BUS companies are being encouraged to continue their efforts to help disabled people in York.

A review of what the city’s bus services are doing to improve travelling for the vulnerable or people in wheelchairs has been carried out by City of York Council’s Learning and Culture Scrutiny Committee.

They have reviewed disabled access to York’s attractions and facilities since June 2014 and helped make a number of improvements to access for people who have a range of impairments.

This has included joining forces with DisabledGo, a company which lists accessible hotels, parks and museums for people to visit, and the York Quality Bus Partnership - an organisation used to encourage use of public transport.

At the moment, buses serving the people of York have introduced a variety of measures, including low floors and easy to read timetables at bus stops.

The authority has also spent £50,000 on improving accessibility at bus stops.

According to a council report, work at bus stops has included investing in dropped road crossings; seats at stops; putting in place somewhere for people to stand if a stop was on a grass verge and raised kerbs to help people get onto buses.

It has also improved lighting at bus stops, including those outside York Railway Station.

Bus operator Trandsev told councillors at the meeting that all of its Yorkshire Coastliner network now has on-board audio and visual next-stop displays.

All nine operators making up the Quality Bus Partnership have been asked to write to the council and produce a summary of the work they have been doing to help disabled passengers.

Cllr Denise Craghill, who is chairwoman of the scrutiny group, is calling on all other York bus operators to follow Transdev’s lead.

“My feeling was that we have had quite a bit of feedback and it needs to be an on-going conversation with the Quality Bus Partnership and hopefully all the bus companies will start to do what Transdev has already done.

“We need to say to them ‘this needs to be ongoing.’”