Saturday 30 August 2014

Replacing the 53

Tomorrow, Sunday 31st August, is the last day of operation for Stagecoach in Hull service 53 between Hull City Centre, Garden Village, Lambwath Road, Cavenidish Road, Ings Road, Savoy Road and Salthouse Road.  The service provides a half hourly Monday to Saturday daytime frequency and an hourly Sunday daytime frequency. According to a comment on this blog post, Hull City Council withdrew Stagecoach’s contract to serve Lambwath Road due to extensive housing demolition in the area.

The section of route in Garden Village along James Reckitt Avenue, and also along Savoy Road is replaced by a diversion of existing service 52 between Hull City Centre, Bellfield Avenue, Spring Cottage, Noddle Hill Way and Kingswood. The 52 will now omit large parts of Holderness Road (plenty of other services into Hull available), and part of Bellfield Avenue (which retains service 51). As part of this change, the section of James Reckitt Avenue between Gillshill Road and Ings Road gains a far increased service as it is currently only served by limited tendered service 50.
The 52, while not operating Sundays or serving Wilberforce College, provides a slightly improved Monday to Saturday service for James Reckitt Avenue and Savoy Road. Inbound to Hull the first journey from Kingswood is at 0505 on weekdays and 0607 on Saturdays, compared to 0700 weekdays and 0730 Saturdays from Salthouse Road on the 53. Additionally on weekdays the frequency on the 52 is every 20 minutes, though parts off James Reckitt Avenue also loose the hourly 30W service so this just retains 3 buses an hour, but at even intervals.
Lambwath Road, Cavendish Road and Ings Road lose their bus service (apart from the limited 677 along Cavendish Road and Ings Road), as does Middlesex Road. Salthouse Road does not have a replacement Monday to Saturday service, but already has the direct service 10 to Hull City Centre via Holderness Road. The 10 also gains an hourly Sunday daytime service between Hull City Centre, Salthouse Road and Spring Cottage, ensuring Salthouse Road retains a Sunday daytime bus service.

Overall this package of changes provides a fairly good replacement for a service that has fallen victim to the Ings Road Estate redevelopment. Hopefully the additional passengers that should be created for the 10 and 52 will help to make these services more successful.

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