Saturday 6 July 2013

X4 Wicstun Express to Hull

From 22nd July, EYMS's X4 Wicstun Express from Brough to York via South Cave and Market Weighton will be extended to start back in Hull, operating via North Ferriby to join it's current route in Brough. This shall offer an extra Hull to York service, new links from North Ferriby to York, and extra services between Hull, North Ferriby, Brough, Elloughton and South Cave. 5 journeys will operate each way between Hull and York Monday to Saturday, plus one extra Hull-South Cave 'working' in each direction. This compares to the current 4 services provided each way between Brough and York.

Between Hull and Brough co-ordination between the X4 and X55/X56 Petuaria Express is good, with the Petuaria Express leaving at 15 minutes past the hour, and the Wicstun Express at 40 minutes past the hour. In the reverse direction it isn't quite as good, with many Petuaria Express's leaving Brough at 38 minutes past the hour, followed by a Wicstun Express at 57 minutes past the hour.

Between Hull and York the main X46 service leaves at 5 past the hour, with the X4 leaving at 40 minutes past the hour, providing good co-ordination. In the reverse the co-ordination is perfect, with X46's leaving York Railway Station at 8 minutes past the hour and X4's at 38 minutes past the hour. Overall EYMS have done a good job at co-ordinating the revised X4 with services on both the Hull-Brough corridor and Hull-York corridor.

While this is clearly a welcome enhancement from EYMS, I would just like to note the full list of EYMS now linking Hull and Brough:
153
155/155A
X4
X55
X56
X57
While some don't operate, very often or at least serve don't serve Brough very often, it is a complex network. It offers faster journey times than when it was just the 153/155/155A, but at the expense of simplicity. Maybe trying to at least simplify the network at least a little is something for EYMS to consider next time they revise Hull-Brough services?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do EYMS really need all those services? Im sure a better simpler network could be created

NMcB said...

It is certainly the case that a simpler network could be created, as before the creation of the X55/6/7 and X4 there were only the hourly 155 and occasional 153's to Brough. This was nice and straightforward, and served Hesslewood, Ferriby, Melton and Welton regularly.

However, as a result it took 47 minutes from Hull Interchange to Brough and simply became less and less attractive as an option the further you got from Hull - taking around 1hr 55 mins to Goole.

The present arrangement saves around 15 mins to Brough and 30 mins to Goole on on x55/6/7 while X4 will also save 10 mins to Ferriby. The downside is that services to Hesslewood, Melton and Welton are less frequent and the whole thing is more complex.

Having said that, if EYMS are offering reasonably fast Hull-Goole, Hull-York and 'slow' services to/via Brough the revised times are a good compromise. I, for one, think it far better than a slow, but simple to understand, service via 'all the villages'.