Hornsby April 2023 Changes

During April Hornsby Travel have made some minor amendments to their network. 

From Monday 3rd April the evening peak X4 from Brigg to Scunthorpe at 1745 Monday to Friday was truncated 'short' at Lakeside Retail Park - there is a 1740 service 4 from Brigg to Scunthorpe. On the 'flip side', the 1750 service 12 'short' from Ashfield to Ashby at 1750 is extended to Scunthorpe Bus Station Monday to Friday only "due to customer requests". There were also some very minor retimings to service 6 between Scunthorpe and Ashby and service 399 between Scunthorpe, the Isle of Axholme and Doncaster.

Then from Monday 17th April new service X399 was introduced between Scunthorpe Bus Station and Doncaster Frenchgate Interchange, stopping only at Scunthorpe Tesco Extra. There is one journey each way Monday to Friday at 0630 from Scunthorpe, returning from Doncaster at 1740 with a journey time of 40 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the evening. 

A fast Scunthorpe to Doncaster service might seem like an opportunity with the current state of Transpennine Express rail services between the two locations and maybe that has played a part in Hornsby's thinking with the X399. However during college terms times the X399 is probably intended to primarily function as a positioning journey for service 'JLC 3' between Doncaster Frenchgate Interchange and the Scunthorpe Colleges. There is a little bit of effort by not just running direct between the Ashby depot and Doncaster, and certainly a bigger commitment is being made to the X399 by running it during college holidays - I can't regard the X399 with one journey each way as a significant attempt to offer a rail alternative though. Let's hope some people find the X399 useful however.