Planning to take advantage of the #Christmas sales in #York today? Why not hop on one of the free Park&Ride services http://t.co/pUwkib4YbR.
— City of York Council (@CityofYork) December 26, 2013
1, 13 and 13A York bus services diverted at Haxby end of route
Monday 09 December 2013 – Friday 20 December 2013
Area: Eastfield Road Haxby diversion 0800 and 1800 daily
Cause: Road Works
Responsibility: –
Duration: 2 weeks
Due to road works and the closure of Eastfield Road services 1, 13,13A will be diverted between 0800 until 1800 daily.
Service 1 to Wgginton: After New Earswick roundabout buses will then continue along York Road omitting Eastfield Avenue, Oak Tree Lane, and Holly Tree Lane.
Service 1 to Chapelfields:
Normal route from Wigginton to York Road buses will continue along York Road (not serving Holly Tree Lane, Oak Tree Lane, and Eastfield Avenue) to New Earswick then normal route.
All diversionary stops will be observed.
Services 13/13A to West Nooks.
After New Earswick roundabout, buses will continue along York Road left into Holly Tree Lane, left Oak Tree Lane, Right Eastfield Avenue, Wheatfield Lane as normal route to West Nooks.
Service 13/13A to Copmanthorpe/ Acomb
Normal route to Wheatfield Lane, Eastfield Avenue, then left in to Oak Tree Lane right into Holly Tree Lane, right York Road, then as normal route to Copmanthorpe/Acomb.
All diversionary stops will be observed.
Bus bureaucracy set to increase in York – meetings still behind closed doors
Minutes of the last meeting between the Council and bus operators reveal how decisions on the service may be taken in the future.
It looks like a 3 tier system of committees will be put in place.
There is no commitment to the meetings being open to the public. What information potential bus passenger will get remains unclear
The plans seem to rest heavily on York being designated as a “Better Bus Area”.
If it were then the coalition government would delegate some funding to a joint committee.
Meanwhile the Council is still refusing to release details of the reliability being achieved on bus services in York
Park and Ride buses to operate until 9:30pm tomorrow (Thursday)
Extended Park&Ride (P&R) services on Thursdays and free Boxing Day P&R travel.
A late night shoppers service will operate on all five Park&Ride routes every Thursday, with the last bus leaving the city centre on all routes at around 9.30pm (for exact timings visit http://www.itravelyork.info/).
The first extended service will run from the 28 November to coincide with the biggest Christmas market in York’s calendar – St Nicholas Fayre.
In addition to this, passengers will also be able to take advantage of FREE travel on Boxing Day on the three key P&R routes which will be operating.
Three Park & Ride services will operate on Boxing Day:
◦Askham Bar (white line – route 3) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Tower Street at 6.45pm
◦Designer Outlet (red line – route 7) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.42pm
◦Monks Cross (silver line – route 9) – First bus at 7am from the site, last bus back from Rougier Street at 6.43pm
All three services will operate at a 15 minute frequency throughout the day and will be FREE for all passengers (and will stop at all usual stops along the route).
York is first city in the UK to get electric bus makeover
One of York’s renowned City Sight Seeing buses will become the first double-decker bus in the country to get an electric makeover, thanks to a grant made by the Coalition government.
Reliance buses will also benefit from the same pot of funding, with the installation of new exhausts that will help reduce poor emissions in the city.
Details of the supplementary allocation were released 3 weeks ago.
A City Sight Seeing bus, operated by Transdev, will become the first double decker in the UK to be converted from diesel to pure electric with lithium ion batteries, similar to those used by mobile phones.
Converting from diesel to electric will have substantial benefits for air quality as the bus is used intensively in the city centre. The cost of the conversion will be £75k, but will save an estimated £15k a year in fuel costs.
The remaining DfT funding will be used to retrofit two diesel buses operated by Reliance, along the A19 route,with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) exhaust technology which reduces emissions of small particles.
Bus use in York down by 10% last year
Bus use click to enlarge
Over a million fewer journeys were made by bus last year in York.
This is equivalent to a 10% reduction in “stage carriage” service use. The figures are described as “provisional”.
The Council has yet to respond fully to a Freedom of Information request on bus usage in the City.
Requests for the City to publish bus reliability information are also mired in a legal wrangle.
Although Park and Ride use increased from 4.1 to 4.3 million trips, it did not offset what is the largest single year decline ever recorded in public transport use in the City.
The start of the decline can be traced back to 2011 when the Council confronted the major provider of services in the City (First) in an attempt to get the futuristic ftr taken off York’s roads.
The ftr had been popular with passengers but the dispute led to a period of conflict between the Labour run Council and bus operators.
Recent attempts to “hype” a fares reduction through the media proved to be ill judged as many users found that their journey was actually costing more.
The Council announced at its last meeting that it is scrapping the Quality Bus Partnership which has been a liaison point between bus operators, passenger representatives and the Council.
It will be replaced by another”behind closed doors” discussion group
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NB. Following on from the bad news about reduced footfall in the City, the Council report has also revealed a drop in car park use from 1.62 to 1.52 million.
They are forecasting a net shortfall of £250k (3.5%) from parking income following data from the first six months.
The decline in use followed a decision by the new Labour Council to implement a 36% increase in parking charges.
Bus reliability in York – silence continues
The Council continues only to make annual bus reliability figures available for passengers in the city.
At the last Council meeting Cllr Merrett confirmed that 1 in 5 buses were unreliable
“In the City of York area, 81% of the city’s non-frequent services (5 or fewer services per hour) ran on time (between 59 seconds early and 5 mins 59 secs late) in 2011/12.
In 2012/13, the equivalent figure was 82%”.
However it has subsequently been admitted that this is a single day sample and may bear little resemblance to the service experienced by users on most days of the year.
The Council is still resisting publishing reliability data even at a monthly level.
Such figures would at least give passengers an insight into how services vary from one season to the next.
The lack of information contrasts with the requirements placed on Train Operating Companies who are forced to publish data on a regular basis.
It is likely that this issue will be referred to the new Transport Secretary Baroness Kramer with a request that she intervene and set out a good practice guide.
Have your say on York’s new-look bus timetables
Bus users along the Hull Road to Dunnington route in York will notice new-look bus timetables have been installed as part of a two month trial.
New timetables have been installed at 42 stops along the number 10 route.
Funded through part of the £3.5 million government Better Bus Area Fund, it is intended that following the trial any necessary improvements can be made, and that the timetables will then be rolled out city wide to the whole network during December/January.
The roll out will include every bus stop in the York area receiving a new timetable cases, which will use a single consistent design showing all departures from the stop in time order.
York number 4 bus diversions
Diversions to Service 4 to/from University of York … http://t.co/2CjTUapSzc
— First York (@FirstBusYork) October 25, 2013
Lendal Bridge and Coppergate penalty income admitted by York Council. 11,177 fined in September!
The Council have belatedly published details of the numbers of drivers who have fallen foul of the number plate recognition cameras installed on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate.
In total during August and September 11,177 drivers were sent penalty charge notices.
This would generate over £600,000 in income for the Council in just 5 weeks.
click to enlarge
Some fines might be reduced for drivers who pay up quickly or who successfully appeal against the notice.
The penalty charge notice numbers are divided fairly evenly between Coppergate and Lendal Bridge although the figures for the latter are only for 3 weeks.
But it is a staggering amount and confirmation of the inadequacy of the signage marking the new restrictions on Coppergate as well as the trial day time closure of Lendal Bridge to private motorists.
The data is contained in an obscure part of the Council web site and has not been officially publicised.
Apparently the web page will be updated monthly.
The figures show no sign of a downturn in the numbers of motorists being caught, so the Councils annual income from the cameras is likely to be several millions each year.
It is much more than would have been raised by putting a congestion charge on the bridge and they do suggest that “road pricing” is what the Labour Council really wants to introduce next.
The publication of the information follows the tabling of a question on the subject at last weeks Council meeting by a Liberal Democrat Councillor.
Detailed information, on the reductions in the number of shoppers accessing the City centre, is still awaited.
A report on the first month of the trial, previously published by the Council, admitted that there had been no significant improvement in journey times for buses – one of the major objectives of the trial