First have confirmed the terminus (timing points) where their new Acomb bus services will lay over.
Service 5/5A will terminate at Front Street, (5 at The Marcia Pub, 5A at the Post Office),
The 4 will terminate at Green Lane.
First have promised to improve the prominence of the timetables for the new services on their web site.
We are expecting an announcement about fare levels tomorrow morning. See this web site for details.
From Sunday 15 September the connecting road between Stonebow and Coppergate, will be closed for four weeks, to enable Northern Gas Networks to carry out important upgrades in the area.
Pavement will be closed to all vehicular traffic until 13 October 2013, which will mean that bus routes serving Stonebow will also be diverted and revised timetables will be in place.
Bus routes that are not diverted may still experience delays so passengers are advised to allow extra time for their journey.
At the same time bus stops at Stonebow with be upgraded as part of the £3.5 million Better Bus Area Fund, awarded by the Department of Transport in 2012.
Please check http://www.itravelyork.info/ for details of the bus diversions.
For further information, please contact BusInfo on 01904 551400 or visit the Bus Point located in the Travel Centre at York Rail Station.
The Council claim to have published on their web site a complete list of answers given to question raised during their “twitter” Q & A session last week.
Problem is – they haven’t!
Amongst those still not answered are:
@LTMofYork @CityofYork @yorkpress Why can't you publish footfall figures on a daily or weekly basis? In 6 months time shops may have closed!
— York Central LibDems (@LibDemsYork) September 6, 2013
@CityofYork How much are you paying contractors to process the ANPR results? Do this sum vary with volume? #lendalbridge
— York Central LibDems (@LibDemsYork) September 6, 2013
@CityofYork How much is the police time being spent on the approaches to Lendal Bridge costing and who is paying? #lendalbridge
— York Central LibDems (@LibDemsYork) September 6, 2013
@CityofYork Who decided drivers wouldn't be fined in the first week of #LendalBridge trial and when was this decision made?
— The Press (@yorkpress) September 6, 2013
The Council has issued a statement saying that 12,000 “All York” teenagers’ bus tickets were sold during August.
For 12 months the Council and bus companies resisted providing any information on sales figures.
When eventually they were forced to publish them, it was revealed that sales of the taxpayer subsidised “All York” tickets were only 25% of forecast levels.
The young persons travel tickets were designed to provide cheaper fares for teenagers during the schools holidays.
The £1-30 a day tickets were a worthy project in principle which bus companies should have been happy to fund. The extra revenue, won by filling empty seats, would have more than covered their costs
However, the York Council chose to offer a 20p per journey taxpayers subsidy.
So that’s around £2,400 taxpayers have had to fork out in just 1 month for a scheme that has netted bus companies around £15,000.
One bus operator is claiming that the August sales represent a 500% increase over the previous year. Given that there wasn’t an ”All York” teenagers ticket available last year then that seems to be a spurious claim.
If the announcement heralds a more open approach by the Council to the provision of information about local bus services then that is to be welcomed.
We look forward to seeing details of service reliability published on a regular basis.
12 months after a Freedom of Information request was lodged with the York Council, officials have finally revealed the number of “All York” bus tickets that have been sold.
This was the product launched in July 2012 which allowed passengers to purchase one £5 day ticket which could be used on any bus operating in the York area.
When launched, the Council said that it would spend £20,000 of taxpayer’s money advertising the availability of the ticket.
They would also use administrative staff to allocate, the fare revenue collected, to individual bus operators.
It was this taxpayer’s subsidy which prompted a request that the number of tickets sold be publicised. The Council declined to do so saying that it was “commercially confidential”.
It took an appeal to the Information Commissioner to force the release of the information.
In March the minutes of a Council bus consultative meeting had suggested that “All York” ticket sales were around “10,000 a quarter”.
In reality it turns out that sales are only about ¼ of that figure.
The total number of tickets sold stands at 10,425 which represents a tiny proportion of the 16 million local bus journeys made each year.
It looks like taxpayers have subsidised each ticket to the tune of £2.
Many people thought that the Council should have prioritised the introduction of a smartcard which would allow cross operator ticketing at negligible cost.
Steve Galloway – who first raised the issue – says, “There is nothing contained in the figures that threatens the commercial interests of bus companies. The very low sales do suggest though that the Council miscalculated very badly the number or passengers who would take advantage of a scheme which has proved to be an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.
I hope in future that the Council will be more open with bus users about service information.
They have been withholding facts about bus service reliability for over a year.
I would like to think that they would adopt a more positive approach to information sharing in the future”
The York Council is set to reject a petition from local young people who had hoped that the flat £1 “go anywhere” fare available in parts of North Yorkshire would be extended to York.
In May 2013, an 11-16 year old variant of the go anywhere ‘All York’ the ticket was introduced but it was priced at £2.30.
First announce fare cuts for young people – New ticket offers are available for children, young people and students from this Sunday 1 September.
New price list
Child tickets (with an 11-16 YOzone card)
• 80p single and £1.10 return ticket prices frozen
• Day ticket reduced from £2.10 to £2
• Week ticket reduced from £8.50 to £7
• 4-week ticket reduced from £31.50 to £25 (available at PayPoint outlets)
Young People tickets (with a 16-18 YOzone card)
• New maximum single of £1.30 (unless the adult single is lower than that, in which case the lower price applies)
• New day ticket at £3
• New week ticket at £10
Student tickets (University & College)
• New day ticket at £3
• New week ticket at £10
• Term products frozen and now available to college students as well as those at University Valid University Student card or NUS card required.
Congestion map 1300 hours Tuesday 27th August 2013. Click to update
Hull Road, Paragon Street and Tower Street are particularly busy.
Buses using Hull Road are subject to delay.
Click on map for latest update.
The Lendal bridge “trial” closure starts tomorrow (Tuesday 27th August) between 10:30am – 5:00pm.
What should drivers expect?
Actually, probably not much difference to congestion levels.
The schools are still on holiday and that makes a lot of difference to traffic volumes. So there will be spare capacity on most of the road network during the day.
True, for some, journeys will be longer, with people living in the City centre particularly inconvenienced.
But the forecast gridlock is still probably some weeks away.
For a couple of weeks, it is likely that motorists will shun the City centre, putting off inessential journeys or opting for out of town shopping destinations
What could make matters worse are unpredictable road accidents, poor weather (which tends to see more people getting into their cars), road works and yet more faulty traffic lights (of which, we’ve had more than our fair share over recent weeks).
Weekend traffic patterns are very different though. Many will be watching with anxiety what happens on 31st August.
Council Lendal Bridge “success” criteria base data. click to enlarge
Now only a few days before the restrictions are due to be implemented, the Council has published the criteria under which it will judge how successful the closure has been.
It is clearly an afterthought.
We questioned on 27th April why no success criteria had been published.
It slowly became clear that the Council had not even thought of what objective measures it should apply.
Now some “tests” have been cobbled together without any public consultation and too late to get some of the base line public opinion data.
The Council claims to be open but they have failed to publish the public opinion data on the trial which was apparently collected “between 15th and 20th August”.
They do admit, “However the feedback collected at the information event approximately 60% (of 73 written responses) thought the bridge trial would impact them negatively and 34% though the bridge trial would impact on them beneficially”
It also looks like they will only be taking into account the views of people actually using the transport systems rather than including those who choose not to access the City centre.
Ironically the Council promise to publish the results on their web site including bus service reliability (a “stat” that they have dogmatically refused to reveal during the last 2 years).
They say that they won’t be measuring changes to air quality (Gillygate is a critical area).
They admit that any changes in cycle use and walking could be influenced by other initiatives (and the weather).
The criteria haven’t been approved at a formal Council meeting. There has been no public input into the measures chosen. There has been no opportunity to challenge the validity of the base data.
We suggest that residents keep an eye on independent real time traffic congestion maps (click here http://roadworks.org/) .
York road works map click to update
Problems will arise in the autumn when a combination of poor weather, the return of the “school run” and continuing road works on the A1237 could produce a “perfect storm” test for the closure
NB. There is little point in looking to the councils travel web site for help. Several months after a new control centre was opened, traffic monitoring cameras are still not working http://www.yorklive.info/
The Council has confirmed that it has accepted tenders for new bus services which will operate from 1st September. The services involved are:
Route 21 Colton to York, via Middlethorpe Grove
Services on this route were retendered and the existing operator, Harrogate Coach Travel (trading as Connexions Bus), has been awarded the contract for the next three years. There will be no changes to the route or timetable. As part of the new contract, Harrogate Coach Travel will be introducing a new vehicle that meets more stringent Euro V emission standards (above the Council’s minimum standard) later in the year.
Route 24 Lindsey Avenue, Ascot Way and St Stephen’s Road to city centre via Acomb Centre (Monday to Saturday);
Route 26 Fordlands Road to South Bank via Broadway and city centre (Monday to Saturday);
Route 27 Heslington Hall to city centre via Broadway (Monday to Saturday);
Route 627 City centre to Fulford School via Heworth (school days);
Route 637 City centre to Archbishop Holgate’s School via Heworth (school days);
Route 647 Foxwood Lane to Manor School (school days).
Services on these routes were retendered and awarded to Arriva Yorkshire for the next three years starting on 2 September. There will be no changes to the routes or timetables. As part of the contract, Arriva Yorkshire will be introducing newer vehicles that meet more stringent Euro V emission standards (above the Council’s minimum standard) on all these routes later in the year.
Routes 35 and X35 Holme-on-Spalding-Moor to city centre
Services on these routes are provided under contract to City of York Council but, as cross-boundary services, with financial contributions from North Yorkshire County and East Riding of Yorkshire Councils. Services on these routes were retendered but the Council has not been able to award a new long-term contract due to a substantial increase in the price from bidders. The Council has reached agreement with Yorkshire Coastliner, which currently provides the service, to extend the current contract for a short period until we can find a more affordable solution for the three authorities. Officers are working with colleagues from neighbouring authorities to come up with an alternative route
First has been awarded York’s Park & Ride (P&R) contract for a further three years.
Working in partnership with the council, First York has successfully operated all five P&R sites for more than 15 years and will continue to do so for another three years.
In addition, one of the city’s principle bus companies has now also been signed-up to operate the new P&R site at Poppleton, which is set to open in 2014.
Vehicles used in York eco bus trial in 2010
As part of the new agreement First will be operating a new electric bus service from the new 600-vehicle facility at Poppleton Bar, which is set to open in Spring 2014. The purchase of the buses has been part funded through the Coalition Government’s Green Bus fund, which awarded £594k to First in May.
Six electric buses are set to be deployed on the York Park & Ride network, though a bid submitted by First York. The new buses will provide cleaner and greener bus journeys for thousands of passengers across the city.
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