EYMS 56/67/66 Changes

From Sunday 2nd September, EYMS are revising Hessle and Longhill services 56, 57 and 66. The 57 links Hessle, Hessle Road, Hull Royal Infirmary, Hull City Centre, Holderness Road and Longhill, the 56 is a 'short 57' between Hull City Centre and Longhill but serving Paragon Interchange both in and outbound, while the 66 links Hessle with Hull City Centre via the Boothferry Estate, Fiveways and Anlaby Road.

The 56 and 57 have, according to EYMS, been suffering from 'bunching' due to serving busy parts of Hull; the 57 is Hull's only 'cross city' bus route so this is not a surprise. EYMS's solution is to alter the frequency of both services Monday to Saturday daytimes. Currently the 57 operates every 10 minutes, with some extra 56's that aren't shown in the timetable. This will change to the 56 and 57 both running every 15 minutes, giving Hull to Longhill a bus every 7-8 minutes, a more co-ordinated service than at present.

While this maybe better for residents of Longhill travelling into Hull, the Hull to Hessle section sees a frequency reduction from every 10 to every 15 minutes. EYMS say they are retiming the 66 "so that people in Hessle still have plenty of options to get to Hull" - though the 66 remains every 10 minutes and co-ordination between the 57 and 66 is variable, as would be expected with frequencies of every 10 and every 15 minutes respectively.

However, while it is a frequency cut, it's impact probably won't be huge. Hessle to Hull remains at 10 buses an hour, Hessle Road also has Stagecoach's 1. Indeed I wonder if Stagecoach, with their their superior evening and Sunday frequencies, have perhaps been attracting more custom along Hessle Road, hence the EYMS frequency reduction? Finally it's worth noting EYMS haven't always been so frequent along Hessle Road. Back in 2002 the old 67/68 offered a combined 15 minutes frequency.