PASSENGERS have lost their bus stop on the A64 between York and Tadcaster after Yorkshire Coastliner decided it was too dangerous for its vehicles to come to a halt.

When work started on the construction of the new flyover at Bilbrough Top, the contract stipulated that the stop for York-bound buses on the eastbound carriageway should be maintained, said local district councillor Brian Percival.

But the buses stopped using the stop earlier this year, forcing people to walk for half a mile along a poor quality path beside the dual carriageway to get to another stop.

He said this caused great inconvenience for villagers from Bilbrough and Colton, and also employees working at local businesses.

A Highways Agency spokeswoman said it was correct that buses should continue to stop there, but Yorkshire Coastliner had decided to stop using the stop with no consultation with the agency.

"The agency is still seeking a meeting with Yorkshire Coastliner to discuss their decision to stop using the bus stop," she said.

Yorkshire Coastliner said that its operations manager, Brian Kneeshaw, had written to the agency's project manager for the Bilbrough Top flyover project, Lynne Biddles, in April.

In the letter, Mr Kneeshaw said the bus stop had been suspended because the company had received many complaints from its drivers that the stop was unsafe.

"Firstly, as they had to rejoin fast-moving traffic from a standing start, secondly there had been a few cases where other drivers did not realise that the bus was going to slow down and stop, causing some cars to skid to a halt.

"Both of these problems become much worse at the times when single-lane operation is used."

Updated: 10:42 Tuesday, June 22, 2004