EYMS A63 Corridor Changes

From next Sunday, 26th January, EYMS are altering services along the A63 corridor to improve punctuality. There are also some minor improvements and reductions incorporated into the changes.

Petuaria Express X55/X56/X57 Hull-Brough-Howden-Goole

As well as changes to times off up 20 minutes, the changes include:

• The Weekday 0620 X55 from Elloughton to Goole becomes an 0615 X57, additionally serving South Cave and North Cave.
• The Weekday 0820 X55 from Hull to Gilberdyke becomes an 0820 X56 from Hull to Goole, meaning it will additionally serve South Cave and North Cave but omit Gilberdyke village centre
• The Saturday 0836 X55 from Elloughton to Goole becomes an 0855 X56 from Elloughton and Goole
• There is a new Weekday 0841 X56 from Howden to Hull
• The Monday to Saturday 0915 X57 from Gilberdyke to Hull is extended to start at Howden at 0858
• The Weekday 1315 X55 from Hull to Goole becomes a 1320 X55 from Hull to Howden, leaving a three hour afternoon gap in EYMS services from Howden to Goole
• The Weekday 1430 X55 from Goole to Hull is withdrawn
• Some daytime journeys from Goole to Hull swap between being an X55 or X56, and vice versa

There are also some routing changes. Services will no longer serve the city centre loop in Hull between 9am and 3pm (the loop is now only served at peak times, post 6pm and on Sundays). In Goole after operating into the town via the Hospital services will terminate at the Interchange and then serve North Street on their outbound journey.

Wicstun Express X4 Hull-Brough-Market Weighton-York

Times are slightly revised and the 'short' 0807/0812 South Cave-Hull and 1740 Hull-South Cave are withdrawn.

Service 155 Hull-Brough-Howden-Goole

Times are slightly revised. The Saturday 1340 Hull-South Cave will now terminate at South Cave Market Place rather than South Cave West End. The Monday to Saturday 1605 Howden-Hull will start in Goole at 1548 and is 'split' at Elloughton; I presume a change of vehicle will be required. The Monday to Saturday 1745 Goole to Gilberdyke becomes a 1753 from Goole to Elloughton (see also the 153 below). The Monday to Saturday 1945 Goole-Brough becomes a 1953 Goole-Elloughton.

The service will also follow the new Petuaria Express route in Goole.

Service 153 Hull-North Ferriby-Brough-Gilberdyke

The weekday 1445 from Hull to North Ferriby will terminate at Swanland. The Monday to Saturday 1745 from Hull to Swanland is extended to Elloughton, resulting in the withdrawal of the 1825 from Swanland to Hull. The 1820 from Gilberdyke to Hull will now start at Elloughton at 1856 and operate 10 minutes later throughout; as a result the 153 will no longer serve Gilberdyke, Newport Bridge and North Cave. The newly extended 1753 service 155 from Goole connects into the 1856 service 153 at Elloughton.

Comments

These changes are about punctuality not making major changes to service patterns - but they do highlight just how complex the services along the A63 corridor are, something I have raised before. Could service patterns be simplified? For example apart from serving Brantingham don't the 155 and X57 follow the same route between Elloughton and Goole? So unless there is demand from Brantingham why not renumber all the 'short' Elloughton-Goole journeys as the X57, and withdraw the 155 from Goole?

Finally, is there a lot of positioning journeys on the Petuaria Express and 155 - there are quite a few journeys that don't have obvious 'matching working' - e.g. what happens to the vehicle that does the weekday 1320 X55 Hull-Howden afterwards? What happens to the vehicle that does the 0700 X55 from Hull to Gilberdyke? How do the vehicles for the 0841/0858 Howden-Hull Petuaria Express get there? What happens to the vehicle that does the Monday to Saturday 1420 X56 from Hull to North Cave. How does the vehicle for the 1548 155 from Goole get there? School workings might be an explanation on schooldays, but not on school holidays and Saturdays. Could some positioning journeys be run 'in service' or is there a good reason why not?