Kingston upon Hull Transportation

There are two daily ferry routes from Hull that arrive each morning and leave each evening - one to Rotterdam (on the photo) and one to Zeebrugge.
In the new Hull Interchange ( train/bus) the dedicated bus to the ferry goes from stand A - D.
We travelled on the Pride of York on 18/3/13 from Hull and returned to Hull on the Pride of Bruges on 20/3/13. The restaurants are reasonable on both ships but the Pride of Bruges the better ship - the York is a floating oven and everyone complained about the heat in the cabins. The cabins on each ship are quite basic but OK for one night and bedding and towels are provided. Each cabin has a bathroom with a shower.
The onboard duty free shop is good although the entertainment leaves a lot to be desired.

The park and ride is useful to use if you don't want to search out parking in the town centre and pay the high multi-story prices also. Hull likes it's traffic wardens so don't get caught out in town.
There are park and ride bus stops dotted around the city centre, and they run every 10 minutes from 7am to 7pm.
Stops are from the Park & Ride-
Kingston Communications Community Stadium
Hull Royal Infirmary
Stops in town are-
Carr Lane (outside the City Hall)
Alfred Gelder Street (Outside Marks and Spencer)
Alfred Gelder Street (Outside Guildhall)
Wilberforce Drive (Opposite Hull College)
George Street (Outside Browns Books)
Prospect Street (outside Woolworths)
Ferensway (outside Hammonds)

Return fares are £2- £1.50 per adult, parking is free.
And if you get there on a Wednesday or Sunday morning there is also the car boot sale at Walton Street.

Hull has traditionally relied on the 'buzz' (Bus) as the main means of public transportation.

Although Hull had over 200 iles of railway around the city (as can be seen in the streetlife museum) it has all but disappeared. There is a somewhat half-hearted campaign to use some of these former lines in a light-rail or even a monorail system for Hull. This would seem to be a very long way off indeed.

In the mean time, Hull city council has contented itself with building a new bus station next to the main railway station, thus creating Britains first properly interegrated transport interchange for a major city in the UK.

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Four railway companies operate trains in and out of Hull. Here are my opinions of them.
GNER - only the early morning train to London and the evening return. Full restaurant service and comfortable ride on a high speed train.
Hull Trains - five direct services a day to London but don't believe the hype about this company. The trains are often over booked and standing in common especially on Sundays but I will agree the trains are good and the staff generally efficient.
Transpennine Express - generally good with an hourly train to Manchester. This company are really setting new standards for rail travel from Hull - catering on board for the first time in years, an on board cleaner who cleans and tidies the trains as they travel across the north and very , very punctual. Unfortunately some over crowding on trains even off peak.
Northern Rail - the worst trains in the north of England. Slow and often oldish trains on the Scarborough and Sheffield routes.
My tip - use Hull Trains to Doncaster and change to Cross Country for Sheffield. Unfortunately York and Scarborough are only possible by Northern Rail. Good journeys on the Leeds/Manchester service with Transpennine Express.

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Hulls new Interchange finally opened on September 9, 2007. This is a mix of Hulls mainline railway station and new bus terminus. The buses are on the north side of the Interchange near the travel centre.
The travel centre has the railway ticket and information office and also offices for National Express, Stagecoach buses and East Yorkshire buses.
No cafe and only the old toilet block open at time of writing (18/9/07) but the new ones should be open soon. Safe, clean and well staffed with staff on hand to give travel advice on the concourse.
At long last a nice introduction to the city with the new St Stephens shopping centre next to it.
Unfortunately because VT keeps tips on that are years old and way out of date there are other tips warning about the railway station that may have been correct years ago but the new interchange is quite safe.

Hull has a park and ride service - the 701 from Priory Park.
On the eastbound A63 look out for the Priory Park park and ride sides and its on the left after passing under the Humber Bridge and the park and ride is opposite Sainsburys. The parking is good and safe with a waiting room and toilets - there are always staff on hand to help and watch cars.

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A 52,000 sq m, £200 million re-development of the train/bus/coach station of Hull, with shops, offices, a cinema, theatre.
Hull had been going down-hill for quite a few years, people noticed that locals were moving out, no one was moving in, businesses were closing down and something had to be done about it. So money has been pouring into Hull ever since the selling off of Kingston Communications, the football and rugby teams are doing well, or at least better than previous years, and the St.Steven's re-development is the 'star' attraction.

Said to be opening in Autumn 2007, there's still a lot of work to go, I pass it every day on the way into work, they've removed the ugly 1970's extension to the front of the listed train statino building and are rennovating that, and clagging a huge glass roof to the edge, I'm sure it will look better once completed.

They're diverting a few of the roads behind the development, so expect your city map to be out-of-date, there's a lot more taffic lights on Ferrensway now which is also making the traffic slower and backing up at the Spring Bank/Beverly Road junction.

At the moment the bus stops are all around the town now, train services are not affected.

Does Hull really need a lot more boring High Street Shops to push our local ones out of the water? I really hope it doesn't but can also see how visitors' first impressions on entry to Hull was severly marked by the old coach/bus station. Integration is a good idea and I suppose they can only pay for it by renting the shop space to large companies.

Hull has fairly good rail links with the rest of the country and is served by no less than four train companies 'thanks' to the Conservative Party's privatisation legacy.

Arriva (http://www.northernrail.org) runs regular regional services to the rest of Yorkshire and links to the London-Edinburgh east coast main line. First Group www.firstgroup.com/tpexpress) runs the lucrative 'Transpennine' franchise linking to the west country, Manchester and its Airport. Hull Trains (www.hulltrains.co.uk) runs five daily direct services a day to and from London and GNER (www.gner.co.uk) adds another two. I suggest using www.thetrainline.com if you're planning your rail journey to or from the city.

Hull Railway station isn't the most dignified entrance to the city to be honest and it has begun a long-overdue modernisation and redevelopment due to finish in 2007. Once complete it should be one of the most integrated and modern transport hubs in the UK, but until then I apologise for your first impressions of the city if you enter here. Though patrolled by security guards and staff, like many local railway stations it is somewhat desolate and intimidating come nightfall and inevitably attracts various unsavory characters. You'll certainly want to move on as soon as possible - head out the main entrance for the local taxi firms.