Saturday 30 April 2016

Stagecoach North East Lincolnshire Changes

The start of May (Sunday) sees Stagecoach introduce changes to it's local services in North East Lincolnshire.

Services 3 and 4 between Laceby Road Morrisons, Grimsby and Cleethorpes unfortunately see their Monday to Saturday evening frequency after 2100 drop from half hourly to hourly. The last journey on service 3 from Cleethorpes will be at 2245 rather than 2315, while on service 4 the last full route departure from Cleethorpes will be at 2215 rather than 2245; the 2315 'short' from Cleethorpes to Grimsby remains. Some weekday early morning journeys are also retimed.

Daily evening journeys on service 5 between Immingham, Grimsby and Cleethorpes will be diverted via Wybers Way Top; other than a very limited 'Europarc workers' service on route 20, Wybers Wood does not currently have an evening bus service.

Services 7 between Grange Estate, Grimsby and North Sea Lane, 8 between Grimsby, New Waltham and North Sea Lane and services 9 and 10 between Waltham, Grimsby and Cleethorpes have revised timings but no changes to their frequency.

Finally new service 11 will be introduced between Grimsby Town Centre, Grimsby Hospital and Scartho Top, operating via Bargate and Scartho Road before serving Matthew Telford Park. I'm not familiar with that area of Grimsby but a quick look on Google Earth shows it has seen a lot of new housing development. Service 11 will operate hourly Monday to Saturday mornings and early afternoons.

Sunday 17 April 2016

Proposed York Bus Cuts

City of York Council are currently consulting on reducing subsidies for bus services in the city council area, including some services that extend into the East Riding of Yorkshire which are discussed below. The council intends to implement the cuts from 28th August 2016.

Service 10 from Stamford Bridge to York and Poppleton is proposed to have it's subsidised Sunday to Thursday mid to late evening service, currently operated by Transdev, withdrawn. This service currently costs City of York Council £36,000 per year. The daytime operator, First, provides early evening journeys commercially, and Transdev provides a commercial Friday and Saturday evening service - however the consultation document warns that they "may decide to withdraw this service when the Sunday to Thursday evening is withdrawn".

There is less certainty surrounding the plans for Monday to Saturday daytime service 36 from Sutton on Derwent to York, and peak time service X36 from Pocklington to York. City of York Council state they are "currently considering what level of service (and times of operation) to include in the specification for a new contract". With respect to the X36, funding from parish councils has now ceased and City of York Council are working with East Riding of Yorkshire Council to consider if the service should continue. Service X36 currently costs City of York Council £12,000 a year. Service 36 and weekday service X36 is operated by Transdev, with EYMS operating the X36 on Saturdays.

There is however some good news to end on - EYMS have advised City of York Council that they are willing to operate the evening service on route 18 between York and Holme on Spalding Moor without financial support. The service would likely have been proposed for withdrawal otherwise, in line with all other supported evening services in York.

Sunday 10 April 2016

EYMS Bridlington Area Changes

Monday (11th April) sees EYMS make changes to 3 services in the Bridlington area. Weekday service 131 to the Carnaby Industrial Estate has a revised afternoon timetable to improve punctuality while town service 503 is rerouted and slightly retimed due to "badly parked cars" causing delays - as a result it will no longer go around Bempton Oval. Finally on service 510 to Flamborough, all journeys will now serve North Landing (and Thornwick Bay Holiday Centre when open), increasing the frequency from 2 hourly to hourly.

Last Wednesday also saw EYMS take over operation of the Wednesday and Thursday journeys on service 124 from Acklams Coaches - the service runs between Bridlington and Driffield via various villages including Burton Fleming. When operated by Acklams Coaches the service provided two journeys in each direction, offering 3 hours 35 minutes in Bridlington and 1 hour 20 minutes in Driffield. The new timetable has one Ruston Parva-Bridlington journey on a Wednesday, providing 2 hours 40 minutes in Bridlington, and one Boynton-Driffield journey on a Thursday, offering 2 hours 45 minutes in Driffield. A search on Traveline Yorkshire brings up no results for the Saturday service that Acklams Coaches had also previously operated, indicating this may have been withdrawn.

New EYMS 124 timetable

Saturday 2 April 2016

Scunthorpe Service 16 passes to Stagecoach

On Friday (1st April), North Lincolnshire Council tendered Scunthorpe Town Service 16 passed from Hornsby Travel to Stagecoach. The service runs from Parklands Caravan Site and Brumby Wood Lane to Scunthorpe Bus Station on Tuesdays and Fridays, and to Ashby on Thursdays.

Hornsby Hospital Service 9

On Friday (1st April), the Scunthorpe Hospital Park and Ride service from Glanford Park was replaced with use of a Scunthorpe Town Centre car park, and passengers then using Hornsby service 9 to the Hospital. As a result the weekday timetable for service 9 now starts at 0700 from Scunthorpe Bus Station rather than 0755, and finishes with an 1850 departure from Church Lane as opposed to a 1727 last departure (a later journey is also available on service 4). The weekday daytime frequency remains every 20 minutes.

New Service 9 timetable

Hornsby Saturday Reductions in Scunthorpe

Hornsby Travel have introduced reduced Saturday timetables on two town services in Scunthorpe from today (2nd April).

Service 12 from Scunthorpe Bus Station to Ashfield is reduced from a half hourly daytime service to a largely hourly service. The occasional extensions to Burringham and East Butterwick are unaffected. Between Ashfield and Ashby Town Centre, the 12 largely follows the route of Stagecoach's 31/32 services which operate every 20 minutes on Saturday daytimes. Between Ashby and Scunthorpe Town Centres, the 12 follows the same route as Stagecoach's hourly circular services 33/34. From Scunthorpe Bus Station the 34 leaves at :00 minutes past the hour and the 12 at :30 minutes past the hour, however from Ashby the 33 leaves at :07 past the hour and the 12 at :10 past the hour.

Service 22 from Scunthorpe Bus Station to Lakeside is reduced on Saturday mornings from half hourly to hourly, matching the afternoon frequency.

New Hornsby 12 Timetable
New Hornsby 22 Timetable

Friday 1 April 2016

Hornsby 35 Revised

Today (Friday 1st April), Hornsby Travel have introduced a new timetable on North Lincolnshire Council tendered service 35 between Scunthorpe, Keadby and Amcotts. The previous hourly Monday to Saturday daytime service now operates every 75 minutes, with some slightly shorter and longer intervals between certain journeys. Journey times are extended, so I guess this change maybe driven by punctuality issues?

New Hornsby 35 timetable