Stagecoach North Hull Changes

Last November Stagecoach in Hull made significant changes to North Hull services 32 and 51, which from Monday 28th April will be further refined.

The main change is the renumbering of the 32A and 51A variations to numbers 31 and 52 respectively, following customer feedback. The 'new' 31 will follow the current 32A route except the inward journeys towards Hull will operate via Robson Way and enter Sutton Village from Wawne Road. The new '52' follows the current 51A route except in Hull City Centre it will operate via Drypool Bridge and Alfred Gelder Street, following the same route as service 31/32, instead of serving North Bridge and George Street. This improves links to the Old Town area of Hull City Centre.

Interestingly one of the reasons for introducing the 32A was to link Howdale Road and Dunvegan Road to the Old Town as it could not be done without putting extra resources into service 51, yet now service 51 variant, new route 52, is being routed via the Old Town.

Also of note is a slightly increased peak time service on routes 31/32; currently the 32/32A provide a service every 10 minutes combined but from next week the 32 will operate every 10 minutes into Hull for half an hour in the morning peak, and from Hull for an hour in the evening peak, supplemented by service 31 every 20 minutes.

The other main change concerns evening services on routes 30, 31 and 32. There is currently a completely different service 31 that operates every hour in the evening (daily) between Hull City Centre and North Bransholme via parts of both routes 30 and 32. This service is to end, replaced by increasing evening service 32 from hourly to half hourly. Additionally service 30 shall operate half hourly all evening Monday to Saturday, rather than until just mid-evening as at present when it then reduces to hourly. The odd thing is that all evening, and all day Sunday, journeys on service 30 shall operate via Leads Road, but not use the 30A prefix used for the Leads Road diversion in the daytime. While removing the old 31 simplifies the network, the numbering of evening and Sunday service 30's add confusion. Why not use the 30A number?
UPDATE 3/5/14 - While the 30 in the evenings and Sundays is now serving Leads Road it is not using the same route as the 30A. So that is probably why the 30A number is not being used. However it does add further complexity to the network.

Another service ending is weekday peak time 31X, which had provided two morning journeys from Wawne into Hull via North Bransholme, Noddle Hill Way, Barnstaple Road, Holwell Road and Garden Village, plus three evening return services. The increased service 32 along Noddle Hill Way previously mentioned provides a replacement for that area, though without the Holwell Road link. In the morning the 0750 30A from North Bransholme starts back in Wawne at 0747 and operates as a service 30W, omitting Bodmin Road but serving Garden Village, to provide a partial replacement for the 31X (returning to the service level provided until last November). Similarly in the afternoon the current 1710 30A from Hull Interchange becomes a 30W.

There are also changes to the weekday late afternoon service on the route 30 corridor. The current 1457, 1557 and 1657 30W's from Wawne will start at North Point at 1520, 1620 and 1720 with the current 1510, 1610 and 1710 30's from Bodmin Road starting at Wawne instead. The 1440 30A from North Bransholme moves to 1445 with the 1450 service 30 from North Bransholme to Hull withdrawn.

Finally KC Stadium service 31F is renumbered 40F; following the changes to the 31 described above the 31F number would no longer make sense.