Listen on buses (From York Press)

Listen on buses

11:18am Thursday 29th November 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

IF COUN MERRETT is serious about helping the bus users of York, maybe he ought to start by listening more to the problems they face.

Then again, this is the same Coun Merrett who promised that he would, if elected, hold regular public meetings so that problems could be aired and shared (to date one such meeting has been held in 18 months).

Maybe as a starting point Coun Merrett should lock his bike up for a month and travel by bus, then when he is late for meetings he will be experiencing the same frustration many of us do every day.

The council suffers from a total lack of communication with bus users, as the recent debacle over problems with the English national travel pass shows. Information could only be found on the internet or by telephone, leaving many old and vulnerable citizens confused. Promised dates for the resumption of the issuing of passes were not met.

With a new ‘Oyster card’ type system on the horizon, it is to be hoped they rely on the expertise of their partners, Metro, to run the system. Experience suggests the council would struggle to operate such a system on its own.

Mike Longhurst, Pottery Lane, Heworth, York.