As already noted in the comments on this blog, Stagecoach are increasing the Sunday daytime frequency of Scunthorpe town services 31A and 32A from hourly to half hourly from November 5th.
The 31A/32A operates as an amalgam of the 31, 32, 33 and 34 Monday to Saturday daytime routes. They operate via the 33/34's Cemetery Road route in Brumby then 'cut across' to join the 31/32's Warley Road route before serving Ashby High Street and then rejoining the 33/34 route down Bottesford Road and Bottesford Lane to Cambridge Avenue. They then travel up Messingham Road, part of which is also served by the 31/32, part of which only by the 100/103. The 31A/32A then follow Burringham Road, served by the 10 Monday to Saturday daytimes, before serving the Willoughby Road, High Leys Road and Quebec Road areas served by the 33/34. From Enderby Road the 31A/32A then follow the 31/32 route back into Scunthorpe via Plymouth Road, Berkeley Circle and the hospital, but with the addition of a diversion via Tesco Extra.
The frequency increase means that some parts of Scunthorpe have a better Sunday daytime service than at any other time of the week. The High Leys Road area has two buses an hour into Scunthorpe Monday to Saturdays, but four on Sunday daytimes with the new arranagement (2 31A's, 2 32A's). Cemetery Road just has an hourly Stagecoach service Monday to Saturday, but now half hourly on Sundays. Tesco Extra isn't connected to the Scunthorpe Town or Stagecoach network Monday to Saturday daytimes, but now gets extra Sunday services.
Another interesting aspect of the change is that Stagecoach have opted to retain and enhance the 31A and 32A rather than simplify the network and remove the variation in favour of hourly 31's, 32's, 33's and 34's on Sunday daytimes, following the Monday to Saturday daytime routes.
For at least the last 15 years or so (which is as far back as I can recall) evening and Sunday town services in Scunthorpe have been provided by one hourly clockwise and one hourly anti-clockwise circular, attempting to serve as much as the town as possible using as few resources as possible. An approach that had it's merits when there was little demand for services at these times - therefore something was better than nothing - but now increasingly outdated as Sunday daytimes in particular become busier.
In Scunthorpe's case retaining the 31A and 32A is probably the right thing to do for now. Hourly 31's, 32's, 33's and 34's wouldn't deliver the frequency increase arising from Stagecoach's forthcoming change. Plus it's not like the 31A and 32A take forever. A roundtrip takes just under an hour.
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8 comments:
A History lesson, Evening/Sunday journeys in up to the early 2000s were as follows:
330 Scunthorpe - Open Hearth - Ashby - Manor Farm - Westcliff. Ran hourly evening/Sundays
336/337 Scunthorpe - Ashby Estates.
The 336 is the 6 of today, back then buses ran each direction around the Ashby loop every 20 minutes, numbered 336 or 337. In evenings/sunday, each ran hourly, making 30 minute headway along Ashby Road to Broadway.
341 ran Every hour (Current 31A route apart from the Tesco extension) to High Leys Road via Westcliff & Riddings, and reverse. Don't think it served the Hospital though, buses only served Doncaster Road, with just the half-hourly 346/347 along cliff gardens and 309 (now the 9) Hospital Shuttle until 5pm
345 ran hourly Friday/Sat evenings and Sundays to Lincoln Gardens, Ashby, Cambridge Avenue, then ran to Valley View Drive, Timberland, then back to Ashby.
Back then, PVR was 4 or 5 buses running. This was then halfed to 2, when the current 31A/32A's were created, back then numbered 334/335 as they followed pretty much the say route as the daytime services of same number.
I didn't realise it was only about 10 years ago the Sunday services got cut back so much
I have a timetable from April 2002, Just before the cuts come in. I try and scan it or take a few pics of it and upload them so you can see them.
It would be interesting to see the old 2002 network - will bring back memories! The goes for the 2003-5 network if anybody has one stashed!
I believe the changes to the Eve/Sunday services were the result of council cuts, rather than operator cuts, as the whole network after 6pm was supported by NLC. I remember a few years later there was talk of the whole evening/sunday network being pulled due to low numbers, although there was a bit of a backlash, and that never happened in the end. Are the Sunday daytime journeys still tendered? I assume NLC will not be paying for extra buses in the current climate, and would be questioning why they are paying to support a bus service which is obviously very well used!
Hi,
Our blogs seem to have a similar purpose. Any chance of being added to your blog roll?
http://lancsbus.blogspot.co.uk/
Here you go the zip:
http://www.speedyshare.com/TPTjS/Scunthorpe-april-2002.zip
not so much as first post but just a bit less, with pvp 4
It's wierd how evening service have gone in North Lincolnshire. Around 2000 the council funded an hourly evening service on the 350, including later Fri/Sat journeys. There were also Fri/Sat eve services to Crowle, Kirton and Westwoodside around then. And the evening service on the 4 to Brigg. And I'm sure there was discounted travel on evening services funded by the council.
Over time the Westwoodside, Crowle and Kirton services went. The 350 got cut to 2 hourly, and in 2006 the last Barton-Hull service was axed Mon-Wed. NLC had wanted to axe it Thu/Fri as well but there was a petition against it.
It's only with the Humber Fastcat launching in 2009, and then last year's changes, that there has been improvements in the 350 evening service, and that has been Stagecoach doing so commercially
Jim - I'll add your site to the blog roll
I'll try and do one with the 2003 - 2005 network some time this week:
I hope the 2002 timetable is helpful.
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