Friday 22 August 2008

Stagecoach Hull Changes Update

The new Stagecoach Hull timetables are now on their website so I can clarify some points about their forthcoming service changes:

The imrpovement to the evening service on route 14 seems to be an increase to half hourly, though some of the extra journeys operate Fridays and Saturdays only. The 38 which is being diverted to Bransholme will have peak time extensions to Kingswood Kingsbury Avenue supported by Hull City Council. And the 40/42 changes involve some journeys on the 42 being renumbered as 42C and returning to Hull as a service 40 (and vice versa) to provide a circular service around Greatfield.

And well done to Stagecoach for their new timetables - much clearer maps, details of night buses in all timetables and a great list of all destinations served from Hull by Stagecoach, listed with their service number. Also all services in one area have been grouped in one timetable (e.g. 13/14/15 in Orchard Park) and each timetable has been given it's own colour.

Publicity for buses on the South Bank

Now it's time for bus publicity on the south bank to be put under the spotlight. Operator wise Stagecoach is the only large operator and they produce timetables for all their services. Some include maps and tourist information, such as the 350 timetable, while others are just a timetable. Quite to easy to work out which are the most important services!

Scunthorpe town services are all included in one small guide with a map of summary of the 'out of town' buses. Hornsby services are also included in what is a useful little guide. Hornsby themselves also produce a timetable for their main out of town route, service 4 to Brigg - but it's just a timetable with not even a front cover.

So now for the councils, and first North Lincolnshire Council. They produce 7 timetable guides with timetables, a route description and a map of the services in timetable on the back cover. These cover all areas of the county apart from Scunthorpe town services (the Stagecoach guide does that). These are OK, the timetables are easy to read, there are details of connections at Barton and the bright coloured front covers are eyecatching but the way they are organised could be done better.

Currently all the Brigg timetables are in one guide - great. But for Barton you need three different timetables. Confusing. This is probably to remove duplication of timetables amongst different guides but in my opinion duplication is a sacrifice worth making for simplifying the number of guides. They you could have one for say Barton and the Humber Bank Villages, one for Brigg and Kirton, one for Winterton area and one for the Isle of Axholme. Thats only 4 guides to produce, and the number of timetables in more than one guide would probably be quite low.

Town maps would also be useful - these are included in the council's rural bus map - but that is just full of errors. See this post I made on the Transport East Midlands forum - http://www.travelem.proboards67.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=archieve&thread=675&page=1
With that many mistakes its a way of confusing people and putting them off using the bus, rather than attracting them to the bus network.

Moving onto North East Lincolnshire they publish one bus timetable guide for the whole area, and it includes a summary of train services (though omitting the Brigg Line and Summer Sunday Barton line service) as well as bus stand information at Grimsby Riverhead Bus Station and an area map. A separate bus map is also produced; theres a couple of errors in that but overall not bad.

So at least basic information is produced on the south bank, and in some places it's a lot better than basic. But still room for improvement and proof reading.

Monday 18 August 2008

Publicity for Buses on the North Bank

Thought I would take a brief look at the publicity produced for bus services in the region, firstly on the North Bank in Hull and East Yorkshire.

Both main bus operators in the area; Stagecoach and EYMS publish timetables for all their services. These are clear and easy to read, and often include maps. Both companies use their 'house colours' for their timetables which means Stagecoach's are a bit more brighter than EYMS's - but crucially both do their job of informing passengers when and were services run.

Stagecoach also produce a handy map of their network with summary timetables of their main services. The frequency of other services are also shown.

Some other operators in the area also produce their own timetables - notably Yorkshire Coastliner with their excellent timetable guide with detailed town maps, tourist information and a guide on how to use the bus (for new users) as well as the timetable.

So what about the councils? First for Hull City Council - I've not seen a Hull City Council timetable for a few years (please correct me if I'm wrong) but then their is very little need for any. Hull is served by only three operators; EYMS, Stagecoach and Veolia. The first two produce their own timetables while Veolia's services are included in publicity provided by others, except the park and ride service 700 which is turn up and go when it is operating. However to bring the whole network together, Hull City Council produce an excellent bus map, complete with a summary of the frequency of every service in Hull.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council produce an A4 sized comprehensive timetable book of every service in the East Riding. It also doubles up as a business directory and I presume that is how it is funded. But it does the job - some maps would be useful though - and from my point of view an indication of which services are subsidised as the old East Riding timetable books of the late 1990's used to do. However many passengers don't care so not a major issue.

Overall services in Hull and East Yorkshire have some good publicity produced for them. Room for improvement but it could be a lot worse.

Big Bus Day 2008

Raising Money for the NSPCC, EYMS will hold their annual Big Bus Day on Saturday 6th September 2008 at the Hull Streetlife Museum. More Information - http://www.eyms.co.uk/content/busservices/newsitempr.aspx?action=view&id=216

More EYMS Service Change News

This should be the last installment in the recent bus 'cuts' saga in Hull and East Yorkshire. It has been announced that service 135 between Driffield and Sledmere will continue with a minor timing change. EYMS had handed this contract back to East Yorkshire Council who must have reawarded it to EYMS with an increase in subsidy.

East Yorkshire Council have also stepped in to ensure the contiuing operation of Saturday services on routes 173/174/175 between Hull and Withernsea - EYMS had intended to withdraw these commercial services.

Mysteriously EYMS has said that the revised service 1A is still to be confirmed by Hull City Council.
http://humbertransport.blogspot.com/2008/08/hull-bus-cuts-salvage-operation_09.html

Other EYMS news includes retimings on service 246 (Hull-Beverley-Hornsea) and 744 (Bridlington-York via Driffield and Pocklington) as well as re-routings within Hull City Cehtre for services 33/34/44/45/47/115. The revised timetables for 41 and 154 have also been released; changes to these services were announced in July.
http://humbertransport.blogspot.com/2008/07/eyms-cuts.html

Finally Driffield Town Service 530 will be operated by a new operator (if you know who it is please leave a comment to this post) while some EYMS journeys on service 270 (Driffield-Beeford-Bridlington) will be operated by a new operator under contract to East Yorkshire Council. Again dont know who this new operator is but at a guess Manor Travel who already operate journeys on the 270. Not sure if these changes are a result of usual tendering or because EYMS have handed the contracts back because off fuel prices. Sorry for all the uncertainty but its a part of the region I'm not famillar with and I can't find any related press articles.

http://www.eyms.co.uk/content/busservices/newsitem.aspx?action=view&id=217

Saturday 9 August 2008

Hull Bus Cuts Salvage Operation Continues - and some increases including new all night bus services

Sorry for the long title but there is a lot to cover!!!

First of all the fate of the 9 and 1A - the 9 is axed while the 1A is reduced from hourly and diverted to serve the Boulevard area formerly served by the 9 (and 23/24). A big downgrade in service here. The new frequency of 4 return journeys has very poor co-ordination with EYMS's service 1C which it will still parallel for part of it's route. The 1A will still be operated by EYMS.

Now to the city circle service 23/24 which has become the 10/11 (still operated by Stagecoach) and will no longer serve Hessle Road, Marfleet or Victoria Dock, nor will it run on Sundays any more. But it's not as simple as that ... but complicated in this case means an improvement for some on weekdays.

The 10 will operate hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes via Spring Bank, Orchard Park, Kingswood, Sutton Park, Bransholme, Ings Road, Longhill, Bilton Grange and Greatfield. It will use the same number in both directions.

The improvement comes with service 11, again hourly but only on weekdays. It omits Longhill and Greatfield, following a different route to the 10 in East Hull. It will replace hourly Monday to Saturday service 52A from Hull to Sutton Village. Combined with the 10, certain sections of the city circle in North Hull will have a half hourly service.

It should be noted this is the 50th year of the City Circular service. The early morning circular services 25/26 have been withdrawn.

Now for Stagecoach's other service changes:
  • Increase in peak time frequency on the 13 to Orchard Park. Evening 13C buses will no longer serve Kingswood.
  • Service 14 to Orchard Park has an improved evening timetable, whatever that is, while the 15 gets extra morning peak time journeys and an increased Sunday frequency.
  • Service 30 to North Bransholme has an improved late evening timetable.
  • Service 32 to Sutton Park and Bransholme is increased to every 10 minutes in the afternoon peak but reduced to every 15 minutes (from every 12 minutes) on Saturdays.
  • Hourly service 38 to Garden Village and Sutton Village is diverted to terminate at Bransholme's North Point Shopping Centre rather than Salthouse Road.
  • Services 40 and 42C will be revised to offer a new circular service linking a medical centre to 'a wider area' operating every 20 minutes weekday daytimes every 15 minutes on Saturdays and hourly in the evenings.
  • Extra journeys on service 42 to Greatfield to ensure a weekday frequency of every 10 minutes.
  • Greatfield service 43 reduced from every 10 to every 15 minutes on Saturdays
  • Service 51 to Kingswood via Holderness Road will be upgraded to Frequento status with new buses
  • Service 63 to Cottingham will see two journeys withdrawn on weekdays and the Saturday service halfed from half hourly to hourly.

And the big news is that the N2 to Hessle and N51 to Bransholme will now operate all night on Friday and Saturday nights with hourly departures from Hull City Centre.

Stagecoach change details in their own words - http://www.stagecoachbus.com/hull/serviceinfo_5300.html

Come across a Hull City Council press release too which states that the 50 will operate as present. Hull City Council have done the best they can it would seem to retain services with no extra money. No area is left without a service I dont think. And on the whole Stagecoach are boosting their core commercial network, hopefully to help long term sustainability, with the all night services a very nice innovation - hope it works out well.

Hull City Council Press Release - http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=221,93203&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_id=1835&p_month=Aug-08&p_page_number=1

Friday 8 August 2008

Hull Bus Cuts Salvage Operation commences

A few weeks ago East Yorkshire Motor Services and Stagecoach Hull announced major cutbacks - or in most cases more correctly described as handing back contracts to operate tendered services.

http://humbertransport.blogspot.com/2008/07/eyms-cuts.html
http://humbertransport.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-cutbacks-in-hull-now-stagecoach.html

The handed back services included Stagecoach's 49 to Victoria Dock and Bilton Grange plus EYMS's 90 to Victoria Dock and 50 to Marfleet. The City Circle services were also diverted away from Victoria Dock.

Now Hull City Council have decided how these area will be served in the future. The 49 has been saved, albeit on a reduced daytime frequency of every 70 minutes. It will now be operated by EYMS. In addition a new service 46 will operate Monday to Saturday daytimes only between Hull City Centre, the Marina, Victoria Dock and Marfleet every 75 minutes. This too will be operated by EYMS. It should be noted that Victoria Dock is also served by EYMS's infrequent commercial service 78 between Hull and Hedon.

The Hull Daily Mail has a report about this today - well sort off - it lacks any specific details but says:
Last month, East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) and Stagecoach in Hull announced cuts to services 1A, 9, 23, 24, 49, 50 and 90 in the city, citing the rising cost of fuel as one of the main reasons behind the move.
Following the announcement, the council launched a passenger survey in a bid to see which routes were priorities to save.As a result, five of the seven at-risk routes are either continuing as they currently run or being adapted to fit into other services.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Rescue-deal-Hull-bus-routes/article-256813-detail/article.html

So the 49 is being continued and we know that the 23 and 24 will become the 10 and 11 (see earlier blog posts). The 90 and part of the 50 look to be replaced by the new service 46. So that would leave the 1A and 9 to be axed. The 1A duplicates the hourly 1C but the 9 serves areas in Hull that along with changes to the 23/24 will be left without a bus service. Will have to wait and see if I have correctly guessed what will happen.