We are now an established, recognised pressure group that is widely listened to. We have a good working relationship with senior councillors and the Council’s Sustainable Transport Team, as well as the major bus operators, York Civic Trust and York Environment Forum. We have regular meetings with the main political groups of councillors and have active members from the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Parties.
We have raised issues relating to temporary bus stops, bus stop infrastructure, potential re-routeing of services, cuts in evening services, withdrawal of of Sunday services and faulty display screens. We have also sought information on the bus operators’ plans for introducing audible and visible announcements.
This photo shows members of York Bus Forum with Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, whom we met when we launched our bus stop charter.
This campaign was covered by YorkMix. Their report – including videos – can be found here.
These are some of the projects which members have been actively involved with.
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In February 2020, the Prime Minister announced that bus services across the country would be transformed with simpler fares, thousands of new buses, improved routes and higher frequencies. In March 2021, they published the strategy which outlined how this was to be achieved.
You can read or download the document here.
Members of York Bus Forum put together five priorities which the council considered when they prepared their bid for this government funding. You can read them here.
The document setting out City of York Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) in response to the National Bus Strategy can be seen or downloaded here.
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Through the work of York Older People’s Assembly, members of York Bus Forum were able to help the Council in their efforts to find out why concessionary pass holders are still using buses less than they were before the pandemic. The results of the survey can be found here.
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York Civic Trust were also involved in the work towards the bid for funding. Several members of York Bus Forum were part of the Transport Advisory Group which produced A Transport Strategy for York.
You can read or download the full document here.
You will find the executive summary here.
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