First York- bus changes bad for city

5.03.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 4th Apr 2008

Liberal Democrat Executive Member for City Strategy, Cllr Ann Reid, has condemned First's proposed bus services changes as shortsighted and detrimental to bus users in York.

In a recent letter to the Managing Director of First York, Cllr Reid outlined her extreme disappointment that First were proposing to make any changes to the well established bus system, and her concern that the scale of the proposals will have a major impact on bus users in the city. Less people will use buses as they find that they are unable to access a convenient service.

Cllr Reid said: "First have benefited for a number of years from a meteoric rise in bus patronage that most operators can only dream of and also from considerable investment by the Council on infrastructure. However, at the first sign of a downturn in passenger numbers, they are proposing changes that can only discourage even more passengers from travelling with them."

"I am also concerned about the lack of consultation on the changes. Not only have First not talked to their customers about these changes, but we have a regulation system that makes it impossible for people to find out what is going on. Changes to bus services have to be registered with the Traffic Commissioners but they have no obligation to advertise those changes or take into account the effect that the changes might have on passengers."

Whilst all of the proposed changes will be detrimental, the Liberal Democrat Councillors are particularly concerned about: -

Service 5 (Strensall - York) - Reducing the daytime frequency from every 12 minutes to every 15 minutes on a service that is already overcrowded for a significant period of the day seems to be very shortsighted. The Council has just spent a considerable amount of money improving the Strensall Road roundabout to successfully improve bus reliability but this support for public transport would appear to count for nothing.

Liberal Democrat Councillor, Keith Orrell, is very disappointed with the reduction to this service: "As the Councillor for Huntington I know how popular the Number 5 service is. It is frequently full to bursting so cutting the service to every 15 minutes makes no sense at all. The improvements to the Strensall Road roundabout have seen an improvement to the reliability and these changes seem to fly in the face of commonsense."

Service 11 (Ashley Park - Bishopthorpe) - The last change to this service (abandoning the loop) was apparently to make the service more attractive at the Heworth end and to improve reliability by freeing up spare time. It is difficult to understand how reversing to the previous route will be an improvement.

Service 13 - Changes will remove some through links to Monks Cross, reducing access to employment and depriving a large number of residents of a bus service. It will leave Woodlands Grove, Straylands Grove, Westlands Grove, Meadow Way, Elm Park Way, Elm Park View, Elm Park Vale, Elmfield Terrace and Stray Garth without a bus service.

Nigel Ayre, Ward Councillor for Heworth Without said: " I have been working on making this bus service more accessible to elderly residents through Ward Committee funding and now the proposal is to take it away. Heworth Without receives a very poor service from First York already, with the majority of the Ward relying on Coastliner for a service. Those that do use First at the moment have no service after 6 pm on a Saturday and no service on a Sunday. This will seriously affect a large number of elderly residents who will have no service at all."

Service 16 - Changes will seriously affect residents of the Holly Bank area, many of whom are elderly and will find walking to bus stops on Hamilton Drive too difficult.

Service 22/23 represents a big loss of service to the Leemans Rd area where there are a high number of elderly people for whom access to alternative services is not an option.

Indeed there are few alternative services for any residents currently served by these routes.

Cllr Ann Reid said, "In some cases First will remove a service altogether, forcing people back into their cars, in others the removal of a particular bus that they always catch might well have the same effect. If half the route is removed, as with the Number 13, then people might well use the car rather than change buses in the city centre. In almost every case passengers will find themselves seriously inconvenienced, and in many cases residents will resort to using their cars, which has a detrimental impact on the environment."

"I fear that it might be the start of a downward spiral. Council Officers have been trying to persuade First against these changes, but to limited success. All these services are run commercially by First with no subsidy from the Council and therefore no control. I have, however, asked Officers to investigate how we might be able to use our limited resources to enable a service to continue to the worst affected communities, as we are left to pick up the pieces."