Bus terminus to be moved from Front Street to reduce traffic congestion. Bus will wait on Acomb Green
First say the changes are being made to improve the reliability and punctuality of services
The 5 service will now terminate at Acomb Green rather than Front Street (to reduce congestion problems)
New timetables are available here.
Details below
(more…)
Leeman Road will be closed from Monday 16th June at 0900 to Friday 20th June until 1800
Buses will divert as follows –
Service 2 Rawcliffe Bar Park & Ride Green Line
From Water End bus stop continues along Water End non stop along Poppleton Road, Holgate Road, Blossom Street, Queen Street, Station Road to Station Avenue, then on normal route to Rawcliffe Bar.
Service 5/5A
To Strensall: After Boroughbridge (Malvern Avenue stop), buses will continue non stop along Poppleton Road, Holgate Road, Blossom
Street, Queen Street, Station Road to Station Avenue, then normal route to Strensall.
From Strensall: After Station Road, buses will continue non stop along Station Road, Queen Street, Blossom Street, Holgate Road,
Poppleton Road to Boroughbridge Road (Malvern Avenue stop), then normal route to Acomb.
Sv 5 Normal route to Ainsty then diverted via Poppleton Rd, Beckfield Ln, Ostman Rd, Danebury Dr to Acomb. Parked cars blocking route
— First York (@FirstBusYork) March 2, 2014
P&R2 diverted via Boro' Rd into the City unable to serve Leeman Rd, temprorary light arrangement prevents our bendy buses getting through.
— First York (@FirstBusYork) March 2, 2014
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.
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.
York City centre “to let”
The calamitous decline in the number of shoppers in the City centre first became apparent in 2012.
In that year, the new Labour administration increased car parking charges by 20p for residents.
Yearly footfall figures click to enlarge
In 2013 they went up a gain meaning that residents faced a 36% hike in just 2 years.
We forecast that this could have major implications for City centre traders.
The additional traffic restrictions have simply accelerated the downward spiral with “to let” notice springing up all around the City centre as shops pull out.
In the period up to 2011 the, then LibDem led, Council had frozen parking charges.
It had even reduced them at an innovatory “shoppers car park” at Foss Bank.
Footfall figures reveal that for the first 3 years of the recession (2008 – 2011) the numbers accessing the City centre were remarkably stable.
2012 saw a 6% reduction while this increased to 12% comparing September 2013 with the same month in 2012.
Bus Journeys in York Click to enlarge
New traffic restrictions were blamed for the accelerating trend.
Meanwhile the numbers of bus passengers has also fallen away although the Council has so far refused to reveal the 2012 passenger numbers.
As we said yesterday, the Council seems to be frozen into inactivity with no real idea what to do to get itself out of the self created crisis.
Nero showed a greater sense of urgency.
click for larger image
New timetables for First York bus services have been introduced today.
They can be found by clicking here
Click to download a larger scale bus map
Return fares* have been scrapped although “single journeys start from £1”.
No information has so far been published on how far you can travel for £1!
The cheapest “return” generally available now is the Firstday at £3-70 (which allows unlimited use of all First bus services in the City)
* On service 4, return tickets cost just £2 between the University of York and the City Centre/Rail Station.
* On Park & Ride services, return fares continue to be available at £2.60, for journeys from Park & Ride sites
To ensure customers are fully aware of the proposed timetable changes, First is planning to hold the following three public drop in sessions this week at venues where some of the bigger network changes are taking place:
Haxby – Wednesday 25 September, 2.30pm-5.30pm, Haxby & Wigginton Methodist Church Hall
Acomb – Thursday 26 September – 9am-12noon, Acomb Parish Church Hall
City Centre -Thursday 26 September – 2pm-5pm, City of York Council West Offices
They say, “Further drop in sessions will take place over the next few months as First looks to make further customer-orientated network changes”.
Click here for a map showing the revised (First) bus network in York
The following internet link will take you to a full list of the service changes. http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/york/travel_news/service_updates/?item=9391&conf=0
The offer is likely to be welcomed as the precise working arrangements for the “Acomb bus hub“, and the frequency of the new service on Hamilton Drive, have raised question marks with some users?
The detailed new bus timetables – which will be introduced on Sunday – can now be viewed on the First web site.
However, the Council continues to refuse to release information about bus service reliability in the City.
Ironically a meeting is taking place today which talks about the importance of “journey planning”. It seeks to promote increased bus use but develops acute myopia on the issue of service reliability information.
Uncertainty is the single factor most likely to cause potential bus users to instead opt for the car.
The Council in response to the latest Freedom of Information request, says that it has entered into a confidentiality agreement with the local bus companies.
It receives reliability data but the council claims that it is prevented, by the terms of the agreement, from sharing the information with passengers.
Only an annual reliability figure is published and that on an obscure DPT web site. The latest (2011/12) figures suggest that around 80% of York services run on time.
Incredibly even reliability data on services paid for by the Council taxpayer (around £800,000 is paid out in subsidies each year) is not published.
What has compounded the mistake has been a decision to cease independent checks of service reliability. These would not be covered by the data sharing protocol and could – as happened in the period up to 2011 – be published. Labour stopped the checks shortly after taking office.
The so called data sharing protocol is effectively a restrictive practice. which is to the disadvantage of the taxpayer and bus passenger.
It is likely that – unless more information is offered – that an appeal to the Information Commissioner (and possibly the Ombudsman) may be lodged.
In the mean time the governments Transport Minister is being urged to introduce regulations which require all public transport providers to publish the same quality of service information which rail operators have been forced to do for over a decade.