It would seem that from 4th November, one journey each way on Stagecoach's Humber Flyer between Cleethorpes and Hull will divert via Barnetby, following a request from a Barnetby resident, passed on via local MP Andrew Percy.
A report on North Lincolnshire Council's website requests that for 2012-13, Stagecoach have asked the council for a £1,700 annual subsidy for the Humber Flyer, including the journey via Barnetby - this is down from the current £2,000 annual subsidy, as a result of increasing passenger numbers. Other subsidy for the Humber Flyer comes from:
North East Lincolnshire Council - £10,000
Humberside Airport - £10,000
Hull City Council - £5,000
Lincolnshire County Council - £850
The initial request was for every journey on the Humber Flyer to serve Barnetby, but this is not possible "because they [Stagecoach] could not keep the hourly frequency if they did so" - turnarounds are 5 minutes in Cleethorpes and 13 minutes in Hull (which from experience is needed). Instead there will be a 0910 from Barnetby to Hull (currently the Humber Flyer is in Barton at this time) and the 1450 from Hull will divert into Barnetby. I would guess a part of the route will have to be cut on the journeys concerned to accomodate this, but Stagecoach are obviously prepared to do this on a limited basis. EDIT - the 1450 from Hull has a longer than usual turnaround in Cleethorpes, so there is time to serve Barnetby and the rest of the route.
Finally I should note the North Lincolnshire Council report is a recommendation to approve the £1,700 annual subsidy, and not actual approval. Therefore none of the above is confirmed to happen.
It is good to see Stagecoach's requested subsidy reduce, and attempts made to serve new markets. I'd have though it would also be possible to provide Barnetby with a peak time service as well without needing an extra vehicle or cutbacks to the route elsewhere.
Posts
Its nearly time for Santa Bus!
-
Its getting close to that time of year. Yep – its the now well established
Santa Bus
***All updates on timings and changes each night can be found on th...
13 hours ago
8 comments:
So at last Barnetby has been included, at least in part, in the route of the Grimsby to Hull bus service. This has been a live issue in the village for at least four years now with more than just one resident asking for such a facility, the matter being considered by the Parish Council and, as far as I am aware, the North Lincolnshire Council also. The attitude of Stagecoach has been negative all along with the first excuse given for the exclusion of Barnetby being that the road to the village was not suitable for the type of vehicles involved, strange, as at the time Stagecoach were operating the remains of the 365 service East of Brigg via Barnetby on schooldays using a double deck vehicle whereas only single deck vehicles were being used on the Grimsby to Hull service. Next a question of viability was presented as the reason, always a difficult one as without an existing traffic flow no body can reliably prove or disprove this aspect although Stagecoach seemed to be talking from a standpoint of all services operating via Barnetby rather than the limited service which was being asked for at the time. The third excuse and probably correct all along, given the constraints of the timetable, was that there was not enough time to include Barnetby in the shedule so why if this was the case then is it not so now? And that was that, or so we thought. In the period since a number of events have taken place; firstly the schooldays 365 was replaced by a local authority operated service and, more recently, the Stagecoach operated Goxhill to Brigg/Scunthorpe service was taken over by Hornsby (who also extended some of the Wolds Villager services to Humberside Airport) leaving Stagecoach without a prescence in the village. Then, after in excess of two years in Parliament, Andrew Percy M.P. is apparently contacted by a Barnetby resident and Stagecoach decide to divert one Grimsby/Hull journey each way per day. After so much time and given the events that have taken place one would question the motives of both Mr. Percy and Stagecoach in this matter; I suspect that from the M.P.s standpoint the move is designed more for his benifit than those of the residents of Barnetby and that Stagecoach are just attempting to maintain some sort of a presence in Barnetby after being excluded as a result of changes to tendered services in the district. If they were really interested in the potential of Barnetby then surely something with an arrival in Hull convenient for 08.30 - 09.00 and an evening departure sometime between 17.00 and 18.00 would be more to the point. The whole affair smells of some of the worst of human traits, notably; dishonesty, dismissiveness and opportunism to me, or am I just becoming more cynical as I get older?
It seems a bit bizarre that Stagecoach are doing this just keep a presence in Barnetby. No disrespect, but it's not the centre of the universe.
Maybe Stagecoach have got tired of the suggestions, and have decided to give a Barnetby diversion a go so they can say they tried
As for the timetable, I'd guess the vehicle doing the morning journey may not do anything else before hand so it can just operate 5 or so minutes earlier throughout. As for the afternoon journey thinking about it the vehicle has a longer than usual turnaround at Cleethorpes so there is 'slack' in the timetable
However for the main daytime service to serve Barnetby would require something else to be cut
The thing with Barnetby, is it has 1-2 trains an hour to Grimsby (and 1 to Scunthorpe). I Doubt there is much demand for a bus to Barton, so the only real gain is the connection to Hull.
A better solution would be to combine the wolds villager into the Scunthorpe - Brigg service, as an extension of the 4 (or maybe run as an extra service via Scawby as previously debated on here?...365 anybody), and run it through to the Airport, with reasonable connection times for the Humber Flyer (and through ticketing). Will never happen though.
I have now seen some of the correspondence between Stagecoach and said Barnetby resident. The proposal is for the 09.10 Grimsby to Hull service to depart from Grimsby at 09.00 (remaining within the scope of the concessionary fare scheme) and to depart Barnetby around 09.50 with forward times as at present. The afternoon journey will leave Hull and Barton in it's current timings with a departure from Barnetby around 15.35 with forward times 10 miniutes later than at present. It appears that Stagecoach think that there is a case for Barnetby in respect of a Hull service but are concerned that further lengthening of the overall journey time might reduce the attractiveness of the service to some existing users. This is understandable given that this particular route is far removed from the original limited stop format as first introduced and is more a threading together of a series of local services over a longer distance. However I would still hope that this may be supplemented in the future with a peak hour service as mentioned by ourselves which would make the service even more attractive to Barnetby. As you say Barnetby is not the centre of the universe and actually enjoys reasonable communication with the outside world but there are one or two holes in the system worthy of consideration, we have just seen one of them, in part at least, plugged.
On a more flippant note, as this correspondence is now displayed for public perusal, not as would be expected in the parish notice case, but in the chip shop window, I feel that the service may become known as the Humber Fryer hereabouts.
So it's the 1010 from Barton then that will operate via Barnetby. Thanks for posting
I too understand Stagecoach's concerns about journey times but still think one peak service via Barnetby as well wouldn't do any harm
I'm sorry, but Barnetby is blessed with something that few rural communities have; a train service!
The Humber Flyer does not need to be any longer! I heavily suspect that if it isn't well used it will get dropped by April.
The train doesn't get you to Hull though, which seems to be the sole reason for this diversion. Time will tell if it is a success or not
I can't quite get my head around these new times but I am sure an updated timetable will be made available soon.
Am I right in saying that this affects only 2 services on the HF?
Fingers crossed this doesn't cause problems as I rely upon this service.
Post a Comment