Hull Bus Cuts Salvage Operation Continues - and some increases including new all night bus services

Sorry for the long title but there is a lot to cover!!!

First of all the fate of the 9 and 1A - the 9 is axed while the 1A is reduced from hourly and diverted to serve the Boulevard area formerly served by the 9 (and 23/24). A big downgrade in service here. The new frequency of 4 return journeys has very poor co-ordination with EYMS's service 1C which it will still parallel for part of it's route. The 1A will still be operated by EYMS.

Now to the city circle service 23/24 which has become the 10/11 (still operated by Stagecoach) and will no longer serve Hessle Road, Marfleet or Victoria Dock, nor will it run on Sundays any more. But it's not as simple as that ... but complicated in this case means an improvement for some on weekdays.

The 10 will operate hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes via Spring Bank, Orchard Park, Kingswood, Sutton Park, Bransholme, Ings Road, Longhill, Bilton Grange and Greatfield. It will use the same number in both directions.

The improvement comes with service 11, again hourly but only on weekdays. It omits Longhill and Greatfield, following a different route to the 10 in East Hull. It will replace hourly Monday to Saturday service 52A from Hull to Sutton Village. Combined with the 10, certain sections of the city circle in North Hull will have a half hourly service.

It should be noted this is the 50th year of the City Circular service. The early morning circular services 25/26 have been withdrawn.

Now for Stagecoach's other service changes:

• Increase in peak time frequency on the 13 to Orchard Park. Evening 13C buses will no longer serve Kingswood.
• Service 14 to Orchard Park has an improved evening timetable, whatever that is, while the 15 gets extra morning peak time journeys and an increased Sunday frequency.
• Service 30 to North Bransholme has an improved late evening timetable.
• Service 32 to Sutton Park and Bransholme is increased to every 10 minutes in the afternoon peak but reduced to every 15 minutes (from every 12 minutes) on Saturdays.
• Hourly service 38 to Garden Village and Sutton Village is diverted to terminate at Bransholme's North Point Shopping Centre rather than Salthouse Road.
• Services 40 and 42C will be revised to offer a new circular service linking a medical centre to 'a wider area' operating every 20 minutes weekday daytimes every 15 minutes on Saturdays and hourly in the evenings.
• Extra journeys on service 42 to Greatfield to ensure a weekday frequency of every 10 minutes.
• Greatfield service 43 reduced from every 10 to every 15 minutes on Saturdays
• Service 51 to Kingswood via Holderness Road will be upgraded to Frequento status with new buses
• Service 63 to Cottingham will see two journeys withdrawn on weekdays and the Saturday service halfed from half hourly to hourly.

And the big news is that the N2 to Hessle and N51 to Bransholme will now operate all night on Friday and Saturday nights with hourly departures from Hull City Centre.

Stagecoach change details in their own words - http://www.stagecoachbus.com/hull/serviceinfo_5300.html

Come across a Hull City Council press release too which states that the 50 will operate as present. Hull City Council have done the best they can it would seem to retain services with no extra money. No area is left without a service I dont think. And on the whole Stagecoach are boosting their core commercial network, hopefully to help long term sustainability, with the all night services a very nice innovation - hope it works out well.

Hull City Council Press Release - http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=221,93203&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_id=1835&p_month=Aug-08&p_page_number=1