Service 1C returns

After a retendering exercise by Hull City Council, East Yorkshire operated services 21 and 51 were withdrawn on Saturday 27th February, and replaced by Stagecoach operated services 1C and 5A on Monday 1st March.

Service 21 had operated between Hull Paragon Interchange, Wilberforce Drive, Freetown Way, Caroline Street, Cannon Street, Bridlington Avenue, Fountain Road, Beverley Road, Mizzen Road, Compass Road and Kingswood Retail Park. The 21 operated every 90 minutes off peak Monday to Saturday increasing to hourly at peaktimes, but omitting Kingswood.

Meanwhile service 51 linked Hull Paragon Interchange, Hull Royal Infirmary, Rawling Way, Hessle Road, Boulevard, Selby Street, St Georges Road, Hessle Road, Hawthorn Avenue, Boothferry Road, Fiveways, Pickering Road, Anlaby Road, Anlaby Park Road North and Sibelius Road. The 51 operated every 90 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes, peak and off peak.

The principle replacement for the 21 and 51 is the Monday to Saturday offpeak 1C, which apart from some variations in Hull City Centre and not serving Kingswood, is a merger of the 21 and 51; not serving Kingswood is unfortunate but would require either a lower frequency or increased vehicle requirement. In Hull City Centre the 1C operates from Sibelius Road direct to Paragon Interchange then as per the 51 route, whilst from Mizzen Road the 1C operates from Alfred Gelder Street via Carr Lane, not serving Bond Street or Paragon Interchange. The 1C number has been used before between Sibelius Road and Compass Road (and Kingswood), back in EYMS days, although arguably in West Hull the current 1C routing has more in common with Stagecoach's service 2 than service 1.

Service 1C operates every two hours but with some extra journeys, departures from Sibelius Road are at 0900, 1000 (to Paragon Interchange only), 1100 and 1300 along with an extra 1435 from Paragon Interchange to Compass Road. From Mizzen Road the 1C departs at 0900, 1000, 1200 and 1400. The 1C requires one vehicle all day and a second first thing in the morning and again mid-afternoon, a reduction from the 21 and 51 each requiring a vehicle all day.

There is no peak time replacement for the 21 along Bridlington Avenue, or for the 51. Parts of the 51 route along Rawling Way, Hessle Road, Boothferry Road, Anlaby Road and Anlaby Park Road are served by other services, and some other sections of route are within walking distance of these roads. Mizzen Road and Compass Road are served by new service 5A, which is a variant of existing service 5 'shorts' between Hull and Orchard Park extending to Compass Road rather than Orchard Park Tesco. Based on the 8th March timetable, departures leave Paragon Interchange at 0730, 1534, 1634 and 1734 Monday to Friday and 0730, 1533, 1633 and 1733 Saturdays. From Mizzen Road the 5A departs at 0715 and 0810 Monday to Friday and 0713 and 0803 Saturdays. 

The 5A appears to use 'slack' in peaktime timetables to serve Compass Road without increasing the peak vehicle requirement. Sadly such 'slack' does not appear to be available off peak at the moment, as in order to serve Mizzen Road and Compass Road, Hull City Council are subsidising the 1C along most of Beverley Road that is otherwise very well served by commercial routes. This subsidy could be used instead to increase frequency between Sibelius Road and Bridlington Avenue, or to serve unserved or underserved roads such as North Road and Askew Avenue in West Hull.

Overall, whilst there maybe hourly rather than 90 minute frequencies for parts of the day and there is through connectivity provided from Beverley Road to Hull Royal Infirmary, these changes are a reduction in service. Hull City Council were considering reducing services to 4 days a week however, so it could have been worse.