The Anonymous Widower

Hull Trains Sees Biggest Timetable Transformation In Its 23 Year History

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Hull Trains.

These are the first two paragraphs.

Hull Trains has announced it is now running extended 10 carriage trains on a number of its services from Wednesday to Sunday due to growing passenger numbers, bringing an extra 4,000 available seats per week for customers.

Introducing this extra capacity, especially on a Sunday, has been an aspiration of the operator for some time now and it is delighted to finally be able to launch these longer train services. The change will bring additional seats and offers to Hull Trains’ services for customers.

These two paragraphs talks about their performance.

A report released in late 2023 by the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), showed that Hull Trains have led the way for long-distance train operators, reporting a 34% growth in journeys compared to the previous year.

This provided further evidence of Hull Trains’ stability and strength with the local open-access operator now delivering 28% more journeys than it was before the pandemic.

So why have they outperformed other operators?

A Local Presence And Name Must Help

So if you’re going to London, you’re probably more likely to use a local train company. It’s also easy to market.

Hull Has One Of The Best Bus/Train Interchanges In The Country

Recently, I went to an SSE presentation about their Hydrogen Pathfinder Project at Aldbrough. This was given at Horden about twenty miles from Hull and the buses to and from the station were just a hundred metres from the platform at Hull station.

They were also reasonable frequent.

At some stations like Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly and Newcastle the bus/train interchange is bad and require a walk halfway across the City Centre.

Money is Tight At The Moment

I suspect that bus and train is cheaper than going by car to the station.

As in many households there are at often two cars, I wouldn’t be surprised that if one partner can manage without a car, a lot of families have reduced the number of cars they have.

This would be difficult in some places as public transport, isn’t good enough to rely on.

So Hull’s excellent bus/train interchange would benefit train operators.

Interestingly, Doncaster has a co-located bus station.

Sheffield Also Is A Good Bus/Train Interchange

Hull Trains proposed new route is London and Sheffield, which I wrote about in FirstGroup Applies To Run New London To Sheffield Rail Service.

Conclusion

Hull trains are certainly getting it right, but I do think the buses in Hull help.

January 18, 2024 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Buses, Class 802 Train, Hull Station, Hull Trains, Sheffield Station