The Slightly Improved 45 and 46

Back on Tuesday 8th May, EYMS amended their 45/46 services between York, Pocklington, Market Weighton, Driffield and Bridlington.

Whilst retimed significantly - by up to half an hour - between York and Pocklington, the two services continue to provide a combined hourly Monday to Saturday daytime service on this section, along with a limited evening service. On this section the only other notable change seems to be that there are now some morning services from York, and afternoon services into York, running via the University.

Between Pocklington and Market Weighton the services become hourly combined all day, apart from a couple of two hour gaps departing Market Weighton. This is an improvement from the previous timetable that was hourly late morning/early afternoon but then had only a limited service for the remainder of the day. Combined with the X46, the 45 and 46 offer two well spaced services an hour Monday to Saturday daytime between York, Pocklington and Market Weighton.

The majority of service 46's now extend beyond Market Weighton to Holme on Spalding Moor, acting as a partial replacement for EYMS's previously mostly commercial 18 between Market Weighton, Holme on Spalding Moor and York. EYMS withdrew this at the same time as making these changes to the 46, with the 46 replacing the Market Weighton to Holme on Spalding Moor section, as well as maintaining a commercial Holme on Spalding Moor to York connection, albeit via a longer route. The 46 provides 5 services a day to/from Holme on Spalding Moor including a peak time service, whereas the mostly commercial Monday to Saturday 18 had provided 6-7 Market Weighton to Holme on Spalding Moor services a day and 8-10 Holme on Spalding Moor to York services a day. It should be noted that the replacement tendered 18 still provides some Holme on Spalding Moor to York services.

Service 45 continues beyond Market Weighton to Driffield and Bridlington. Between Market Weighton and Driffield there is simplification with all services, apart from a single afternoon York to Driffield working that has no 'balancing' departure from Driffield (maybe works a schools service on schooldays?), now serving North Dalton and Bainton en-route. Previously most 45's omitted Bainton and some omitted North Dalton.

The 45A variation remains, using the more 'traditional' and quicker route between Pocklington and Driffield via Warter (and omitting Bainton). The 1350 from York 45A has been replaced by 1320 and 1420 45's, so the only 45A's through to/from York are the morning peak Bridlington to York service and early evening return. There is an additional 45A in each direction between Pocklington and Bridlington however, departing Pocklington at 0830, 125 minutes before the previous first 45 departure from Pocklington to Driffield and Bridlington, and leaving Bridlington at 1850, two hours after the last 45 departure. The main purpose of these new journeys would appear to be to transfer one 'diagram' from Bridlington to Pocklington depot, but they may be useful to some travellers, and with a 23 minute wait in Pocklington, a York connection is available in the evening (a morning connection is available as well, but with an 82 minute wait on weekdays and 52 minutes on Saturdays).

Overall the 45/46 came out of these changes with some small improvements.