Hundreds of passengers stopped off to air their views about bus services at the first ever York bus users' surgery.

A First York bus parked in Parliament Street to provide the venue for the event which invited passengers to pop in and get complaints and compliments off their chests.

More than 200 people took advantage of the chance to speak to bus company managers face-to-face and organisers declared the surgery a success.

It was organised by the National Federation of Bus Users and staff from First York, Arriva and the City of York Council were on hand to take down comments.

Federation chairwoman Caroline Cahm said: "We started organising these surgeries because we felt the views of bus users weren't getting across. We needed a dialogue between those who use the buses and those who run them. We're trying to encourage bus users to make their voices heard."

She said all the people who made comments would receive written replies from the companies and would be invited to meet bus company bosses again.

She said her organisation was pressing for more bus priority lanes, to speed up services.

John Fletcher, commercial manager for First York, said comments had ranged from praise for individual members of staff to complaints about routes and fares.

He agreed with Caroline that some complaints did link to wider issues of traffic congestion.

For example, two complaints had been about a bus that no longer stopped at Piccadilly, leaving customers with a walk to the Theatre Royal. This change had been made because the volume of traffic was slowing down the service.

Bus customer Margaret Bell, a guest house manager from Alma Terrace, off Fulford Road, York, went into the bus to complain about the difference in the fare into York from her street depending on whether she got on a First York or an Arriva bus.

She said: "I think the surgery's a brilliant idea. I've been nattering to myself for months about this and when I saw the bus I came in and got it off my chest."

Pensioner Leslie Brown, from South Bank, York, said he had come in to complain about the lack of bus services to South Bank in the evening.

He said: "It's all right if it does some good. But it's got to be proven, like anything else."

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