A happy birthday for ftr?

"YOU'RE Stephen Lewis, aren't you?" asks the retired gentleman sitting on the bus with his wife. "We read your column all the time. We love The Press!"

As starts to the day go, it is pretty good. The sun is shining, my bus - the 9.52 No 4 ftr service from the railway station to Acomb - is on time, and the first people I speak to turn out to be thoroughly nice.

I take a seat beside them, and explain my mission. This bus, the ftr, is a year old this week, I explain. It was controversial when introduced, and so a year on I am planning to ride it for its entire length, so I can chat to a few people using it about what they think of it. Would they mind?

Not at all. "They" turn out to be Brian and Norma Cater, he 75, she 73. They live in Fulford, and are using the ftr to visit an elderly friend in Dringhouses. "He's in a nursing home there," says Mr Cater. "This takes us right almost to the door."

The couple don't use the ftr often - only on occasions like this, when visiting friends. So what do they think of the bus?

"The bus is very, very comfortable, in my opinion," Mr Cater says. "But I did write a letter to The Press once saying they should have more information at the bus stop. People get on, especially if they are visitors, and they don't always know if they have got the right change."

That has been one of the bug-bears of the ftr since it first took to York's streets a year ago - the fact the ticket machines need the right change. With the driver sealed off behind a glass screen and no conductors, the machines caused queues and delays as people fumbled for change, which in turn helped earn the new super-buses a bad name.

Today's bus, however, has a conductor - or "host", as bus company First calls them - and soon every ftr will have one. "That's a much better idea," Mr Cater says.

Now, the couple have a pass, and Mrs Cater admits to liking the bus. "They are more comfortable than ordinary buses, and there is more room and more light," she says. "You can see where you're going. We quite like them."

By now, the bus is heading down Tadcaster Road, having smoothly negotiated the turn out of Queen Street into Blossom Street.

I walk the length of the gently swaying vehicle into the back half, where a distinguished looking man is sitting on his own.

He is Peter Laycock, who is 61, semi-retired, and works part-time at the Brunswick Organic Nursery.

He has just been into town for a walk round and is now on his way home to Foxwood, he explains.

"I use this bus quite often, rather than a car," he says. "I like it. I find it comfortable and it is very roomy."

He also uses the No 1 service into town sometimes. "But this is better. It is more comfortable, the air conditioning, when it's on, is better - and you get great views!"

The bus could sometime be a little difficult for elderly people to get on, he said - the seats are quite a climb to reach - but otherwise he disagrees with the barrage of criticism that greeted the bus a year ago. It's not too big for York, he insists - and despite its gleaming modern look, it isn't out of place in the ancient city, either. "I think it just fits into York. It's a step forward."

Sitting opposite Mr Laycock is a young blonde woman with her nose buried in a book. Would she mind having a word?

"If you must!" she says, looking up. Her name is Diane, she's 33, and a cleaner. She's on her way home to Foxwood from work in the city centre. What does she think of the ftr?

"It's a bus. It gets me from A to B, and it turns up when it is supposed to," she says. "It's definitely an improvement from when it started. It didn't start very well."

Diane uses a ten-journey ticket, for £13. Because she normally walks one way and takes the bus the other, that "lasts me for ages", she says.

Heading out along Foxwood Lane, the bus passes green fields on one side, trees on the other. It makes the sharp turn into Askham Lane and soon is picking its way through the busy Acomb shopping centre.

My outward journey comes to an end at Acomb Green at 10.21am. The bus is a few minutes early, and sits at the bus-stop beside the green for a few minutes, while the driver stretches his legs. Before long, we're heading back through Acomb shops towards the city centre.

Susan Crow, a 40-year-old mum, is among those who have got on. "I'm going into town to do some shopping," she says. "To take something back, in fact."

She uses the ftr "quite often", usually to take her seven-year-old son to school at Hob Moor.

"He loves the bus," she says. "He likes the colour."

The ticket machines were a mess when the bus was first introduced, Susan says - causing delays so often the buses weren't on time. It is much better now conductors are starting to be used.

It makes the buses seem more friendly, for a start.

"You missed talking to the driver, and saying thank you' to the driver when you got off," she says.

The bus heads into town along St Helen's Road and then Tadcaster Road. As it threads its way past the railway station and through the city centre, most passengers get off. At Clifford Street, a new group of passengers get on: and a very different bunch they are.

The "host", Rosie Stewart, welcomes them aboard cheerily. "If you'd like to come on and take a seat, I will get your tickets in a moment," she says.

As the bus moves off, she starts to move among the passengers.

"A single to the university, please," says a burly young man sitting opposite me. The young man is a student. His name is David Rounce and he's 21.

David, it quickly emerges, is no fan of the ftr. It's comfortable enough, he concedes: but it is too big for York.

"We've heard they harvest cyclists," he quips. But the bus is certainly too wide for some of the streets near Heslington, he says.

The ticket machines were horrible, too. "You had to have extra change. But I don't want to bad-mouth it too much. At the end of the day, it gets you from A to B."

The bus stops at Heslington Hall for a few minutes,before beginning the final leg of my journey back into town at about 11.20am.

Zak Taylor, a 19-year-old philosophy, politics and economics student, has just got on for the short journey into town.

He, like David, is no fan of the bus.

"I suppose it is comfortable," he says."But you're only on it for ten minutes. There was nothing wrong with the old buses, and to be honest, I think these are a waste of money."

Well, that's telling those people at First.

So, what exactly is an ftr?

The name ftr stands for "future". Bus bosses wanted to suggest the ftr was the future of public transport.

There was some disagreement over exactly what it was, however, when it was first introduced. It wasn't a bus, and it wasn't a tram, First bosses insisted.

"We think bus' is too small a word to describe what we're trying to achieve," First commercial director Peter Edwards said.

First preferred the neutral, if rather grey, term "vehicle" for their superbus. But Mr Edwards admitted: "In the strict dictionary definition of the word, it is a bus."

There are 12 ftrs in First York's fleet, which cost more than £200,000 each and run between Acomb and the University of York.

End to end, the route takes 50 minutes and the walk-on fare is £1.50.

The only other city to have ftrs is Leeds, but you could soon see them in cities such as Swansea and Las Vegas.

Each ftr is 18.7 metres long and 3.5 m etres high, and can carry 41 seated passengers, 67 standing, six seated on perch seats, and either one wheelchair and three buggies or four buggies.