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The combination of road works on Water End (eastbound over the Severus Bridge is closed) and the A1237 have resulted in traffic congestion in the City.
Worst affected areas are Holgate Road, The Mount and Bootham.
The image shows queue length in red. Click on image for update.
From Sunday 29th September, First’s bus network in York will see changes that are based on feedback from customers who took part in a major consultation exercise this summer.
A mini ‘transport hub’ in Acomb, better services to York University and the return of a half hourly service in Haxby are the headlines and many other bus customers in York will see positive changes as a result of their feedback.
The future of the number 24 – a York Council subsidised services – remains unclear.
The changes are available for customers online – click here
They include a change requested by ourselves a couple of months ago :
• Acomb – Services 4 and 5 will run into Acomb forming a mini transport hub and re-establishing links to Acomb Front Street
• The number 4 and 5 are being decoupled and will once again operate as independent services
• The number 4 will now always run to Acomb at a Mon-Fri daytime frequency of 7/8 minutes
• It will no longer serve the stretch of Gale Lane between Foxwood Lane and Cornlands Road (which was only introduced last October)
• The 4 will now run to Acomb Front Street and back via the following loop: Cornlands Road >Gale Lane>Front Street> Green Lane > Tudor Road > Cornlands Road
• The 5 will no longer go to Foxwood terminating in Acomb from the north
• Haxby – Services 13 and 13A – First has introduced a new Service 13A to create additional journeys between Haxby and York with four arrivals in the centre by 9am.
• University of York (Heslington) – Services 4 and 6 will now run to the University and will serve the Heslington East campus, creating direct link from the University to Tang Hall and the hospital.
Extra morning buses to York Railway Station (Station Avenue) – Service 2 will run three extra early morning buses from Clifton Moor, via Rawcliffe Bar, to York Railway Station.
Full list of service changes announced by First:
Labour run York Council is forcing through plans for the next stage of its controversial citywide 20mph roll-out despite public and political opposition.
A recent council consultation in west York saw only 7 out of 13,000 residents support the proposals for blanket 20mph limits in areas including Acomb, Holgate, Foxwood, Dringhouses and Woodthorpe. Despite this lack of public support, Labour’s Transport Chief approved the latest stage of the £600,000 roll-out last month and tonight Labour used their majority on the cross-party Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee to defeat a Liberal Democrat attempt to stop the policy. Labour won tonight’s vote by 5 to 4 with all opposition councillors voting against the 20mph scheme.
Lib Dem Councillors Ann Reid, Lynn Jeffries and Nigel Ayre had called-in the policy for review and urged Labour to abandon the scheme or delay it until the new limits introduced earlier in the year in South Bank could be properly assessed. Lib Dems argue that resources should be focused on roads with high accident rates after data provided by City of York Council showed that of the 383 accidents in west York over the last 5 years only 48 (13%) occurred on roads where it is now proposed to reduce the speed limit.
Speaking at tonight’s meeting Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Transport and Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Councillor, commented:
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The number 4 bus service route will change on 29th September. Instead of merging with the 5, It will loop via Gale Lane into Front Street restoring the link to amenities located in the old village.
Acomb will become a “public transport hub”.
There should be less bus congestion at the Foxwood Lane shops.
Other changes involve the restoration of a service on Beckfield Lane and Ridgeway.
A very positive initiative by First.
More details next week.
Lendal bridge without traffic
The first was taking place today in the council’s exhibition unit which is outside M&S on Parliament St. It will be there on the following dates.
* 12 noon – 7pm on Wednesday 7 August
* 7.30am – 1.30pm on Thursday 8 August
* 12 noon – 7pm on Wednesday 11 September
* 7.30am -1.30pm on Thursday 12 September
* 10am – 4pm on Saturday 5 October
The Council claims to have produced a leaflet which should have been delivered with Local Link. This somewhat flawed delivery process which has been criticised in the past. The leaflet is available to view by clicking here
Councillors have apparently been given bundles of the leaflets to use in fending off irate constituents.
Two business briefing sessions are being held to inform the businesses and retail community on where they can find out more about the trial and ask any questions, on:
* 3pm on Wednesday 14 August at City of York Council’s West Offices
* 6pm on Wednesday 14 August at West Offices
Many businesses – including in particular City centre hotels – have already raised concerns that it is too late to warn many of their guests and customers about the proposed closure dates and times.
They have asked the Council to ensure that Sat Nav companies to update their software to reflect the closure times. So far they have had no response.
Many want the kind of hotel direction signs – popular on the continent – introduced in York.
All in all, this is a rushed initiative which needed a lot more preparatory work and at least some public consultation.
The closure is initially for six month’s from 27 August during daytime hours (10.30am to 5pm), Lendal Bridge will only be open to pedestrians, cyclists, buses, taxis, and emergency vehicles.
Live traffic congestion reports click
The roadworks live traffic map is not showing serious tail backs as yet.
Click on map for latest position
NB. The closure of Lendal Bridge is scheduled for 27th August. This will affect the volume of traffic trying to use Clifton Bridge
The Information Commissioners Office has ruled that the York Council breached Freedom of information legislation when it refused to reveal how many “All York” bus tickets’ had been sold in the City.
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The case dates back 12 months to a time when the York Council announced that it was planning to subsidise a new bus ticket which would allow passengers to travel on services provided by more than one operator.
The Council allocated £20,000 of taxpayers money to fund the launch and then agreed to resource the backroom apportionment work involved in distributing fare income to bus operators.
The option was labelled an “All York” ticket. They were priced at £5 for an adult.
The Council were subsequently asked to indicate how many of the tickets had actually being sold?
The Council declined to disclose the information on the grounds that it was “commercially confidential”.
However, the Information Commissioner has now confirmed that the aggregated sales figures cannot be regarded as confidential as they don’t reveal the number of sales made by each bus company.
He has ordered the Council to release the sales figures.
The decision notice reads,
“The Commissioners decision is that the City of York Council has failed to demonstrate that section 41(1) of the Freedom of Information Act is engaged.
The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation –
• Disclose the information to the complainant”
Former Council Leader Steve Galloway, who raised the issue last year, commented,
“The mistake concerned one of several outstanding issues that bus passengers in York have with the Council.
The most serious of these is a failure to publish, on a regular basis, reliability information on local bus services.
Hopefully the Council will now side with passengers in their quest for timely information about bus service operations in the City”.
We are expecting a response to our complaint about non disclosure of information on York bus services tomorrow (Tuesday).
The case revolves around the York Councils refusal to publish details of subsidised bus ticket sales.
The Council has been heavily criticised over recent months for lack of transparency in its decision making processes
Over the next couple of months, extra cycle parking will have been put in place in Lendal, Goodramgate, King Street, Library Square and Micklegate.
This comes on top new parking recently installed in Piccadilly and North Street.
This will help to create an extra 150 spaces to add over 1000 spaces already availible within the city centre.
City of York Council will carry out reconstruction works on part of Tranby Avenue in Osbaldwick from Monday 5 August.
The works are programmed to take approximately four weeks in total to complete, working Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm. #
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