AN INVESTIGATION into delays on York's new bus service has been launched by the city's Liberal Democrats.

The party has promised to claim compensation from bus company First York for anybody affected.

Passengers on the company's newly-introduced Metro service will be asked to keep a journey diary.

"I think all councillors have had calls from people complaining about the reliability of the buses," said Councillor Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for transport on City of York Council.

"The impression that I get is that some areas don't have problems, while others have considerable ones. We want to find out the extent of them."

The party is sending forms to everybody who contacts them about bus services, and will print them in In Focus, the Liberal Democrats' newsletter.

It asks if respondents want to claim compensation for services which were more than two minutes early or 20 minutes late.

The bus company says that passengers can make claims by writing to them, said Coun Reid.

"It hasn't been widely publicised and we thought that if we let people know that compensation is available and we submit claims for people, it might force the company to take action," she said.

Coun Reid said that one woman had contacted her to say she had stood at a city centre bus stop for more than an hour waiting for a bus.

First York bosses were hoping that the Metro service, which cost £11 million to introduce last month, would improve public transport in the city and encourage more passengers.

But it has received criticism from users, while drivers have complained of unacceptable working conditions.

Coun Reid said: "The object is to work with the bus company, and we will be forwarding these forms onto them for response."

The investigation has been welcomed by First York.

Operations manager Paul Bell said: "As far as we are concerned this is a good thing.

"We do this ourselves, with inspectors on the streets timing the new services. We are assessing the service on a daily basis, and will amend it to try to get things right.

"If anybody helps us to do that then that is a good thing, and we will be interested in seeing the results of the Liberal Democrat survey."

He said a system of compensation had been in place for four years, usually offering travel vouchers to passengers who have experienced delays of more than 20 minutes.

Updated: 11:32 Thursday, October 11, 2001