Transport News Advice and Comment

Are you still using an old City of York Bus Pass? If so, you should obtain a National Bus Pass from the Council Offices in Exhibition Square without delay.

Since the National Bus Pass was issued in April, it has still been possible to use the old passes locally until the end of September. From 1st October, old passes are no longer valid.

Nunnery Lane will be closed for three weeks, commencing Monday next, 1st September.

Each phase will last approximately one week.

Phase One (1st-7th) - closure from Blossom St. to car park entrance.

Phase Two (8th-15th) - closure from car park entrance to Prices Lane (Nunnery Lane end).

Phase Three (16th-23rd) - closure from Prices Lane to Bishopthorpe Rd.

During Phase One, the car park will be accessible from the Bishopthorpe Rd. direction.

During Phase Two, the car park will be accessible from the Blossom St. direction.

During Phases One & Two, the one-way system Bishopthorpe Rd. - Prices Lane - Bishopgate will be usable.

During Phase Three, the route from Blossom St. along Nunnery Lane and Prices Lane will be available, but the Nunnery Lane part of the one-way system will be closed so there will be access to, but not from, Bishopthorpe Rd.

Diversions will be via Scarcroft Rd. , Skeldergate or over the river.

The No. 11 bus service will use Scarcroft Rd in both directions.

The No. 7  Park  & Ride  (Designer Centre) service will turn back at Station Rise.

I have no information about the EYMS Hull service, which normally uses Nunnery Lane to turn round, but anyone contemplating using it would be well advised to check with the operator (listed on this site).


Ian
 

The main changes to local bus services on Bank Holiday are:

1. The no.11 operates to Sunday timetables. It should use its normal route through  
    Bishopthorpe, but beware!

2. The C1 (Tadcaster) service does not run.

3. The Moorsbus runs a full timetable.

4. Coastliner buses run but there are probably some timetable changes. Phone & check.
    (phone nos. in Useful Information - above).

 5. Most Harrogate and District services don't operate - including the Harrogate-York
     service.

Roadworks on Maple Avenue were due to start yesterday (Mon. 19th Aug.), diversion and road closure signs were displayed and the number 11 bus observed the diversion.

Today (Tues. 20th Aug.) there was no sign of any road repairers on Maple Avenue. The diversion signs remained in place but the closure signs lay on the ground.

No-one knew what was happening with the buses. A group of tourists on Main St. played a game of British Bulldog with the traffic as passing villagers alternately advised them that the bus would stop on whichever other side of the road!

If City of York Council is going to mess people about like this, they should at least publish information about changes at the affected bus stops.

Ian

From Monday 18th August, Maple Avenue will be closed for roadworks.

During the period of the closure, the No. 11 travelling towards York will be diverted as follows:

Keble Park; Acaster Lane; Montague Rd.; Ramsay Ave.; Acaster Lane; Main St. (reverse of normal direction); Sim Balk Lane; Chuirch Lane; Bishopthorpe Rd.

The bus diversions will start at  08-00 and finish at 17-00. Beware if you are travelling between these times.

The roadworks are expected to last until 27th August.

The normal route will be followed on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday.

Buses from Harrogate (first mentioned here) are now from 0702 (Monday -Friday) and 0817 (Saturday), and thereafter at 17 minutes past the hour (last bus1717).

Buses from York Piccadilly are from 0935 and hourly until 1835 Monday to Saturday.

During my absence on holiday, First  York has changed some timings on the No.11 service. 

These affect only departure times from York to Bishopthorpe. 

Daytime departure times are now -09 and -39 from The Stonebow, and -15 and -45 from York Station. 

These changes fit badly with arrival times of trains from Harrogate and some trains from Leeds, and have already resulted in local people being faced with a long wait for the bus home.    

The benefit ought to be that buses arrive at and leave Bishopthorpe on time. (Departure times from Bishopthorpe are as before, i.e. -08 and -38 from Keble Park, and approx. -15 and -45 from Bishopthorpe.) 

The hourly evening service leaves The Stonebow at -45, with the last bus at 10-45. 

First York has announced changes to some of its timetables. Unfortunately, copies were not yet available when I enquired this week. So far as I have been able to discover, our local (No.11) service is unaffected. Contact First York for further information.

 (See May 28th Entry for update on this.)

 

Reminder - Yorkshire Coastliner's summer timetable comes into effect from Sunday 18th May. Copies were not available in York this week, but should be in local Tourist Information Offices before the change occurs.

Ian 

 

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) has announced  changes  to rail tickets types. This is claimed to be a simplification which will be helpful to customers. Some people may consider it to be a disguised fare increase.

In future there will be only three ticket types - Anytime, Advance and Off Peak.

Anytime Tickets are, as now, tickets one can buy immediately before travel. They are not restricted to specific trains (outward) or dates (return). They will be expensive. They will be available from 7th September. 

Advance Tickets were introduced from 24th April. They ae cheaper than Anytime Tickets, but are restricted to a specific train at a specific time. They may be purchased until the day before travel. Railcard discounts apply to these tickets.  There is a swingeing penalty  for changing  the time/date of travel. Some people will have bought various (old) types of advance tickets already.These will still be valid for the journeys specified on them.

Off Peak Tickets will be available from 7th September. Single and return versions will be on sale. Essentially, they will replace the existing Cheap Day Returns. The serious drawback is that there will be a late afternoon/early evening peak period during which they may not be used. This is expected to be from 3-30 p.m. to 6-15 p.m. - a serious drawback for those of us who use day returns for medium-distance journeys (e.g. Manchester; Sheffield) and in particular for students on daily journeys to college.. 

Ian 

 

 

A new service - "Yorkshirexpress" - (X54)  between York and Harrogate started on Monday April 28th.

The service interval is 90 minutes, commencing (from York Piccadilly) at 0935. The journey time is one hour. The last bus leaves York at 1835.  There is no Sunday service. 

Buses travel via York Station, Manor School, Green Hammerton, Knaresborough, Starbeck and Harrogate. There are restrictions on picking-up and setting- down points  between York & Manor School, and between  Knaresborough and Harrogate. All stops between Manor School & Knaresborough are served.

The operator is Harrogate & District (Transdev).

There is, of course, the alternative of an hourly rail service along the same route.