York Council stuggling with new Park & Ride tender specification

It looks like a lower specification for park and ride services in York will apply soon.

Park and ride buses The Council failed to find any tenderers for a new contract offered earlier in the year.Now they seem to set to compromise on the type of vehicle that will be allowed and perhaps fare levels and frequencies.

The earlier failure by the industry to step up to the mark prompted talk of cartels and accusations of insider knowledge of the Councils “bottom line”

The Council in a statement today said,

Following dialogue with a number of bus companies which helped to better understand any issues which prevented them from submitting a viable bid for the Park & Ride contract earlier this year, City of York Council is confident that a new operator for the service will be now secured.

It’s expected that a new tendering exercise to secure an operator for the Park & Ride service from February 2018 will start shortly after the decision by the Executive (Wednesday 7 December).

In the interim, the council has negotiated a 12 month extension to the current contract with First York, whose contract expires at the end of January 2017. This will ensure that residents and visitors will continue to benefit from a high quality Park & Ride service until a new operator is in place.

As a result of the review, alterations to a number of the key specification areas have been considered and drawn together into these three main options:

Option 1 – providing maximum flexibility for the bidder to tailor the Park & Ride network. For example, the operator would determine the level of service and fares to be charged.

Option 2 (the recommended option) – providing a level of flexibility for bidders whilst retaining council control and influence in a number of key areas. The service specification would identify the boundaries for fares and service frequencies but would allow greater flexibility in other areas such as vehicle type.

Option 3 – providing a level of service similar to the unsuccessful tender earlier in 2016. It retains maximum council control of the Park & Ride service in all areas except fares.

Executive Members will be asked to consider all of the options at a public meeting on 7 December. Option three is considered the least likely option to secure a compliant bid from the market. This is due to the lack of flexibility given to the bidders and the financial expectations placed upon them. However, under options one or two, compliant bids could be expected and the scoring of tenders would include an assessment of the quality of the service proposed by the operator including the proportion of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV) proposed within the bid.

Executive takes place on Wednesday 7 December from 5.30pm at West Offices and is open to members of the public or is available to watch live online at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts

Extra Christmas Park & Ride services

There will be extended Park & Ride (P&R) services on Thursdays and Boxing Day.

Park and ride buses In the lead up to Christmas, the council is working with First York to provide a late night shopping service on all Park&Ride routes every Thursday, with the last bus leaving the city centre on all routes at around 9.30pm. For exact timings visit www.itravelyork.info.

The extended service will run from Thursday 17 November to coincide with the biggest Christmas market in York’s calendar – York Christmas Festival (which includes St Nicholas Fair), which runs between 17 November and 23 December.

In addition to this, passengers will also be able to take advantage of travel on Boxing Day on three P&R routes (standard fares apply):

Askham Bar (white line – route 3) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Tower Street at 6.40pm
Designer Outlet (red line – route 7) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.40pm
Monks Cross (silver line – route 9) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.40pm

All three services will operate at a 15 minute frequency throughout the day for all passengers and will serve all bus stops along the route.

To find out more about the Christmas bus offer or to find the best bus route through York, try out the council’s i-Travel York online Journey Planner at www.itravelyork.info

Time timetable for new FREE Sunday bus service from Foxwood published

timetable-for-sunday-bus-service

500-york-map

Christmas trial of new free Sunday service from Foxwood, Woodthorpe and Bishopthorpe to Askham Bar Park and Ride

Service 500 will launch on Sunday 13 November and will run free of charge

In the run-up to Christmas, First York are trialling a Sunday service which will take passengers from Foxwood, Woodthorpe and Bishopthorpe, direct to Askham Bar Park & Ride, where they can connect with a direct, frequent buses on Park & Ride service 3 to York City Centre.

The service will also serve stops at Askham Bar Tesco.

At the time of writing First haven’t published a timetable for the service on their web site

The company says that recent changes by City of York Council have meant that residents of Woodthorpe and Bishopthorpe have been without a Sunday bus service. “We’re now launching a free shuttle bus service to Askham Bar Park & Ride to help you travel into York, and enjoy the Christmas shopping opportunities and festivities”.

First York Managing Director, Marc Bichtemann, comments: “At First York, we’re dedicated to providing our customers with the best service possible. We wanted to ensure that our customers in Bishopthorpe, Woodthorpe and Foxwood who want to travel into York in the run-up to Christmas, have the opportunity to do so. We will therefore be offering a free shuttle bus service to the Askham Bar Park & Ride from this Sunday, and look forward to welcoming our customers on board.”

The service, numbered 500, will run with an electric bus, subject to availability, to reduce noise and emissions. The trial will end on Sunday 18 December. We’ll then assess demand for the service before deciding if it can be extended into 2017.

York buses launch new smart card payment option

It is now even easier to get on board York’s buses with the introduction of the ‘York by bus’ smartcard.

The card allows bus users to buy before they board from one of the city’s new ticketing kiosks.

Cllr Ian Gillies, Executive Member for Transport and Planning, said: “The introduction of the ‘York by bus’ smartcard will allow passengers to simply tap and go when they board the bus. We hope that this will make bus travel even more attractive and further boost bus passenger numbers.”

Smartcard kiosks are positioned at key bus stops in the city centre and at Park & Ride sites. Passengers can use the kiosks to pay for their journeys or check what is already on their card. ‘Park & Ride’, First York, Transdev, Cityzap and Coastliner tickets will be available for purchase alongside ‘All York’ tickets which are valid on all operators’ buses within the City of York area.

‘York by bus’ kiosks are located at:

· All six York Park & Ride sites
· Piccadilly
· Rougier Street
· Exhibition Square
· Opposite York Station
· Stonebow

· A staffed smartcard facility is available at the Visitor and Bus Information Point in York Station’s travel centre.

For more information on the ‘York by bus’ card visit: www.itravelyork.info/smart

Be ready for wintry conditions – “on line” map gives local salt bin and gritting details in York

It looks like we may get our first freeze of the winter shortly so we hope that residents will check that their local salt bins are full (and free from litter).

Its also a good idea to know which local streets are routinely de-iced by the “gritting” lorry.

Easiest way to find out where your local services are is by accessing the above map which can be found at:

http://localview.york.gov.uk/Sites/TranStreetCare/

Click i to see where your nearest salt bin is

Then click the fourth symbol along.

This will allow you to tick a box next to “primary” and” secondary” gritting routes. The primary gritting routes include most bus routes and are salted as a precaution when weather forecasts predict icy conditions.

You can find out whether the gritters are working by “following” them on twitter @yorkgritter

Buses 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14 & 66 diverted – Rougier Street closure tonight

Rougier Street will be closed towards the railway station on Tuesday 1st November, from 2100 until 0600 the following morning.

This is for repairs to a manhole cover. Stops CA, CB and CC on Rougier Street will be out of use. The road will be open in the opposite direction (towards George Hudson Street and Ouse Bridge).

Services will be diverted as follows:

4 – Acomb to City will follow normal route into town.

City to Acomb. From Clifford Street the bus will go over Ouse Bridge as normal, then LEFT onto Skeldergate, RIGHT Bishopgate Street and RIGHT Nunnery Lane. It will then continue AHEAD to the railway station, turn around by looping round Station Ave/Station Road, back to railway station, then as normal route.

14 – Foxwood Lane to Haxby will be normal route.

Haxby to Foxwood Lane. The bus will divert from Foss Bank, RIGHT onto Jewbury and ahead onto Lord Mayor’s Walk, then LEFT Gillygate, LEFT past Theatre Royal, RIGHT over Lendal Bridge then normal line of route from Station Road.

Please note: the stops at Stonebow and Low Ousegate WILL NOT BE SERVED. Alternative stop: Theatre Royal. The bus will serve all stops on diversion.

(more…)

Mixed news for York as bus usage figures published by government

Nearly 16.9 million bus journeys were made in the York area in the year to March 2016, per figures released this month by the Department for Transport.

Bus use in York compared to rest of country

The statistics, which are collected for every local transport authority in England, show that the number of bus users in York increased by 700,000 in the same time period, an increase of 4.4 per cent. This is the third consecutive year of increase for York, with passenger journeys increasing by 1.6 million, or nearly 11 per cent, since 2012/13.

The figures show that York has defied the regional and national trend of decreasing passenger numbers. Nationally the number of bus passenger journeys fell by 2.6 per cent last year and 2.9 per cent in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. York was the only Yorkshire authority to see an increase in passenger numbers.

However, the figures also reveal that the number of bus journeys made per head of population still haven’t recovered to the level seen in 2009.

Much of the increase over the last couple of years can be traced to the opening of a new park and ride site (Poppleton) and a greatly expanded and modernised site at Askham Bar.

Stage carriage services have remained stable.

Interestingly the number of journeys made by those using elderly or disabled persons (free) passes has now stabilised at 5 million a year following several years of decline.

Around 30% of local bus journeys are made by people using passes.

Passengers must wait a few more months to find out how reliable services have been. Frequent services – the majority in York – showed a decline in reliability when last year’s figures were published.

The York Council and bus companies refuse to publish the reliability statistics that they collect from journey management computer systems.

Bus usage figures in the rest of North Yorkshire are declining at an alarming rate.

Bus use in York and North Yorkshire compared

No takers for York’s new Park and Ride contract

First gets 6 month extension on present contract terms

City of York Council opened a tender process for bus operators to bid for a new contract to manage one of the UK’s most successful Park&Ride services in June.

With over four-million passenger journeys each year, the council was confident the tender would attract a number of high profile bids to continue offering the best possible deal for residents and visitors.

There was speculation that the low emission specification for the required buses, combined with a tight financial expectations, have combined to make the contract unattractive to commercial bus operators. At the moment the Council makes around £100,000 a year in revenue surplus from the service. The scale of the service means that the number of bus companies that could tender is restricted to only the largest operators.

The Council now says, “although there was strong interest in the contract, at this stage of the procurement process no responses meeting the council’s financial expectations against the specification tendered were received.

The council is confident that an operator will be secured in the coming months and following dialogue with a number of bus companies, options for addressing the concerns of potential suppliers will be developed. Subject to Executive approval on 13 October, the results of this review will be brought before the council’s Executive in December, prior to the issue of a further invitation to tender.

The council has negotiated a six month extension to the current contract with First York, whose contract expires at the end of January 2017. This will ensure that residents and visitors experience no changes to the Park&Ride and will continue to receive the same level of service until a new operator is in place.

York’s electric bus fleet

Executive will be asked to approve this extension at a public meeting on13 October.

Councillors will then be asked to determine which elements of the specification they would wish to alter at December’s Executive. This could include alterations to the frequency of service, type of bus used on the service and fares charged”.

Cllr Ian Gillies, Executive Member for Transport and Planning said: “We’re pleased that this tender received strong interest and we have already approached operators to establish what alterations to the Park&Ride specification might be required to enable them to bid again.

“Whilst it’s disappointing that no compliant responses were received at this stage of the process, we’re confident we will secure a new operator who will work with the authority to provide a service, which will work towards achieving its targets over the length of the contract.”

Executive takes place on Thursday 13 October from 5.30pm and is open to members of the public or is available to watch live online from:www.york.gov.uk/webcasts

To find out more about the report, or to attend, click here

York’s first Park&Ride service started in the late 1970s, operating from two free under utilised car parks just beyond the city walls, catering for peak demand for Christmas shopping and the first permanent Park&Ride site opened in 1990.

Growth in demand is shown below.

1990 – 159,690 passengers
1995 – 734,150
2000 – 1,146,379
2005 – 2,625,250
2016 – now over four-million passenger journeys each year

York residents invited to give views at “Bus Surgery”

York’s bus users are being invited to give the city’s bus operators and the council their views on York’s bus services at a ‘Bus Surgery’ event on Thursday 6 October opposite York Railway Station.

The sessions come at a time where pressure continues to grow on the Council and bus operators to provide at least monthly reliability information on their services.

In some countries like New Zealand reliability stats are routinely published

At present only an annual figure – derived from a single week monitoring – is provided each year.

In the past opposition Councillors have called on bus operators to provide the kind of information routinely provided by train operating companies.

The information is available from the monitoring systems already installed in most busses in the City.

This weeks drop in sessions will be running from 12pm-2pm and 4pm-6pm will see representatives from First, Arriva, Transdev, EYMS and Harrogate Coach Travel/ Connexions bus and the council on hand to speak with York’s residents and bus users about their experiences, what they think works well and what could be improved in future.

Executive Member for Transport and Planning, Cllr Ian Gillies, said: “Whilst bus use is increasing in the city, and York scores high in passenger satisfaction surveys for its bus services, the council alongside the Quality Bus Partnership want to continue to improve the city’s services. Bus Surgery events like this help us gain valuable feedback from bus users that can directly help us shape York’s bus service for the future. I would urge all bus users to come along and give us their views.”

The bus surgeries are part of a range of measures being taken forward by York’s Better Bus Area Programme – an initiative by the council and the city’s bus operators – to improve bus services in the city.

Work undertaken through the Better Bus Area has included refurbishment of many of the city’s bus stops and shelters, real-time information screens at many locations in the city, provision of York’s Bus Wardens and improved management of traffic to benefit bus services.

Since the Better Bus Area programme was formed in 2012 bus use in York has increased by 6 percent*. This equates to 900,000 passenger journeys a year, or approximately an additional 3,000 journeys a day.

For more information on travelling and around York visit http://www.itravelyork.info/

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