk/bus-service-improvement-plan."