Monday 22 April 2019

Evolving in Kingswood

Stagecoach are making changes to their services in the growing Kingswood estate in North Hull from next Sunday, 28th April.

Monday to Saturday daytimes the main services to the residential parts of Kingswood are currently the 6 and 9/9a, which operate as 'cross Kingswood' circulars. Each service operates half hourly. The 6 operates a direct service from Paragon Interchange via Beverley Road and Kingswood Leisure and Retail Parks to Kingswood Health Centre, whilst the 9/9a runs from Paragon Interchange via Garden Village, Leads Road, Bransholme North Point Shopping Centre, Honiton Road, Wawne Road and Kingsbury Way to Kingswood Health Centre.

With the revised network, the 6 continues to operate half hourly as a 'cross Kingswood' circular, but now 'partnered' with service 7 instead. The 6 continues to operate to Kingswood Health Centre then picks up the current 9/9a route via Grosvenor Road and Richmond Lane before using the new Pioneer Way to Wawne Road, which becomes the official terminus for service 6. Half hourly service 7 currently operates between Paragon Interchange and Kingswood Retail Park via Beverley Road, Sutton Park, North Point, Bude Road and Bodmin Road, but after Bodmin Road with the network revision will instead run to Wawne Road/Pioneer Way via Pennine Way in North Bransholme; it continues to operate every half hour. This provides new links from North Bransholme to Kingswood and Beverley Road, but does extend journey times between Sutton Park and Kingswood Retail Park (Bodmin Road has the 11 for direct journeys).

Service 9/9a becomes a 'stand-alone' service (from a customer point of view at least). It will no longer serve Grosvenor Road - replaced by the 6 and saving a minute of journey time - and extends from Kingswood Health Centre to Kingswood Retail Park covering the loss of the through link currently provided by operating as a circular with service 6. Otherwise it remains half hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes. This change removes two buses an hour from Kingsbury Way to Hull City Centre, and the links to both Kingswood Leisure Park and Beverley Road that are provided by the 'circular' working with service 6. However overall the changes provide an extra two services per hour from Runnymede Way, Runnymede Lane (both between Kingswood Retail Park and Health Centre), Kingswood Health Centre and Richmond Lane to both Hull City Centre and North Point, in addition to providing services along the new Pioneer Way whilst still serving Kingsbury Way.

Evenings and Sundays, service 8a currently serves most residential areas of Kingswood. It operates from Paragon Interchange via Beverley Road, Sutton Park, North Point, Honiton Road, Wawne Road, Kingsbury Way, Richmond Lane, Grosvenor Road and Kingswood Health Centre to Kingswood Retail Park; the frequency is half hourly Monday to Saturday evenings and Sunday daytimes, reducing to hourly on Sunday evenings.

Service 7a takes over most of this function from Sunday, operating at the same frequency as the 8a, and following the entirety of the main service 7 route from Paragon Interchange to Wawne Road/Pioneer Way before routing via the service 6 route to terminate at Kingwood Retail Park. I'm not sure why the 'a' suffix is needed for a route extension (as opposed to an en-route variation)? Compared to the 8a, Honiton Road and the section of Wawne Road between Honiton Road and the northern end of Noddle Hill Way become unserved evening and Sundays, as the 7a will be following the main service 7 route via Bodmin Road (though the 7a, unlike the 7, has no Bodmin Road timing point). The 7a will also omit Kingsbury Way in order to serve Pioneer Way, but this will be covered by the 10a instead. One advantage of the 7a over the 8a is the provision of evening and Sunday links from North Bransholme to Beverley Road.

Service 10a presently operates evenings and Sundays as a minor diversion to the main service 10 route between Paragon Interchange, North Point, Bodmin Road, North Bransholme and on some journeys Wawne Village, to serve Kingswood Retail Park. However from Sunday the 10a variation will run between Kingswood Retail Park and North Bransholme via Runnymede Way, Runnymede Lane, Richmond Lane (but not Kingswood Health Centre) and Kingsbury Way. The frequency between Paragon Interchange and North Bransholme remains half hourly Monday to Saturday evenings and Sunday daytimes, reducing to hourly on Sunday evenings; Sunday daytimes hourly services extend to Wawne, as do daily late evening services. The 10a's route change doubles evening and Sunday provision for Runnymede Lane and Richmond Lane.

On the main service 10, weekday peak frequencies reduce inbound to Hull City Centre on weekday mornings from 'frequent intervals' to every 15 minutes, and outbound late afternoon from every 12 to every 15 minutes. The first two Saturday morning departures from North Bransholme gain the weekday early morning diversion via Hull Royal Infirmary and Smith & Nephew.

Sunday 21 April 2019

Replacing the 13

On Sunday 28th April, Stagecoach are revising many of their Hull services, and the changes include the withdrawal of service 13 between Hull Paragon Interchange, Holderness Road, Saltshouse Road, Spring Cottage, Bransholme North Point Shopping Centre, Sutton Park and Orchard Park. The service operates daily daytimes half hourly between Paragon Interchange and North Point, extending to Orchard Park Monday to Friday only. Monday to Saturday hourly off peak services operate as service 13a, serving the eastern part of Howdale Road as opposed to Dunvegan Road on the main 13 route in Spring Cottage, and also Kestrel Avenue and Noddle Hill Way instead off the westernmost part of Howdale Road. 

Monday to Saturday at least though withdrawal is only technically true. Between Paragon Interchange and North Point the 13 and 13a are replaced by the 8 and 8a, and between North Point and Orchard Park service 3 provides a replacement, but with reduced operating hours.

Service 8 currently principally operates between Paragon Interchange and North Point via Beverley Road and Sutton Park half hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes, serving as 'short' workings of the 7 between Paragon Interchange and Kingswood Retail Park. Occasional journeys from North Point start on Wawne Road or in Kingswood, and these extensions will be covered by service 7 from next Sunday. Revised service 8 continues to operate half hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes between Paragon Interchange, Beverley Road, Sutton Park and North Point, and continues to provides a 15 minute frequency over this section along with service 7. The morning peak variation 8x continues as well, via Clough Road and Sutton Fields Industrial Estate, as does the diversion of the first four weekday inbound services from North Point (0455, 0525, 0555 and 0625 departures) via Hull Royal Infirmary and Smith & Nephew - this is now extended to cover the first two Saturday inbound services as well (0555 and 0625 from North Point).

The major change to the 8 however is that it will operate as a circular - at North Point most services will continue to or start from Paragon Interchange via the old service 13 route, creating through links between Beverley Road and Spring Cottage, Saltshouse Road and Holderness Road, as well as new Saturday through services from Sutton Park to these areas. The 'a' variation remains in East Hull, but between Kestrel Avenue and North Point will now route via Biggin Avenue, currently unserved, rather than the section of Wawne Road between the southern end of Noddle Hill Way and Barnstaple Road, which now becomes unserved Monday to Saturday daytime. The first departure from North Point via Salthouse Road Monday to Friday will be at 0707 compared to 0732 on the 13, but the last departure at 1737 as opposed to 1800. The last 'a' variation departure from Paragon Interchange will be at 1400 Monday to Saturday as opposed to 1455 on the 13a, and from North Point at 1437 as opposed to 1530 Monday to Friday with the 13a. On college days one morning service from North Point to Paragon Interchange via Saltshouse Road is dropped, as is one afternoon complete anti-clockwise circular from Paragon Interchange via Saltshouse Road and North Point, but these are largely covered by Wilberforce College service 83.

On service 3, which Monday to Friday daytimes operates every 10 minutes between Greatfield, Paragon Interchange and Orchard Park, two services per hour will omit Orchard Park Tesco in order to extend to North Point via the service 13 route along Ellerburn Avenue, Greenwood Avenue, Sutton Road, Sutton Park and Cheltenham Avenue. This change removes the link from North Point and Sutton Park to Orchard Park Tesco, which the 13 currently uses as it’s Orchard Park terminus, and also the through link from Orchard Park to Spring Cottage and Saltshouse Road. At present departures from North Point to Orchard Park on the 13 are provided between 0747 and 1751, and from Orchard Park to North Point between 0710 and 1738, but on service 3 this will be limited to departures from North Point between 1015 and 1515, and from Orchard Park at 0709 and then between 0939 and 1439, a significant reduction in service. Alternatives involve changing either at Kingswood Retail Park or on Beverley Road.

Elsewhere on service 3 there are Monday to Friday early morning enhancements with a new 0430 from Greatfield to Paragon Interchange, first service currently 0500, and a new 0645 from Paragon Interchange to Orchard Park and North Point, filling a gap in departures from Paragon Interchange to Orchard Park between 0630 and 0700. There is a new 1830 from Greatfield to Paragon Interchange Monday to Saturday, filling a gap between 1815 and 1845. Evening variation 3a now starts with the 1830 rather than 1800 from Orchard Park Monday to Saturday, which is logical as the 1800 largely duplicated the penultimate departure from Paragon Interchange on service 14, which the 3a variation otherwise replaces in the evening.

Returning to replacing service 13, and the Sunday replacement is a diversion to service 11 between Paragon Interchange, North Point and Kingswood, the new 11a. At present the Sunday daytime 13 combines with the 11 to provide four services per hour, fairly well spaced, between Paragon Interchange, Spring Cottage and North Point. This is reduced to just the 11a every half hour with this service revision, which sees a diversion away from the eastern part of Bellfield Avenue to cover Saltshouse Road, and then serve otherwise unserved Middlesex Road. The positive from the 11a is that it will also operate daily evenings, providing a new evening service for Salthouse Road and Middlesex Road.

The only other notable change to service 11 are that like the 8, the first two inbound Saturday services from North Point will follow the diversion via Hull Royal Infirmary and Smith & Nephew. Compared to the old service 11 evening provision, the Monday to Friday 11a will have an extra departure from Kingswood at 2305, whilst the penultimate Monday to Saturday departure from Paragon Interchange at 11a will not serve Lowgate in Hull Old Town as the 11 2300 does, but the 2330 departure will continue to do so.

Saturday 13 April 2019

Hawthorn Avenue in Hull regains a bus service

From Tuesday 23rd April, East Yorkshire service 51 in West Hull, which routes between the Paragon Interchange in Hull City Centre and Sibelius Road, will have a route and timetable change. The 51 is operated under contract to Hull City Council, and operates every 90 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime.

Between Hessle Road and Fiveways the 51 is being re-routed via Hawthorn Avenue and Boothferry Road, as opposed to Askew Avenue. Askew Avenue is also served by the Priory Park Park and Ride operating limited stop into Hull City Centre every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes, reducing to half hourly in the peaks. Since the re-routing of the Park and Ride via Askew Avenue in 2017, the 51 hasn't been needed for travel from Askew Avenue into Hull City Centre or to Hull Royal Infirmary. On the other hand Hawthorn Avenue has been without a service since the 1D was withdrawn in October 2016, so the 51 is a welcome reinstatement of bus services for the road.

The timetable change are fairly minor, partially reflecting the new route is slightly longer and also revising the peak-time timetable. Most notably the Monday to Friday morning peak service from Sibelius Road will depart at 0755 rather than 0805, and the last bus Monday to Saturday from Paragon Interchange will be at 1750 rather than 1735

Friday 12 April 2019

Route Change in Beverley's Swinemoor Estate

After Easter there will be changes to the route of East Yorkshire's Beverley Town Services 520 and 521 in the Swinemoor Estate. From Tuesday 23rd April between Burden Road and Sigston Road the services will use Springfield Drive rather than Wickwane Road. As a result less of Burden Road and more of Sigston Road will be served. The 520 and 521 are hourly Monday to Saturday one way circular services, combining to operate half hourly over part of their routes, including this section.