Changes are coming in the future to the Goole + Howden Hopper/J36 service between Goole and Howden, currently operated by Sweyne Coaches. I have reposted the full press release from the Goole Town Deal below which explains their reasoning, though one thing notably missing is an exact date for a revised timetable to be introduced.
As the Goole Town Deal Board continues to explore the potential to extend the hugely popular Goole + Howden Hopper bus service beyond its initial pilot phase, it has agreed to introduce a revised timetable and increase fares in a bid to make it less reliant on public subsidy.
Almost a year on from the launch of the Goole + Howden Hopper, the Goole Town Deal team has been gathering feedback from local communities to determine how well the bus service is being used, what benefits it brings and how people feel about it. Almost 800 people took the opportunity to share their views as part of a recent consultation exercise and this feedback has been used to develop a revised timetable that incorporates an additional stop at the Ozone Business Park near Howden, where Yara UK’s new £50 million fertiliser factory will open later this year, and another opposite the Tesco supermarket in Goole. Further changes have been made to better align the timetable with train services at both Goole and Howden Stations, and, because there’s lower demand for the service on weekday evenings, only one of the two Goole + Howden Hopper buses will run at those times. This will also make it easier for the buses to be serviced and maintained.
According to the survey results, a large majority of respondents would be willing to pay higher fares to ensure that the service can continue. Therefore, the Goole Town Deal Board has agreed to increase the fare for a single journey from £1 to £2, and the cost of a weekly ticket from £5 to £7. Both fees will still be well below the national bus fare cap of £3 per journey. The timetable and fare changes will be implemented in due course, following a six-week statutory notice period.
Phil Jones, Chair of the Goole Town Deal Board, explained: “The Goole + Howden Hopper service is currently operating as a pilot project but has proved incredibly popular, with between 5,000 and 6,000 journeys being made each month. Our goal is to ensure that it’s able to continue beyond the lifespan of Goole Town Deal. If we achieve that, there could also be potential to expand the service because the survey showed that there’s a huge appetite for more villages and stops to be served by the Hopper. In the short-term, we’ve tried to accommodate some of these requests for additional stops within the existing route by making changes to the timetable.
“As a Board, we allocated £550,000 of revenue funding to set up the Goole + Howden Hopper service and operate it during the 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years. With the support of East Riding of Yorkshire Council officers, a further £100,000 of match-funding was also secured.
“We don’t want the service to simply stop when that funding runs out next year, so we’re exploring alternative sources of funding for the future. However, we’ve been advised that the success of any funding bids that we submit would largely depend on the service becoming less reliant on public subsidy. This means that we need to carefully balance the need to retain an affordable and effective transport service for local people with the need to make the service more self-sustaining so that external funders would look upon it more favourably. We’ll then be able gather more evidence about how it’s used, with a view to working towards it becoming a commercially viable service that local bus operators would be interested in tendering for, which could also potentially be replicated in other areas where we know there’s demand.”
Phil added: “We’re very grateful to everyone who took the time to respond to our survey. It’s clear that people want the Hopper to continue and are willing to pay higher fares to make that happen. We hope that the timetable and fare changes that we’ve agreed will take us one step nearer to securing the longer-term future of the service.”
Launched in May 2024, the Goole + Howden Hopper is funded by Goole Town Deal as part of the £2.4 million Station Hub project, which aims to support Goole’s employment growth and an anticipated increase in the number of visitors to the town centre by creating an enhanced transport hub and arrival/departure experience at Goole Station and connecting with Howden. It’s also supported by East Riding of Yorkshire Council, whose officers have played a key role in its development. The Goole + Howden Hopper connects Goole Station with major employment sites on the outskirts of town and with Howden Station, which offers regular train services to York, Leeds and beyond, as well as London. The aim is to make people’s onward journeys from Goole Station easier, provide local people with low-cost transport to key employment sites and make the town more attractive to potential investors by improving transport connections for those travelling from major cities across the North of England and as far afield as London.
Two Goole Town Deal-branded buses, each of which seats 19 people, provide the service and they’re operated by local firm Sweyne Coaches.
Last year's blog on the service launch is available here.
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