The biggest COVID-19 impact to Stagecoach's network in Scunthorpe has been to town circular routes 1 and 2, the latter of which has been dropped entirely.
Starting with service 1 and it is currently operating every half hour in each direction Monday to Saturday daytimes, down from every 20 minutes in each direction pre-COVID-19. Additionally it now serves Lakeside Retail Park and Bellingham Road, replacing service 2. The change increases journey times on the 1 by 5 minutes in each direction, but the link to Lakeside Retail Park may well be useful for some, and Bellingham Road benefits significantly. It goes from being served by an hourly circular in each direction Monday to Saturday daytimes with no morning peak service, to a half hourly circular in each direction Monday to Saturday daytimes, including a morning peak service (though it is not served by the first two morning anti-clockwise journeys, which also omit Lakeside); unlike the 2, the 1 also provides links to Gallagher Retail Park on the other side of Scunthorpe, and indirectly a service to Scunthorpe Hospital. So some positives despite the 1's frequency cut - I guess time will tell if the reduced frequency is permanent or not
Now to the 2, which had operated hourly in each direction Monday to Saturday daytimes. Going anti-clockwise, the 2 operated from the Bus Station via Ashby Road, West Common Lane, Scotter Road, Lichfield Avenue, Bridges Road, Manor Farm Road, Willoughby Road, Manby Road, Quebec Road, Moorwell Road, High Leys Road, Enderby Road, Willoughby Road, Chancel Road, Bottesford Road, Ashby High Street, Fulbeck Road, Queensway, Lakeside Retail Park, Bellingham Road, Queensway, Ashby Road and Station Road back to Scunthorpe Bus Station.
The western section of the route between Scunthorpe Bus Station and High Leys Road/Ogilvy Road is also covered by service 3, as is Chancel Road between Cambridge Avenue and Bottesford Lane, so here the overall service falls from a half hourly circular in each direction over services 2 and 3 to an hourly circular in each direction on service 3 only - a significant drop, but could be worse, examples coming up! Quebec Road, Moorwell Road and parts of High Leys Road now join Cemetery Road in Brumby with having double the number of services on a Sunday daytime with service 1A, compared to the Monday to Saturday daytime provision. Talking of the 1A, this evening and Sunday service is now the only service for most of High Leys Road and parts of Enderby Road, joining parts of Burringham Road, Manor Road and East Common Lane with this 'distinction'. Chancel Road between Messingham Road and Cambridge Avenue now only has the 1A and early morning 11, whilst Willoughby Road between Enderby Road and Messingham Road is left only with the early morning 11. Bottesford Road retains the 3 and 4 Monday to Saturday daytimes, but Fulbeck Road is left unserved, whilst Station Road is now only served by college services, early morning service 11, weekday services 360 and 361 from, but not to, Scunthorpe Bus Station and one morning extension of the 350 to Scunthorpe Station.
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5 comments:
It's a shame that's now gaps in the town route numbers sequence, if it was up to me, I'd renumber the 12 to a 2, 6 to a 5,7 & 8 to a 6 & a 7, 9 to an 8, 11 to a 9 and the 13 to a 10. Some might argue that doing that would cause too much confusion, but it didn't when the town network was relaunched as 'Simplibus North Lincolnshire'.
The cut to half-hourly on the 1 is probably felt more in the Westcliff area, which has gone from 5 buses to 3 per hour. Hopefully when normality returns the 1 will be re-instated, although I don't hold out much hope.
The 2 isnt suprising - I always throught it was destined to fail when it first launched, and the route into town via the Queensway (with no bus stops) was an unusual choice. I do think there is an argument for the 3 to run via Park Avenue back to High leys Road, then to Messingham Road via the old 33/34 route, then continuing to Valley View then Ashby - and also operating into town via lincoln gardens/cemetery road to compliment the 12 in these areas, which is now only hourly, whereas Ashby Road is already well served.
The 6 cut to every 15 minutes I think has been on the cards for years, and I was expecting it when Simplibus launched
I think the 1A is due a re-route to better match the main daytime routes, although it would mean a cut for some areas - and many of my suggestions are based on tidying it up rather than knowledge of the actual journeys made. Serving Angerstien road over burringham road seems obvious, and potenially missing out Cambridge Avenue/Manor Road/Bottesford Lane as used to happen until the mid 00s anyway. I think there is potenially a benefit to serving Everest Road & Grange Lane south, using the couple of minutes saved from above -as this area has high useage during the day but no evening/sunday service at all. I would also suggest running into town via Warwick Rd/Trent Street, rather than Cemetery road, but this is based on nothing more than keeping things tidy.
Everest Road/Grange Lane South used to have an evening and Sunday service up until about 2002 I think.
At some point Hornbys will end up given up the 12 and I could then see the 3 being rerouted back via Cemetery Rd, mind you they would have to add in a few more journeys. Could the No1 be extended to go via Asda?
The 1 could be extended to ASDA - Only thing is the 1 is getting quite long now - When it first started as the 31, it was around 45-50 minutes per lap - its now 1hr 7. If you take the furtest point of the route - Riddings, your potenially talking a 35 minute journey into town now - not actually that much quicker than walking, 2.5 miles @ 4mph = 42 minutes) , and £2.60 cheaper.
The 12 is actually by far quicker at about 20 minutes, im suprised it doesnt do better.
Deadendwaterfall - Yes the 336 used to run half-hourly from around 6pm to 9pm, although much later a few years earlier than 2003. It was culled in March 2003 I think, where the 334/335 (now 1A) started running in the evenings/sundays. Other night time routes culled at the same time included the 341 to high leys road which ran every hour until 11pm (western side of the current 1A). The 330, which ran via Open hearth to Ashby and Westcliff, Again every hour until around 11pm. Plus the 345, which ran to Timberlands via Lincoln Gardens & Cambridge Avenue, but that only run Fridays and Saturday nights, again until around 10pm.
Mr Moose
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