Will you try the Acomb Fun Run?

After its success last year the Acomb Fun Run is returning and young people are being urged to book their place ahead of the event, which takes place on Sunday 27 May.

Hosted by Carr Infants and Junior School in partnership with the council’s YorWellbeing service, this is a free event consisting of:

A 2km Junior Individual run around the perimeter of the enclosed school fields for 4-14 year olds. A ticket will be required for each runner. All finishers will receive a medal.

A 1km Fun Run for all around the perimeter of the enclosed school fields in which parents, grandparents and any family members of all ages are encouraged to join. Parents and family members wishing to take part in the fun run for all please select a ticket per individual for this event. All finishers will receive a certificate.

As well as the two events there will be an activity village with the energise climbing wall and information stalls, including HealthWatch and York City FC foundation.

Councillor Nigel Ayre, executive member for leisure, culture and tourism said: “This fun run is something for all the family to enjoy. This promises to be a great event hoping to inspire people to be active in a fun and family friendly environment.

“I would encourage anyone interested to book their place.”

Places for this event are free and can be booked at https://acombfunrun2018.eventbrite.co.uk

East Coast Mainline to be renationalised after failure of Virgin franchise

THE troubled East Coast Mainline rail service is to be renationalised after a franchise agreement with Virgin Trains was scrapped, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has announced.The service is being brought back into public ownership after a string of failures by Stagecoach and Virgin in recent years.

It is not expected that any York based jobs will be directly affected by the announcement

Mr Grayling’s decision marks the third time in under a decade that ministers have had to intervene on the line which was privatised in 1996 when Great North Eastern Railway took the ill-fated franchise.

Stagecoach and Virgin have run the franchise on a 90:10 split since 2015 and had already announced they would be handing it back to the Government three years early after admitting they had overestimated passenger numbers and suffered a revenue shortfall.

In a statement to the MPs, Mr Grayling denied the East Coast line was a failing rail service but admitted Stagecoach and Virgin stood to lose around £200m.

He told MPs the Virgin Trains East Coast partnership would be terminated next month and a new operator of last resort would take control under the London and North Eastern Railways brand.

He said the new LNER service will be a partnership between public and private sectors.

Critics of denationalisation fear the collapse of the franchise will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.

Mr Grayling said in February that the financial outlook for Stagecoach had rapidly deteriorated in recent months, with the company incurring losses of almost £200m.

The renationalisation of the line is expected to last for the next two years.

After 2020 the expectation is for the East Coast mainline to be operated on a new “public-private partnership model”.

Customer Charter for York Bus Passengers

York’s Quality Bus Partnership is launching a Customer Charter, which sets out the high standard of service that it aims to deliver to customers using bus services across the city.

The charter will be formally launched at the newly-refurbished bus shelter on Rougier Street in the city centre, which re-opened on Tuesday 8 May following the completion of a package of improvements funded by the Department for Transport. As one of the busiest bus stops in the city, Rougier Street is used by around 750,000 passengers per year. The improvements carried out there were the final phase of a programme of work that also saw bus stops at Exhibition Square, Museum Street, the Railway Station and Stonebow refurbished and enhanced. The new and improved bus shelter features two light boxes that can be used to communicate important service information to bus users, as well as sharing the Customer Charter with them.

The charter contains a series of pledges about the quality of the service that the Quality Bus Partnership aims to provide to bus users in York, from making fares easy to understand, timetables clear and ensuring that buses are accessible for everyone to making bus stops more welcoming, offering real time information and putting good public transport at the heart of planned highway work and new property developments.

As part of the drive to make the city’s bus services even more efficient and user-friendly, contactless payments (by credit or debit card) were recently added to the range of cashless ways to pay. Bus passengers in York have been quick to embrace cashless payments, either contactless or by Smartcard, with around 1,800 customers making the switch every week, according to figures provided by First York recently.