[5]Additional buses from:
Click for full timetable
[6] Free buses on 3, 7 and 9 running every 15 minutes, calling at all stops: York Boxing Day timetable
City of York Council along with partners First York and Optare have been shortlisted for an award at the prestigious UK Bus Awards.The nomination is for the Environment category and notes the work that the council, First York and Optare have completed by creating and running a fully electric Park&Ride service from the newly built site at Poppleton, which was opened in June 2014.
A new eight-year contract for York’s Park&Ride service, which attracts over 4.5million passengers annually, will be awarded next year following a procurement exercise which will commence shortly.
Ahead of this procurement process, a report examining the options for the delivery of the service after the end of the current contract in 2017 will be taken to an Executive meeting on 24 September.
To ensure that the most effective solutions for the service are presented to members for consideration, a comprehensive review of the existing operation and potential amendments has been undertaken.
This included a review of Park&Ride operations around the country, surveying the views of the service users, visiting other Park&Ride sites and undertaking pre-procurement engagement with potential suppliers of the service.
During the Executive meeting, members will be asked to consider approving the principles for the service and delivery, which will enable a new eight-year contract to be prepared.
Currently operated on behalf of the council by First York, the current eight-year contact will come to an end in February 2017.
A new contract will commence at the end of the current contract and be awarded in Spring 2016. This is in order to meet with the council’s own financial regulations, ensure best value and transparency in accordance with EU procurement legislation.
Find out more about York’s Park&Ride Service at www.itravelyork.info/buses
Executive will take place on Thursday 24 September at West Offices 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, visit:http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=8841
New electric bus fleet launched last month
As we said yesterday, it would be prudent to suspend the use of electric buses in York until the cause of yesterdays vehicle fire had been established.
Safety must come first and we were concerned that comments from the York Council (which lets the contract for the Park and Ride services on which the buses are used) and local bus managers implied yesterday that the buses would continue in use.
In petrol powered engines, fires were not uncommon. Fires are comparatively rare in newer vehicles and, those that do occur, can usually be traced to faulty electrical components.
New technology – like that deployed in the battery powered bus fleet – is another matter. The technology is in its infancy and , although inherently safer than the internal combustion alternative, deployment needs to be cautious.
A quick investigation should reveal the cause of the fire.
If, for example, it turns out that a spanner was left by maintenance staff in the engine compartment, and this led to the short circuit which caused the fire, then that would be one thing. A relatively easy fix (count the spanners!) and get the buses back on the road!
If a component has been incorrectly fitted then again the remedy is obvious.
Only if faulty components or – heaven forbid – a design flaw is revealed would an extensive and debilitating delay become inevitable.
We are after all just going through the first sustained period of warm weather since the large scale introduction of the buses in the City and who knows whether that might be factor?
So full marks to First for adopting a cautious approach, albeit a little late in the day.
They, and the Council, now face the headache of back-filling the gaps in the Park and Ride fleet.
Hopefully the York Council will now be open and transparent about the incident and the action that is being taken.
Labour Councillors have announced that they will be considering reducing subsidised bus services in the City at a meeting which will be held on 11th December.
Labour were criticised during the recent Westfield by election for keeping secret their plans to reduce services like the number 13A which serves the Hamilton Drive area.
There has so far been no consultation on the proposals which will seek to reduce the annual £800,000 spend by the Council on sustaining off peak bus services and those to remoter parts of the City.
The latest crisis reflects problems which started to develop when Labour took control of the Council in 2011.
They concentrated their efforts on scrapping the popular (with passengers) ftr service but failed to put anything in its place. Routes were chopped and changed with stability only achieved during the last 12 months.
Now even that seems to be under threat.
Bus service usage peaked at 12 million passenger journeys with the introduction of the ftr in 2006 before declining last year to 10.4 million.
Overall bus usage has held up with a gradual increase in the numbers using Park and Ride services which themselves peaked last year at 4.4 million.
Further increases are expected this year with the opening of the larger Askham Bar site and the new service from Poppleton Bar.
NB. The Council has announced it’s Christmas Park and Ride services.
A late night shopping service on all six Park&Ride routes will operate 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 20 November ahead of the biggest Christmas market in York’s calendar – St Nicholas Fair starting on 27 November.
In addition to this, passengers will also be able to take advantage again of the, now traditional, 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:
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).
To find out more about the offer or to find the best bus route through York, try out the council’s new i-Travel York online Journey Planner at http://www.itravelyork.info/
The York Council is to seeking liquidated damages for the 5 month delay in completing the park and site and associated highways works at Poppleton.
It says that the issues will be assessed during the preparation of the final accounts for the scheme which was completed using “using a standard construction contract which includes liquidated damage clauses if the works over run beyond the contract completion date”
The ongoing road works became something of a joke for residents living on the west of the city with deadline after deadline passing without completion.
The roadwork’s were temporarily lifted for the start of the Tour de France but were re-imposed shortly afterwards.
Even the Park and Ride site itself was opened 2 months before necessary landscaping work was completed.
The extent of any compensation likely to be claimed is not yet known.
Residents living near the A59 roundabout are understood to be seeking compensation from the Council for the delays and inconvenience that they suffered
First have confirmed that pensioners with a valid pass joining the Park and Ride bus at the Moor Lane car park stop WILL be entitled to travel free of charge.
At present pensioners with a pass joining Park and Ride services are charged 80p a journey.
Ann Reid says,
“I fought hard to retain this stop to allow residents who live within walking distance to still use the P& R service and avoid driving to the new site but the increased fares might well see increased car use”
The Adult Single fare to the City Centre will remain at £2, but Park & Ride return fares won’t be available and MinsterCards won’t be valid to/from this stop.
For customers making a return journey, the FirstDay ticket is priced at £3.70 can be used across the whole York network.
This compares to the £2 – 70 standard return Park and Ride fare (which will remain available for anyone willing and able to walk the extra 600 yards along Tadcaster Road to the new car park).
It seems that although this bus stop is now being treated as part of the normal “stage carriage” network, pensioners will also not enjoy free travel. We understand that they will have to continue to pay the standard 80p per journey.
It seems irrational that passengers joining the service at this stop – and using what would otherwise be vacant seats – will be charged more for what will be a shorter journey than those who joined the service at Askham Bar!
The York Council issued a statement on Friday claiming that work at the Poppleton Bar Park and Ride site had finally been finished – 5 months behind schedule.
But as our photos reveal, this is far from the truth with both landscaping and white lining work still outstanding. The site compound is also still in place.
Sadly the City has become all too familiar with weed growth in gutters, public spaces and even bridges around the City over the last 6 months.
However claiming a site is finished while it is still covered in 3 foot high weeds is surely a bit too disingenuous for even the Councils Labour Leadership.
It is after all the first point of call for some tourists and their impression of the City is likely to be coloured by their early experiences.
Low flying cyclists?
More seriously, from a safety perspective, is the Councils decision to encourage shared cycle/pedestrian use of the path from the A1237 underpass to the Park and Ride site.
unsegregated cycle/pedestrian path
Apart from one sign – which we suspect most pedestrians will not recognise – there is no reminder of the need to take extra care because of possible conflicts.
At the very least there needs to be repeater signs and warnings painted on the surface of the path.
At the moment, there not even a white line separation.
Organisations represented partially sighted people have been very critical about this kind of arrangement in the past.
No doubt they will be knocking on Cllr Levene’s door before very long!
No end to Poppleton Bar works
However there is still a considerable amount of work outstanding with periodic impacts on congestion levels in the area.
While the final May deadline for conclusion of the whole Access York contract is long past, it is unclear why there are continuing delays at Poppleton (other than the obvious one that the contractors are simply not fully resourcing their contract obligations).
Cycle tunnel in use but no lane marking on paths
Councillor Ann Reid is now pressing for answers and some have emerged as responses to Freedom of Information requests
One (click to download) confirmed that the whole Access York project – of which the Poppleton works form part – was due to be completed by 23rd May.
Details of the road closure orders have also been published on the Council’s web site
Meanwhile, the permanent traffic signals at the A59 junction with the Park and Ride access road are now in place, but the following work is still outstanding
24 hour lighting on new roundabout
Yesterday (Thursday) the street lights in the area were permanently lit. Taken with the decision to exclude the provision of on-site electricity generation from the project, this does seem to fly in the face of the Councils environmental policies?
Drivers now want a realistic completion date for the project.
