New N62 nightbus to North Ferriby and Brough

Not sure if it started yesterday - the 2nd - or next week - the 9th - but North Ferriby and Brough have gained/are gaining a new Saturday nightbus service. (The VOSA registration is effective the 2nd, but the details are listed on the Stagecoach website under changes being introduced from Monday 4th).

Stagecoach are incorporating their current late Saturday night/early Sunday morning services on service 2 between Hull City Centre, Boothferry Estate and Hessle into new service N62 between Hull City Centre, Boothferry Estate, Hessle, North Ferriby and Brough (Elloughton Road) - the N62 number 'ties in' with their X62 service between Hull and Leeds via Brough and North Ferriby. The N62 will operate from Hull Paragon Interchange at 2330, replacing the previous service 2 at 2325 from the Interchange to the Boothferry Estate, and then from Hull Truck Theatre on Ferensway at 2400 and 0100, replacing previous service 2 departures to Hessle at the same time.

Currently the last service from Paragon Interchange to North Ferriby and Brough is on service 153 at 2255. North Ferriby and Brough have a sparse evening service from Hull - the 155 from Hull at 1800 (commercial) and 1950 (subsidised) and then the 2255 153 (subsidised), so the N62 means there will be as many departures from Hull City Centre between 2300 and 0100 as there will be between 1800 and 2300! (There is an evening rail service as well). For Hessle there is currently a gap between the 2305 57 from Carr Lane and the 0000 service 2, which the 2330 N62 will nicely fill.

Single fares will be £1.80 within Hull, £2 to Hessle, £3 to North Ferriby and £4 to Brough.

It will be very interesting to see how the new N62 does; incorporating the established Hull to Hessle section should help leaving only the Hessle to Brough section as 'new' mileage. The City of Culture and Hull's growing evening/night-time economy will hopefully kick start and sustain the N62. Brough is also seeing significant new housing development. On the other hand three services within 90 minutes all the way to Brough is a bold start, especially given the minimal current evening service. Additionally neither North Ferriby or Brough are major Stagecoach operating areas, so beyond any X62 users there is no existing Stagecoach customer base to target - it will mostly need to be 'new to Stagecoach' customers. I would wonder how EYMS will react but given the sparse, partly subsidised, existing evening service I doubt they will be bothered so long as a nightbus is the extent of Stagecoach's ambitions in the area, as it has been in Hessle (except Boothferry Road).

It seems that Stagecoach are missing out the villages of Melton and Welton which will mean slightly quicker journey times to Brough, although at that time of night I suspect the time saving will be very small. It also seems that Elloughton won't be served, even though the N62 could easily extend there before running back to Hull. Another idea could be to extend at least the last departure to South Cave (and maybe even beyond) on a request basis. Credit though to Stagecoach for trying something out and I hope it works out for them and supports Hull's night time economy.

The new N62 seems to return empty from Brough to Hull, so the Sunday morning 0025 service 2 from Hessle to Hull has been withdrawn. Also, as a consequence of the 2325 service 2 becoming a N62 extending to Brough, the final service 1 departure from Boothferry Estate to Hull at 2350 is withdrawn on Saturdays only, with the last service now at 2320.

Also on service 1, the weekday 2210 from Boothferry Estate now operates as a standard 1, rather than a 1W via Smith and Nephew, while the final 2315 departure from Paragon Interchange Monday to Saturday moves to 2330 - Stagecoach are trying to standardise last Monday to Saturday departures from Paragon Interchange at 2330, which also sees the weekday service 2 from the Interchange to Boothferry Estate at 2325 depart 5 minutes later.

EDIT - If you search for the N62 timetable as opposed to using the link in the service change announcement on the Stagecoach website, a different format timetable is shown, which indicates the N62 terminates in Elloughton Main Street, not Brough Elloughton Road.