EXTRA bus services are taking to the roads of York to meet the soaring demand for public transport in the city.

The number of people hopping on board has risen by more than 25 per cent over the past three years, with individual passenger journeys annually topping the ten million mark.

City of York Council and First York have teamed up to respond to the national trend-bucking increase.

Changes being made will see all bus services running at least once an hour from September 6 with some exceptions in the rural area around York.

Terry Walker, public transport planner for York council, said resources had been reallocated to improve services for the majority of passengers.

He said the council and First York had already enjoyed success in reversing the decline in bus usage.

"But now we want to seize the opportunity to develop a network of services that appeals to even more people," he said.

"There will be some residents who feel that the changes do not benefit them," Mr Walker conceded. "We have worked very hard to ensure that these are very few in number and we firmly believe that, overall, the changes offer improvements - ranging from minor to substantial - across a significant part of the city's bus service network."

Some of the changes are in response to criticisms of the current service network.

Others tackle operational problems which have affected the reliability of certain routes.

Peter Edwards, commercial manager of First York, said the changes were building on the "undoubted success in attracting increasing numbers of passengers".

"This has given us a good opportunity to further improve and extend our services with the aim of helping even more people to travel easily around the city."

Improvements will include new Sunday bus services between Skelton, Rawcliffe, Leeman Road and York City Centre, Copmanthorpe and Monks Cross, Acomb and Monks Cross.

A limited-stop service will be reintroduced on the Designer Outlet Park & Ride.

A new weekday evening bus service will be launched between Skelton, Rawcliffe, Leeman Road and York city centre, while a new weekday service will run to the Kettlestring Lane area of Clifton Moor.

More frequent services will also go between York city centre and Fulford, Rawcliffe, Monks Cross, Hamilton Drive, Elvington and the University of York, via Dunnington and Murton.

For further details on these and other changes, phone First York on 01904 883000 and the council's BusInfo line on 01904 551400.

Leaflets of the new and revised services are expected to be available from September 1.

Updated: 13:11 Monday, August 16, 2004