After only two days, York’s airport shuttle is grounded (From York Press)

After only two days, York’s airport shuttle is grounded

10:08am Wednesday 28th February 2007 in News By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

BOSSES at York bus company First was hit by a technical hitch as its eagerly-anticipated airport shuttle bus broke down on day two.

First's new service between York city centre and Leeds-Bradford Airport began operating on Monday.

But the service ran into difficulties yesterday when the vehicle on the 11.40am return trip from the airport broke down at about noon.

There were only four passengers on the bus at the time, two Dutch students, The Press feature writer Charlotte Percival, who was trialling the service, and First service manager, Rosie Stewart.

Miss Percival said the bus started to rattle and vibrate before grinding to a halt about 20 minutes into its journey.

Ms Stewart said: "We have contingency plans in place for this kind of event and normally a bus would be sent out to transport passengers to their destination.

"In this case, because there were so few passengers on the bus, we arranged for them to be picked up by car and taken to their destinations."

The journey, which should have taken about 55 minutes, took an hour and 45 minutes to complete.

Peter Edwards, First commercial director, said: "It's early days and the buses were only delivered to the depot a few days ago.

"It's not uncommon for this kind of thing to happen.

"No other services were affected by this breakdown and Volvo were called out straight away to take a look at the bus, which has suffered some kind of mechanical fault."

Yesterday, The Press reported the new service had been welcomed by budget airline Jet2.com, which is based at the airport.

Gillian Cruddas, the city's tourism boss, hailed it as "one of the most exciting pieces of news we have had for years".

Mr Edwards said ticket prices included the cost of a local First bus service to get passengers from their home to the airport bus stop, near York's railway station.

Passengers booking on the internet will be charged £10 for a single ticket and £15 return.

The price of an e-ticket will include free bus travel to and from the York city centre terminus.

Passengers buying tickets on the coach will be charged £12 single and £17 return.