It's fair to say that bus services from Hull to Brough and destinations east have taken a bit of a battering in the past couple of years. Various attempts at a second hourly service between Hull and Brough have been abandoned, while late evening and Sunday services were withdrawn. All journeys between Elloughton and Goole are now subsidised I believe.
There was some good news though last week, when on Sunday 5th November a revised timetable was introduced on East Yorkshire service 55 between Hull, Brough, Elloughton, South Cave, Gilberdyke, Howden and Goole. The service operates approximately hourly Monday to Saturday daytimes and early evenings between Hull and Elloughton, with hourly extensions to Gilberdyke off peak, and further extensions to Goole four times a day.
Focusing first on the 'core' Monday to Saturday service and the 1720 from Hull to Elloughton now extends to South Cave. This is a small but notable enhancement, as the last service from Hull to South Cave was previously at 1410. There is no morning peak journey into Hull, but the 1720 provides more options for shopping and/or other leisure related trips.
Now to the headline enhancements, as part of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council's Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus funded improvements - new Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday daytime journeys. For both the evening and Sunday enhancements they operate as two separate services, one at the Hull end of the route and one at the Goole end.
Starting with Friday and Saturday evenings; at the Hull end of the route a 2145 Elloughton to Hull and 2300 Hull to South Cave have been added; last journeys previously 1930 Elloughton to Hull and 2025 Hull to Elloughton. Not a huge volume of extra journeys, but enough to facilitate an evening out. A very welcome improvement. South Cave is in the unusual situation of going from a last bus from Hull at 1410 to a last bus at 2300.
Meanwhile at the other end of the route, there are now Friday and Saturday journeys at 1845 from Gilberdyke to Goole, 2025 and 2225 from Howden to Goole, 2000 and 2200 from Goole to Howden and 2300 from Goole to Gilberdyke. Again here very much facilitating evenings out, and a welcome addition to the network. It is interesting to note that there is no evening peak service between Gilberdyke, Howden and Goole, so there are approximately four hour gaps between the end of the off peak service and the start of the evening service.
Looking at the timetables and it is a shame that the 1720 from Hull to South Cave does not run through to Goole on Fridays and Saturdays - incorporating the 1845 from Gilberdyke to Goole. This would provide a later last bus service from Hull to North Cave, Newport, Gilberdyke, Eastrington and Howden for marginal extra mileage. Alternatively the 1840 Elloughton to Hull could start back at South Cave. Also could the 2300 from Goole extend beyond Gilberdyke, even if just to Newport? It presumably is heading 'dead' back to Elloughton depot.
Moving onto Sundays, there are new journeys at 0930, 1230 and 1530 from Gilberdyke to Hull, returning at 1100, 1400 and 1700. From Gilberdyke to Goole there are departures at 1030, 1230 and 1430, returning at 1145, 1345 and 1545. Overall these journeys provide basic Sunday shopping and leisure links and again are very welcome. Plus once again, it's a shame the first service into Goole and the last return don't serve Newport at least en-route from/to Elloughton depot.
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3 comments:
Sadly these changes to Goole and the 747 largely seem to be a waste of money with the exception of the 2300 55 ex Hull on Fridays and Saturdays. It is a pity that resources couldn't be better deployed to restore links on busier routes e.g many routes in Hull have hourly services for all or most of the evening e.g. 56/57. An extra few buses to give 30 mins minimum headway even at weekends might make the services usable. Especially, when 8 - 10 times as many buses run during the day. Or perhaps restoring the 2015 ex Hull no 75 during the week. Or reinstating an 18 to York on a Sunday rather than a 747. Or better use of two buses on the 46 and 145 - how about using the same resources to relink Market Weighton and Driffield.
In response to Anon @13.01, ERY Council aren't going to [be allowed to] spend money on improve bus services within Hull as those are the City Council's responsibility.
Now that so many councils are relatively small unitaries, perhaps there's an argument for regional transport bodies whose responsibilities don't end at authority boundaries. They just need a suitable name. PTEs, maybe? ;)
Interesting VOSA activity for Stagecoach Hull, sounds like night buses are back
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