Full marks to First York who responded within an hour to our complaints about reliability on the number 4 bus route. A senior manager readily accepted that improvements had to be made.

He suggested, though, that these might not take effect until the autumn.

The idea of appointing conductors – to reduce boarding, and hence journey, times – was rejected on cost grounds. First do, however, want to introduce cashless ticketing as quickly as possible. (Hopefully it will be a more reliable system than the pensioners pass card readers which are currently in use).

The Council are keen to deal with complaints about overhanging trees interfering with the double deckers currently used on the route. We’ve mentioned Foxwood Lane and Tadcaster Road. Please let us know about any other problem locations.

First also say, that the buses which are painted all over with advertising, form part of a national contract. It will be some time before this can be renegotiated.

The key for us though is to see more proactive management of the service. First have confirmed that the vehicles are tracked by GPS so there is no reason why there should be the kind of bunching that we saw earlier in the week (see http://youtu.be/-myCQ-BiOwQ)

A new Area Service Delivery Manager responsible for York and Doncaster has recently been recruited by First.

We believe that improvements can be achieved by returning to a single deck style vehicle. We accept that the design will be different from that of the ftr.

Generally single deckers are quicker to load and many have two doors, reducing the delays caused by the conflict between passengers leaving the bus and those trying to board. Single deckers also provide more space –and easier accessibility – for those with disabilities and those pushing wheelchairs and buggies. Drivers can also reduce journey times by setting off without having to wait for passengers to climb hazardous staircases.

The vehicles used on the park and ride route on Tadcaster Road are a good example of a modern bus.

In future, we hope to see a return to a number 4 service which is reliable, which never fails to pick up from every bus stop where there are passengers waiting to board and which can accommodate all users irrespective of their personal needs.

We expect the Council to cooperate in maintaining the route to a high standard and in dealing promptly with congestion issues. They should also now roll out “next bus arrival time” displays to the busy stops on the route.

Both First and the Council should publish the reliability statistics that they have for this and other bus routes in the City.

Provisional results for York school sixth forms show that 28% of entries were awarded an A*/A grades, which maintain the very high standards of previous years and are again higher than the national figure.

Over 78% of entries were given a top grade of A*, A, B or C.

11 extreme speeders are facing up to the consequences of their foolhardy and dangerous actions after being handed a total of £3,745 in fines and costs and banned from driving for a combined total of 174 days.

13 drivers and riders were summonsed to appear at Selby Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 16 August 2012 after being caught by North Yorkshire Police’s mobile safety camera at speeds ranging from 72mph in a 40mph zone to 132mph in a 70mph zone. (more…)

The demise of the ftr – although welcomed by some – has proved to be bad news for the Number 4 bus service. The old style double deckers, pushed into use on the service, have proved to be unsuitable for what is the busiest route in the City.
Gone is the air conditioning while space for wheelchairs and pushchairs is often cronically inadequate.

Some advertising paint jobs (such as “Chocolate York”) completely obscure the vehicles. So if a bus painted like this leapfrogs a stop, waiting passengers can only guess whether there were any empty seats.

The higher double deckers bang against overhanging tree branches frightening children and prompting fears that windows will shatter.

But it is reliability that has suffered most. All too frequently these days two number 4’s will follow within a few yards of each other. This effectively reduces what should be a 10 minute frequency service to a 20 minute one.

On Thursday this week buses had been running in tandem all day. A check on reliability at teatime revealed only 1 bus ran from Foxwood to Acomb between 4:10pm and 5:25pm (there should have been 7).

Then something large came into sight (for what happened next see the video at http://youtu.be/-myCQ-BiOwQ).

One passenger reported that it had taken 90 minutes to get from the University to Foxwood. (It should have taken 45 minutes maximum)

The cause is easy to see. The ftr had a conductor (host) who took fares when the vehicle was between stops. Now, in common with most other York services, the driver takes the fares. At a busy bus stop – and the are many on the number 4 route – this can take around 3 minutes. Inevitably the bus behind will catch up and run in tandem at least until the next timing point.

The ftr had the advantage of a GPS management system which gave an accurate indication of where individual buses were on the loop. A nominated route manager could then intervene to realign the services. The technology is still available but does not seem to be used proactively.

The Labour run Council is largely to blame for the decline in service standards. It supported a populist “ftr out” campaign without ensuring that there was an adequate replacement.

Over £200,000 has been spent on an abortive attempt to introduce a new bus contract. An option which was never likely to be available in a City where bus usage remains relatively high.
So what should happen now?

The ftrs are unlikely to return to the City but the congestion and reliability problems could be addressed, in the short term, by reintroducing the use of conductors to take “on board” ticket sales.

In the longer term, cashless ticketing should improve boarding times and this needs to be built into the specification for the next fleet of buses planned for key routes in the City.

In the meantime more cooperation between the Council and bus operators is urgently required.

We have raised passenger concerns with both First York and the Council.