Details of the answers given by a Cabinet member to questions about bus service reliability in York have been released by the Council.
Independent checks – undertaken by “mystery travellers” – have been a valuable source of information over the years as they reflect the actual experience of passengers in the city. Suspicion is growing that the Labour Cabinet may have discontinued the checks when they took office – this seems to be the only explanation for their reluctance to publish the results.
The Council was told though that, in future, reliability statistics on “contracted services” (those subsidised by Council taxpayers) might in future be published. No timescale has been given for the release of this information.
Clearly the Council is also embarrassed by the low take up of their much vaunted “all York” ticket which allows travel on any bus in the City irrespective of operator. Information on ticket sales is not forthcoming although a Freedom of Information request is outstanding.
The Council had expected 5% of passengers to take up this option but it now seems that the actual use is much lower.
Hence the Council is thinking up all sorts of reasons for not releasing the information. The ticket enjoys a £20,000 subsidy from taxpayers and was a stop gap pending the introduction of a cashless “smartcard” payment option.
The secrecy is in marked contrast to the call for openness supported by the Coalition governments Transport Minister Norman Baker (see http://tinyurl.com/York-secrecy-criticised)
The answers to questions tabled at the council meeting on 6th October published by the Council include the following.