Selby bus cuts blow

9:30am Wednesday 27th August 2008

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THE bus service between Selby and Leeds is to be halved.

The 402, 403 and 406 service normally leaves Selby every half hour between 9am and 3pm and travels through Thorpe Willoughby, Hambleton, Sherburn and Micklefield before getting into Leeds. On Sundays, the services run every hour.

But from next week, the bus will only run once an hour between 9am and 3pm, and on Sundays it will be once every two hours.

Selby councillor Steve Shaw-Wright, said that in an age of increased environmental awareness, the decision was a strange one. Coun Shaw-Wright said: “If you miss a bus now, you might as well forget it. If you want to go for a day out in Leeds you are really constrained and if you miss a bus you have either got a long walk, a taxi fare or a train. People don’t always work nine to five, people need to get into work earlier and later in the day. It makes it more difficult to use public transport at a time when we should be using it. The Government has just introduced travel passes for buses so more people can get on to buses for free after peak times and cutting bus services defeats the object really.”

But Nigel Featham, managing director for Arriva Yorkshire, said the frequency of the buses had been cut because fewer people were using them and they were not commercially viable. He added: “The communities we serve are important to us and we have tried to ensure that this change has a minimal impact; as a result we have maintained the current frequency of two buses an hour at peak times from Monday to Friday so as not to adversely affect people travelling to and from school or work.”

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said they had considered providing public funding to keep the extra services but had decided that the provision would be adequate.