Fare enough

9:26am Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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York’s Park&Ride service is a great way of keeping cars out of the city centre. But will plans to increase the fares put off passengers?

STEPHEN LEWIS investigates.

BUSES leave at least every ten minutes from Monday to Friday, the sign at Grimston Bar promises.

The Park&Ride service doesn’t disappoint: at least not on this fine Tuesday morning. Two buses are waiting at the stop as I arrive just after 10am. One leaves as I approach; but the second is ready to go, and leaves seven minutes later. By that time, a third bus has already arrived.

Living in the city centre as I do, I’ve never used Park&Ride. It’s a surprisingly pleasant and hassle-free experience – though admittedly this isn’t rush hour. The city council-owned car park is spacious and pleasant, the strip of lawn next to the bus stop new-mown and gleaming in the watery sunlight.

The toilet block is clean – if a little whiffy in the sultry, humid weather – and the council-regulated service is clearly hugely popular. A constant stream of people turn up – individuals, couples, brightly-clothed holidaying families – so that the buses are all pretty full, even though they run so regularly.

I climb aboard, buy my ticket and take a seat. The bus is one of those long, bendy ones. There must be about 40 people on board – which means this bus alone could be keeping as many as 20 cars out of the city centre.

Bus company First says that every year there are about four million Park&Ride passenger journeys into York. Imagine what the streets would be like if all of those people opted to drive in instead. It hardly bears thinking about.

For three years now, Park&Ride fares have remained fixed. The standard adult return fare is £2. But now, in response to soaring fuel prices, First has announced that from August 3, Park&Ride fares will increase by 15 per cent – to £2.30 for an adult return.

That is still pretty cheap compared to kkjthe cost of parking in the centre of York for a day – at least, if there is just one person in your car.

If there are two or three adults, however, the cost rises quickly. So might the fare increase put people off using Park&Ride?

Not if fellow passengers on my bus are anything to go by.

Young mum Katharine Winstanley and her small daughter, Carys, are visiting York from Cherry Burton, near Beverley, with Katharine’s friend, Liz Oglesby.

The two grown-ups are impressed with the efficiency of the service – and with the cost, especially given that Carys gets to travel free.

“It’s a very good service,” Liz says.

“Clean, reliable, regular.”

“Much better than paying to park in the centre,” said Katharine. And do they think it will still be good value once the fares go up? “It wouldn’t put us off,” Liz says.

Harry Andrew, aged 20, and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Alexandra Bloy, agree.

The couple are visiting York for the day from Grimsby. Harry’s been to the city before – but not with Alexandra. The pair are looking forward to visiting Jorvik and taking a boat on the river.

Park&Ride is a very good service, Harry says – he and Alexandra didn’t have to wait at all. “There were two buses there. We got straight on.”

It is also good value, Harry says – much better than expensive city centre car parks, and you don’t have all the hassle of finding somewhere to park. A fare increase to £2.30 won’t change anything, he says – it is still good value. “It would cost more than that to park in the city.”

Stephen and Patsy Palmer agree. The couple, from the Midlands, are holidaying at Burythorpe, near Malton, and have come into York for the day.

They were warned against driving into the city, Mr Palmer says. So what does he think of Park&Ride? “It seems good so far. We got on straight away.”

The £2 fare is excellent, Mrs Palmer said. And what about when it goes up to £2.30? Would that put them off?

Not at all. There is no hassle, your car is probably safer – and even at £2.30 it would be good value, Mr Palmer says.

“It is cheaper than a city centre car park – if you can find one!”

‘We will monitor situation’

WITH fuel prices sky high and a massive future expansion of Park&Ride on the cards, now would seem the perfect time to be pushing the service as a real alternative to the car.

Instead, First is planning to increase fares by 15 per cent. Isn’t that a huge missed opportunity?

Not at all, insists First spokesman Duncan McGraw.

There has been a steady four per cent increase in passenger numbers on Park&Ride over the past three months, Mr McGraw says – though admittedlythis has “mainly been pensioners taking advantage of new concessionary passes”.

Nevertheless, he says, with oil prices so high, First had little option but to increase fares.

“We have estimated that it would need a 15 per cent increase in fare paying passengers on the Park &Ride service to balance out the steep rise in the cost of fuel and just to allow our business to ‘stand still’ let alone grow in the next year,” he said.

“It is highly unlikely we will reach that figure over the next year and so we have had to prepare our business plan accordingly.”

Depsite the high price of oil, however, supermarkets such as Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury have recently announced they will be cutting the price of fuel at the pump by up to 5p a litre. Would that make First think again?

The supermarkets’ move was more a PR initiative than a long term indicator that the world oil market was heading towards stability, Mr McGraw said.

“We will monitor the situation.”

York transport boss Coun Steve Galloway said in an ideal world Park&Ride fares would not have been increased. But the price of oil affected companies like First as much as it did people driving their own cars, he pointed out.

Such an increase would not have been necessary of Whitehall had increased the fuel tax rebate for public transport operators, he said.