EYMS Beverley-Cottingham-Hessle Major Changes

From next Monday, 22nd July, EYMS are making major changes to services between Beverley, Cottingham, Willerby, Anlaby, Hessle, North Ferriby and Swanland. Currently service 180 provides an hourly Monday to Saturday daytime link between Beverley and Hessle, serving Walkington, Skidby, Cottingham, Castle Hill Hospital, Willerby Waitrose, Willerby Parkway, Willerby Square, Anlaby and First Lane en-route. Occasional service 182 provides some faster journeys, omitting Walkington, Skidby, Waitrose, Willerby Parkway and First Lane. A morning peak journey also operates on service 61 from Beverley via Walkington and Skidby to Cottingham, and onto Hull City Centre.

Next week the 180 is reduced to operate roughly every two hours, and most journeys are extended from Hessle to North Ferriby and Swanland, replacing the current once daily Swanland to Hessle 184 service, and 3 day a week 144 from Elloughton to Beverley via Brough, North Ferriby, Swanland, Kirk Ella, Willerby and Cottingham. Most passengers on the 144 will have other options on either the 143 or 180. This is a significant improvement for passengers from Swanland and North Ferriby, with a range of departure times now available for travel to Hessle, Castle Hill Hospital and Beverley. The route from Swanland to Beverley is far from direct, but at least there is service.

Also notable in the new 180 timetable is a later last departure from Beverley, at 1710 rather than the current 1625 service. The current 0740 from Walkington to Beverley will now start in Cottingham, providing new commuting links from Cottingham, Skidby and Little Weighton into Beverley, while the first service from Hessle to Beverley moves from the present 0915 to 0740.

With the reduction to a two hourly frequency on the 180, EYMS have introduced two replacements. Firstly new service X80 between Beverley and Hessle. It operates directly from Beverley to Cottingham (current 182 route) then via Castle Hill Hospital, Waitrose directly to Willerby Square (omitting Willerby Parkway), then via the 180 route to Hessle. The X80 will operate roughly every two hours Monday to Saturday, including peak times. The X80 provides faster journey times from Beverley to Cottingham, Willerby, Anlaby and Hessle, but comes at the expense of an even interval hourly Beverley-Hessle service - it's two buses every two hours.

Secondly EYMS will operate service 61 between Beverley, Cottingham and Hull via Walkington every two hours Monday to Saturday daytimes. The service has been perfectly timed with the 180 to maintain an hourly service between Beverley and Cottingham via Walkington, Little Weighton and Skidby, and introduces all-day links to Hull and Hull Royal Infirmary from the three villages, plus it provides the only link from Beverley to Hull Royal Infirmary. Unlike the existing (and unaltered) morning peak service, Castle Hill Hospital will not be served by the new journeys on service 61.

I suspect links to Hull will be far more useful to Walkington, Little Weighton and Skidby than to Hessle. Indeed, if the 61 could be altered to serve Castle Hill Hospital on all journeys would it be better to provide an hourly 61 between Beverley and Hull, leaving all the Hessle services to operate directly between Beverley and Cottingham?

Once again EYMS have delivered significant improvements to their services at the expense of simplicity. While three infrequent service have been cancelled (144, 182, 184), the main service has become complex.

(Should finally note the current Sunday service on route 180 between Beverley and Cottingham is unaltered).