Services 5 and 11 mostly improved

On Sunday 3rd November, Stagecoach amended Hull Paragon Interchange to Kingswood Retail Park services 5 and 11, and the changes mostly provide an improved service.

The biggest changes have been to service 5 which operates via the Avenues, including serving Hull University, and Orchard Park. Previously the Monday to Saturday daytime pattern had been a service every 20 minutes over the full route and a service every 20 minutes between Paragon Interchange and Orchard Park Tesco, giving a combined every 10 minute frequency over most of the route. This has now been amended to increase the 'full route' frequency to Kingswood to every 15 minutes, with 'short' journeys also running every 15 minutes between Paragon Interchange and Orchard Park Medical Centre. Overall the service between Paragon Interchange and Orchard Park Medical Centre is now every 7-8 minutes, an extra two services per hour. The only negative is the reduction from every 10 to every 15 minutes over the short section between Orchard Park Medical Centre and Orchard Park Tesco, though every 15 minutes is still frequent and services 3 and 4 are also available to passengers on this stretch of route. Morning peak 'shorts' still start at Orchard Park Tesco however, and some 'shorts' do not operate on schooldays.

The Monday to Saturday evening provision has also been revised. Service 5 continues to operate every half hour, with the final service from Hull City Centre now starting at Paragon Interchange rather than in the Old Town. Inglemire Lane variant u5 is more substantially amended. Previously the u5 had operated every half hour early evenings between Paragon Interchange and Kingswood, giving a combined 15 minute frequency with service 5 over common sections. Now these early evening journeys have been truncated to operate between Paragon Interchange and Orchard Park Medical Centre only, reducing the early evening frequency between Orchard Park and Kingswood from every 15 minutes to half hourly. On the positive side however, these u5 'shorts' now continue all evening Friday and Saturday, doubling the frequency over the common sections of route with service 5. Going by the Stagecoach route map, the u5 has also been re-routed between the Hall Road/Endike Lane/Greenwood Avenue junction and the Hall Road/Orchard Park Road junction; instead of routing 'direct' via Hall Road, which is also served by the 3, the u5 now operates along the otherwise unserved western part of Greenwood Avenue before resuming the main service 5 route along Ellerburn Avenue.

The Sunday daytime service 5 timetable has been halfed between Orchard Park Tesco and Kingswood; rather than a 15 minute service across the full route, alternate journeys now operate between Paragon Interchange and Orchard Park Tesco only.

Service 11 (including the 11a variant) which operates via Holderness Road, Bellfield Avenue, Spring Cottage and North Point Shopping Centre, has a revised timetable but the only significant frequency change is the increase of Sunday evening services from hourly to half hourly.

Service 5 and services 11/11a also now operate as 'through' services at Kingswood Retail Park and Paragon Intechange on many journeys. Be aware however at Paragon Interchange it appears to sometimes be the Orchard Park 'shorts' on service 5 that operate as a through route with service 11 at Paragon Interchange, so it's not always a full 'circular' service being provided.. Even allowing for this, there are additional journeys now possible without a change of bus, such as between Holderness Road and the Avenues, or Orchard Park to Bransholme on weekends.