PASSENGERS have slammed changes to two services run by York's biggest bus operator, First.

A Tang Hall resident says people from the suburb will face great inconvenience in travelling to York Hospital after losing the direct no 6 service.

And Cllr Ian Gillies, executive member for transport at City of York Council, says he has received many complaints about the complexity of the new No 10 timetable and claims: "Users are confused, particularly the elderly."

The Press reported in June that First was making a series of significant changes to York services following a major public consultation, in a bid to improve reliability and provide extra early and late journeys.

The company said the changes, which came into force on Sunday, included faster journeys on Number 10, providing quicker journeys for customers from Poppleton And the Number 6 was to have an increased frequency to meet demand, but with a revised route to the city with the university link to be provided by Number 4.

John Ambler, of Tang Hall, said that until now, he and others had been able to catch a No 6 bus from Tang Hall and also from Osbaldwick to go straight through to the hospital.

But now they would have to catch the number 4 to Rougier Street and then walk to Station Road, near the memorial gardens, where they would then have to wait for and catch the number 6 up to the hospital. They would then have to go through the same process in reverse order on the way back.

"This will a lot of inconvenience and could make it really hard for someone using crutches," he said.

Will Pearson, business manager for First in York, confirming the change, said it reflected the need to improve reliability whilst aiming to ensure connections could still be maintained.

"I'm sorry that in some cases this may mean customers need to make connecting journeys but wherever possible we've ensured people can still get to where they need to go," he said.

"We will continue to monitor routes and reliability of all our services and if we can improve connections for our customers we'll certainly look to do that as part of any future change."

Cllr Gillies said the No 10 left the Lord Nelson at Poppleton on weekdays at 35 minute intervals, meaning it left at a different number of minutes to the hour every hour.

"I have called on First York to re-examine the frequency and timings, as this service has diminished over the years despite promises to increase frequency, and this latest move is unacceptable," he said.

Ben Gilligan, Managing Director for First in York, said: "Our new network is the result of extensive consultation with our customers. We have revised timetables to improve reliability, introduced some extra early and late journeys, and changed some routes following the feedback we received.

"We have also introduced the 'Your Bus' network following the recent announcement of our new five year contract with the University of York.

"We have had to revise the level of resource we deploy on the 5 and 10 routes, because the revenue collected on board hasn't covered the cost of running the services.

"We have revised the route in the city centre away from the railway station via Leeman Road to create a more reliable service, but unfortunately we have been unable to implement a clock face timetable. We will of course keep this under review and revise if we can find a way to overcome this.

"The changes in Tang Hall mean that we have now linked Acomb to the University on our revised service 4, however Clifton Moor customers can still change from one frequent service to another in the city centre at Station Rise."