Stagecoach 51 Changes

Since last Monday (1st September), Stagecoach service 51 between Hull City Centre, Holderness Road, Spring Cottage, North Point and Kingswood has been running to a revised timetable and route. The service now only serves the Retail Park at Kingswood and not the Leisure Park (with one exception), while it routes to/from the city centre via Alfred Gelder Street and Drypool Bridge rather than George Street, North Bridge and Witham. This provides easier access to the Old Town area of the city centre.

The main timetable change sees the Saturday daytime frequency reduce from every 20 minutes to half hourly, the same as the evening and Sunday daytime frequency. Associated service 52, which has also seen the same Saturday daytime frequency cut, combines with the 51 to provide a 15 minute Saturday daytime frequency over common sections of route covering parts of Bellfield Avenue and Spring Cottage.

Other timetable changes see the first departure from Hull City Centre on Saturday mornings at 0653 withdrawn; the first departure is now at 0723. On Sunday mornings the first departure from Kingswood is now at 0700 rather than 0745. The last departure from Kingswood Sunday to Friday moves from 2315 to 2330.

The Nightbus N51 suffix has been dropped for the limited Saturday night service. The previous 0000, 0100 and 0200 departures from Hull Truck Theatre on Ferensway become 0000, 0030 and 0100. From Kingswood the previous 0021 becomes an 0022, the only service on route 51 to still serve Kingswood Leisure Park. The 0121 from Kingswood is withdrawn.

The 51 is also featured in Stagecoach's 'Workers+' and 'Leisure+' initatives. The 5 weekday early morning journeys into Hull that start at North Point will follow the normal route to the Old Town then operate via Carr Lane, Hull Royal Infirmary, Rawling Way, Smith and Nephew on English Street and Ferensway to Hull Interchange as part of the 'Workers+' network. An interesting side note is that the first journey from Kingswood is an hour earlier on Saturdays (0557) than on weekdays (0657). All evening services will continue as/start as service 15, allowing same bus journeys through Hull Interchange to the Avenues as part of the 'Leisure+' network.