Wednesday 26 January 2011

New EYMS X4

Alongside some variations to services in the Market Weighton/Pocklington/York area, there was this interesting new registration on the VOSA website today from EYMS.

VOSA - Bus Registration Search Results: "PB0000328/372 - EAST YORKSHIRE MOTOR SERVICES LTD, 252 ANLABY ROAD, HULL, HU3 2RS
Registration Accepted
Starting Point: Market Weighton, Sancton Road
Finish Point: York Railway Station
Via:
Service Number: X4
Service Type: Normal Stopping
Effective Date: 20-MAR-2011
Other Details: Mondays to Saturdays."


Variations to existing services cover the 18A (route only), 195/6/9, 743, 744, 746, X46, X47

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's just a guess, but perhaps this represents splitting X46 into two at Market Weighton to conform to British rather than European driving hours? However, as X46 is daily and the proposed X4 is Monday to Saturday that would leave a question mark over the Sunday service - so it may not be that simple.

Humber Transport said...

Possibly. The other obvious option is changes to the Market Weighton 746 journeys

Anonymous said...

The timetable for X4 is now on the Traveline Yorkshire website and can be viewed by specifying a date after 20th March. It turns out that it is neither of the above 'obvious' options - but something much more interesting.

It is a two-hourly M-S service operating 5 journeys from Market Weighton at 0722 and every 2 hours to 1522 - except that the 09xx journey runs at 0930 to allow use by concessionary pass holders. According to the notes from the last Market Weighton Bus Forum at http://www.eastriding.gov.uk/hyperlinks/pdf/MarketWeightonBusForumNote20100520.pdf requests had been made to change the timing of the current 0927 746 from Market Weighton as the following X46 is 'always full'. The X4 addresses this and the relevant 746 timing has been changed to run a few minutes later.

Traveline also shows updated timetables for 746 and X46, both of which have extended running times to allow for congestion, with 746 no longer running via York University, which is a pity. In the case of X46, the service can no longer be operated with 4 vehicles as it has been up to now - with a 57 minute turn-round time at Hull Interchange.

The number of journeys appears unchanged - in fact there is an additional journey on 746 from Market Weighton at 0910 by extending back a Pocklington journey. As a result the total number of westbound journeys from Market Weighton has risen to 25 - a far cry from the position during the 70's and 80's when the basic 46/746 service was just two-hourly.

Anonymous said...

Apologies - the above omitted the crucial fact about the X4 which is that it runs direct along the A1079 and omits Pocklington, thus saving 8 minutes on the X46 timings.

Stevie D said...

The 746 is still running via University of York. The difference is that all EYMS services now run via Lawrence Street and not Heslington Road.

The five X4 journeys to/from Market Weighton are additional - it now has 2/3 buses per hour during the daytime. If this service proves viable, it can't be long before the section to Beverley gets an increased service as well. I'm still doubtful as to whether an 8 minute saving really justifies the extra services or if there's the demand for them (I remember 10 years ago when all that ran beyond Pocklington was an hourly single-decker!). But in that same time, the end-to-end journey time has gone from 1h40 to 2h00, which isn't exactly progress :-(