EYMS 195/196/X36

From April 1st, EYMS operated service 195 in the Pocklington area will be reduced following cuts to bus subsidies by East Riding of Yorkshire Council; the service was due to have it's subsidy dropped entirely so it is good that some service has been retained.

Currently the 195 provides a Wednesday and Saturday shopper bus from Pocklington to York via various villages to the south of Pocklington, and a Tuesday and Thursday shopper bus from Newton upon Derwent via the same villages into Pocklington, with the afternoon return extending into York. There is also a commercial Tuesday lunchtime Newton upon Derwent to York service.

From April the 195 will only offer a Tuesday and Thursday service to Pocklington. The service will start in Allerthorpe, serve multiple villages to Newton upon Derwent and then run direct to Pocklington. The logic behind this seems to be offer connections to York; on Thursday's the timetable connects with service 196 in Hagg Bridge, Sutton upon Derwent and Newton upon Derwent, and on Tuesday's the morning service connects with York Pullman's 36 in Sutton upon Derwent. This means that despite the through services to York being withdrawn, this shopping link is retained with a connection, and hopefully service 196 boosted with the connecting passengers from the 195.

However the flip side is that Allerthorpe to Pocklington will take 70 minutes instead off the current 9 minutes - should the Tuesday 195 be operating Newton upon Derwent-Allerthorpe-Pocklington instead? Thornton, Bielby, Everingham and Seaton Ross also see increased journey times into Pocklington.

The Saturday X36 serving most of the same villages as the 195 is also being withdrawn at the same time; this provides a peak service to/from York. This seems like a good time to note as well that York Pullman operated services 36/X36 have "minor timetable changes" according to iTravel York from 3rd April. York Pullman's X36 provides the weekday equivalent of the to-be-withdrawn Saturday X36, and the 36/X36 combined provide a Monday to Saturday daytime link from Sutton upon Derwent and Elvington into York.

From the June 2016 consultation document it seems the 195 and Saturday X36 were in one contract, with an average 5 passengers per journey at a subsidy of £15.16 per passenger journey.

Those familiar with the 196 will note it currently runs on Tuesdays, but moves to Thursdays from next month with the afternoon journey from York operating at 1320 rather than 1337.