FARES for York’s Park & Ride buses are going up in the New Year.

A standard return journey will cost £2.70 from January 5, up by 10 pence, and an annual MinsterCard will cost £432, up by £16.

MinsterCard Returns will rise from £2.30 to £2.40, concessionary returns from 70 pence to 80 pence, Weekly MinsterCards from £10.40 to £10.80 and Monthly MinsterCards from £41.60 to £43.20.

City of York Council, announcing the increases, said they were in line with national inflation and earnings data and were needed to help meet rising operational costs.

It also said there would be no change to single fares, which had been frozen.

Coun Dave Merrett, Cabinet member for Transport, said York’s Park & Ride service was one of the first in the country and was one of the best & busiest, with four million passenger journeys last year, and still rising.

“The fare increase will help to meet the increased operational costs of running York's current high-quality Park & Ride service and enable customers to continue enjoying a high quality service,” he said.

“2014 will also see us opening a new Park & Ride off the A59 near Poppleton, and a much larger replacement Askham Bar site off the A64, which is great news for both existing and potential new users.”

First, which runs the P&R service under contract to the council, said they had ‘a lot of exciting plans for the Park & Ride services in 2014, including the new facility at Poppleton and new electric buses on Park & Ride services.’

It added: “We look forward to working in partnership with CYC to ensure customers get a first class service in terms of punctuality, quality of vehicles and overall customer experience.”