Nine months on from the launch of the Goole + Howden Hopper, the Goole Town Deal team is gathering feedback from local communities to determine how well the bus service is being used, what benefits it brings and how people feel about it.

Launched in May 2024, the Goole + Howden Hopper is funded by Goole Town Deal as part of the £2.4 million Station Hub project, which aims to support Goole’s growth and an anticipated increase in the number of visitors to the town centre by creating an enhanced transport hub and arrival/departure experience at Goole Station.  The bus service is supported by East Riding of Yorkshire Council, whose officers have played a key role in its development, and is currently operating as a pilot project. As the Goole Town Deal Board attempts to gauge whether there’s sufficient demand to extend, and potentially expand, the service beyond the initial pilot phase, it’s urging local people of all ages to share their views.

One of the Goole + Howden Hopper bus stops.

A consultation exercise is launching this Thursday, 27 February, to gather feedback from local communities through face-to-face interviews and an online questionnaire. This will help the team to understand which days and times the service is busiest; what sort of journeys people are using it for; what type of tickets they like to buy; what other forms of transport they tend to use; and where they are travelling to and from. There will also be an opportunity for people to say how satisfied they are with the service, and share any comments they’d like to make about it.

Those who would like to have their say have until Tuesday 31 March to take part in the online consultation by click here.

The Goole + Howden Hopper connects Goole Station with major employment sites on the outskirts of town and with Howden Station, which offers regular train services to York, Leeds and beyond, as well as London. The aim is to make people’s onward journeys from Goole Station easier, provide local people with low-cost transport to key employment sites and make the town more attractive to potential investors by improving transport connections for those travelling from major cities across the North of England and as far afield as London.

Two Goole Town Deal-branded buses, each of which seats 19 people, provide the service and they’re operated by local firm Sweyne Coaches. Stopping at Goole Station, Tom Pudding Way, Glews Garage, Airmyn, the War Memorial in Howden and Howden Station, the buses operate between the hours of 6am and 11pm from Monday to Saturday to try to meet the transport needs of as many people as possible, from shift workers to those who work typical office hours and people travelling into, and around, Goole for shopping and leisure. A £1 flat rate ticket is available to all users of the new service, regardless of how far they’re traveling and the time of day, and a £5 weekly ticket offering unlimited use is also available.

User numbers for the first nine months suggest that the service has been well received, with more than 5,000 journeys per month being made via the Hopper.