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.