Hull Fruit Market and Old Town Changes

Stagecoach made changes to the routes serving the eastern part of Hull City Centre on 6th September.

Previously the service 20 Park and Ride service from Priory Park operated from Hull Royal Infirmary via Paragon Interchange, Albion Street, Bond Street and Alfred Gelder Street to The Deep, then back to the Infirmary via Alfred Gelder Street and Carr Lane. Now the service goes straight from Bond Street to Carr Lane, omitting Alfred Gelder Street and The Deep. Anyone using the 20 to access the Old Town area now needs to use the Monument Bridge stop at the western edge of the Old Town. The same route change was also made to the East Yorkshire operated weekday peak journeys on the 20.

On the other hand, service 6 from North Bransholme and Kingswood to Hull Paragon Interchange via Beverley Road gained a new inbound (to the Interchange) route offering greater penetration of the Old Town. Journeys from North Bransholme serve Albion Street and Bond Street before routing into the Old Town along Alfred Gelder Street and Lowgate. They then go under the A63 along High Street to serve the Fruit Market (with access to The Deep via a footbridge) before making use of the completed A63 Castle Street works to reach Paragon Interchange via Castle Street and Ferensway. Outbound buses from the Interchange do not follow this loop and instead continue to operate direct to Beverley Road.

The 6 offers an all day service, 7 days a week, unlike the 20 which is Monday to Saturday daytimes only.

At the same time, service 6 also gained other enhancements. The 45 minute gaps in the otherwise half hourly Monday to Friday daytime service were removed, with the service now operating a consistent half hourly timetable. These gaps had existed from Paragon Interchange between 1045 and 1130, 1400 and 1445, 1515 and 1555 and from 1755 to 1840. From North Bransholme gaps had been in the timetable between 1133 and 1218, 1448 and 1540 and from 1610 to 1653. On Sunday evenings, the 2200 last departure from Paragon Interchange has been replaced by later 2215 and 2315 services.

With the 6 only operating hourly Monday to Saturday evenings and Sundays, service 5 from Kingswood, Orchard Park and the Avenues to Paragon Interchange was also re-routed on it's inbound journeys to the Interchange, to follow the new service 6 route via the Fruit Market area in the evenings and Sundays only. Service 5 operates half hourly Monday to Saturday evenings and Sunday daytimes, and hourly Sunday evenings. This change, when combined with the 6 gave the Fruit Market a minimum of two buses per hour all day every day.

However, from Monday 12th October, the 5's new evening and Sunday route was suspended 'until further notice', with inbound services following the daytime route via Carr Lane instead. This has been attributed to "road conditions being unsuitable for our electric buses".

Returning to the 6th September changes, and service 5 also had it's Sunday evening 2200 last departure from Paragon Interchange replaced by later 2220 and 2320 journeys.