Bus plans

Wave routes
99 & 98 – will run six buses an hour between them during the day, Monday to Saturday plus hourly buses into the evening (but until how late?).

Currently the 98 runs 2 buses, unevenly, an hour and the 99 runs 3 buses an hour – both stop around 6.30pm but the 99 runs 2 or 3 more buses till 9pm
The thing is – the two services are not the same – if you just want to get to Eastbourne from Hastings Station and back, the 98 takes you all round the houses and wastes your time. They can only be counted as one service running every ten minutes at the start and finish of the route – not for any start or finish point in between. What’s more they are suggesting further splitting the 98 route in two making the ‘every ten minutes’ promise serve even fewer bus stops. This means the hourly evening service will be two hourly for any one not at the extreme ends of the routes, where 99 & 98 run on the same roads.

Conclusion for the coastal ‘Wave’ connection: not much gain

Hastings’ six town bus routes

20 – Ore – Hastings Station – London Road – Old Church Road – Hollington Tesco currently runs every 15 minutes 6.30am to 7.50pm and then hourly till 11pm. (Castleham Industrial Estate mornings only, Ore Down Farm less well served early and late.) Sunday service half-hourly 7.30am to 5.30pm
– gains an hourly evening service to Harley Shute and a half-hourly evening service Ore – Hastings Station – Hollington

21 & 21A – Ore – Hastings Station currently runs every 15 minutes alternately using Malvern Way or Mount Pleasant meaning that, for people using it from mid-route, it’s only a half-hourly service
– gains evening frequency (unspecified) and Sunday services plus ‘route simplification’ (?), route extensions of two buses per hour to Harley Shute via Pevensey Road, West Hill and Filsham Road, on the current 23 route. (The 23 currently runs hourly so here the frequency will be doubled)

22 & 22C – Ore – Hastings Station – London Road – Hollington which alternates routes at the beginning and end, starting along Clifton Road or Mount Pleasant or Malvern Way and finishing at big Tesco or Harley Shute. Passengers needing a specific beginning or end to the route have a half or third of the overall half-hourly frequency from 6.15am to 6.15pm then hourly till 9pm and a Sunday hourly service from 9am to 6pm
– gains ‘improvement’ to evening service tbc and day time frequency from hourly or three-quarter hourly to half-hourly for both the Harley Shute and the Tesco destinations

23 – Hastings Station to Hollington Tesco via the Hospital in the mornings, then direct, not visiting the Hospital, in the afternoons – currently hourly during the day
– gains extra hourly service evenings and Sundays and a half hourly service (twice the old frequency) during the day and a re-route improving coverage away from London, Pevensey, West Hill Roads (taken over by the 21) and transferring its service to Harley Shute (via the Seafront, I guess).
– loses – service to Hospital

26 & 26A – Hastings Station – Conquest Hospital, clockwise via London Road and anti-clockwise via St. Helens Road currently half hourly along the 2 routes but with 4 unevenly spaced services from end to end, as long as you don’t mind what route you take, from 7am to 7pm
– gains an additional hourly evening and Sunday service for people at the beginning or end of the routes, ie. the Station or the Hospital, but a two hourly service for anyone wanting to catch the bus from anywhere else along the route.

28 – Hastings – West Hill – Conquest Hospital currently the least loved bus service in Hastings because it runs every 70 minutes!
– gains a half hourly service during the day Monday to Saturday, an hourly evening service and a 2 hourly Sunday service
– loses Hastings Station and only runs from Priory Meadow (not so bad)

Conclusion for the 6 Hastings town bus services:
– Frequency – would improve from hourly to half hourly but not beyond – you won’t get your bus coming every 15 minutes unless it does already. This falls way short of their turn-up-and-go aspiration. (Frequencies could be doubled with smaller vehicles eg. licensed cars.)
– Service hours – it is proposed that all 6 routes extend their hours into the evening with at least an hourly service (we don’t yet know to how late) and to at least a two hourly Sunday service
– Coverage – would be extended westward with Harley Shute being served by three different buses, by one hourly and by the other two half-hourly. There would then be 6 north-south routes running roughly half hourly (or better if it’s the 20 or 21 from Ore). There would, however, still be no bus running east-west along the whole length of the Seafront, the Ridge or any route between the two.