The trams in Hull had used letters for route identification since the turn of the century. The letters denoting the route as follows: - A= Anlaby Road, B= Beverley Road, D= Hessle Road (i.e. Dairycoates), H= Holderness Road, M= Hedon Road (i.e. Marfleet) and S= Spring Bank. Subsequent letters indicated variations to the main road route. In use were AP and DP: extensions of A and D to Pickering Road. BH and BN: extensions of B to Endike Lane (i.e. Beverley High Road) and Cottingham Road/Clough Road (i.e. Newland). IR, IRTH, and TH: extensions of the Holderness Road route to Ings Road; TH denoted services which commenced in Queen Victoria Square (i.e. Town Hall). On Spring Bank letters used were SC, SW and SWC, being Cottingham Road via Newland Avenue, Chanterlands Avenue South (i.e. Spring Bank West)and Cottingham Road via Chanterlands Avenue (i.e. SW+C). Finally on Hedon Road, when the final extension took place, trams running the full route were lettered MA (i.e. Marfleet Avenue), but eventually this was dropped in favour of M. Four further letter code must be mentioned which were QB and QS, which were short workings of B and S which terminated at Queen’s Road, the circular route BS and SB, which are self explanatory. Not all of these letter codes were in use at any one period of time.
Early motorbuses used only destination boards or indicators, but after the passing of the 1930 Road Traffic act, it was necessary for some method of identification of the route to be used. This was usually in the form of letters or numbers, or a combination of both. As a diversion it is interesting to note that East Yorkshire Motor Services did not display route numbers on its buses until the early 1960’s. Hull Corporation had initially used coloured lights to identify the various bus routes, but the early 1930’s saw the introduction of numbers instead.
The original number series used the numbers 1 to 50, and the routes were numbered from west to east, that is in a clockwise direction. Suitable gaps were left in each series for future developments. The scheme was: 1 to 10; west Hull (English Street, Hessle Road Anlaby Road), 11 to 20; north west Hull (Willerby Road, Spring Bank, Beverley Road), 21 to 29; inter-district routes, 30 to 40 north east Hull (Cleveland Street, Garden Village), 41 to 49; east Hull (Holderness Road, Preston Road, Hedon Road), and 50 the only southerly route to the Pier. Minor variants of a route were given an alphabetical suffix, although, as stated elsewhere, different Road Service Licences were originally required for them. The scheme, as stated above, continued until after the end of the Second World War, with two notable exceptions. From 1937, a new series commenced at 61 for the trolleybus services, secondly in 1942, the routes with an alphabetical suffix were renumbered to nearby whole numbers.
The next addition to the scheme did not occur until the early 1950’s when the series 51 to 59 was introduced for workers services. Short workings followed the trolleybus series, with 73 to 89, with the final number matching that of the main route, for example 78 and 88 were short workings of routes 48 and 58 respectively. During the second half of the 1950’s the end of the 50 series was used for the services to the council estates in north eastern Hull. The works and sports services were now numbered in the 90’s usually matching the final number of the earlier series.
There were a number of changes to the system in the 1960’s. Trolleybus abandonment saw the demise of most of the 60 series. Of the trolleybus replacements, only the 69 and 70 retained their numbers upon conversion of the route. By this time the inter-district series commenced at 26, and 21 to 25 were used for routes in north Hull. There were two factors which influenced renumbering at this point, the first being that new buses were being delivered with three track number blinds instead of two as previously. This allowed the use of numerical prefixes to route numbers. These prefixes had the general meanings as follows. 1, 2 and 4 denoted general variations and short workings; 3 had two meanings: in east Hull it denoted services which travelled via Drypool instead of George Street and Witham. In west Hull it denoted services which commenced or terminated at or near the Guildhall. 5, 6 and 7 were not generally used, 8 denoted schools services, and included the series 800 to 806. 9 was not used except for one example, again it was a school service and carried the numbers 901/902, the highest number used in Hull prior to de-regulation.
Also of note was a service which covered most of the outer areas of the City between Gipsyville and Marfleet. In this direction it was numbered 1, whilst in the reverse it was numbered 2. This was the first example of an Hull Corporation service having two different route numbers. Three school service based on this service were introduced and initially they carried numbers 1 and 2, but were later numbered to 201/2, 301/2 and 901/2, and the main routes were numbered 101/2. The second factor was that, as stated above, buses of East Yorkshire now displayed route numbers also, and several of these, especially in the low numbers, duplicated those of the Corporation. Services affected were 1 and 2, as noted above, and the west Hull services which ran along Anlaby Road, Hessle Road and Spring Bank. In order to remove any duplication 1 to 3 and 6 to 12 were renumbered to 101/2, 73, 66 to 68, 65, 60, 81 and 82. This now gave Anlaby Road the 60 series, Hessle Road the 70 series and Spring Bank the 80 series. This was to remain until 1985. 1965 saw the school series 800 to 806 and the 98S plus the 201/2, 301/2 and 901/2 were renumbered into it.
The alphabetical suffix system was introduced in 1967 where letters now replaced the numerical prefix. Of the nine letters used they tended to have specific meanings also. A, B, D and S directly replaced 1, 2, 3 and 8. Originally C was a general variation, but from 1968, it was used exclusively to denote a circular route. E was used for a variant, whilst F generally denoted services to football matches or to Hull Fair; later in west Hull it was used to denote services which operated to the Coach Station, where the main route did not. Works services where they were a variation of a normal route were denoted, sensibly, with the letter W, and also sensibly school services took the letter S. The final letter X was used to denote an express or special variation of a route. There were, of course, exceptions to the above system, but it was, in general, adhered to. This system continued to be used until 1986, when the de-regulation network was introduced.
The new network was much smaller than previously, and routes were numbered from 1 to 20 in a clockwise manner. There were no gaps left in the series, as there had been in the 1930’s. Following on from the main routes were the circulars, which were numbered 21 to 26. Six works services, which ran inwards only, before the start of normal services were numbered 51 to 56, and were marketed as ‘Earlybird’ services. Three peak hour works services were 73 to 75, and five schools services took numbers 80 to 84. The Humberside County Council school contract services were numbered in the Councils own series between 71S and 97S. The numbers were not part of the Company’s numbering system. This was the state of affairs at de-regulation in October, 1986.
Keith Easton
01/2012
Comments regarding the above are more than welcome please get in touch via the 'Contact Page' or by email at
If you have a bus related article that you would like to appear on this site please get in touch via the 'Contact Page' or by email at
All rights to the design and layout of this website are reserved Old Bus Photos does not set or use Cookies but Google Analytics will set four see this
Old Bus Photos from Saturday 25th April 2009 to Tuesday 16th April 2024