The York Enhanced Partnership publishes a monthly measure of bus service punctuality in the York area.
The published measure is calculated using timings from every bus service in the York area for which real-time information is available. The measure provides a picture of overall punctuality across all routes in York over the last 12 months:
Monthly bus service punctuality for York
Month |
% Good or outstanding |
% Outstanding |
% year on year change |
Jan 2023 |
93.0% |
70.6% |
-7.0% |
Feb 2023 |
95.0% |
60.7% |
-4.3% |
Mar 2023 |
96.8% |
65.6% |
-3.2% |
Apr 2023 |
96.6% |
64.4% |
-2.7% |
May 2023 |
95.7% |
61.9% |
-1.0% |
Jun 2023 |
84.1% |
44.1% |
-12.5% |
Jul 2023 |
89.7% |
58.1% |
-7.4% |
Aug 2023 |
95.3% |
73.6% |
-2.1% |
Sep 2023 |
77.0% |
39.3% |
-13.2% |
Oct 2023 |
86.0% |
36.7% |
3.2% |
Nov 2023 |
72.8% |
37.6% |
-6.5% |
Dec 2023 |
75.0% |
52.4% |
-5.8% |
Method
For every journey on each bus service, the schedule deviation (the difference between the timetabled departure time and actual departure time) is recorded at each timing point (a stop where buses are required to wait until the timetabled departure time if they arrive early).
An average of all the recorded times is then calculated, 5 times per day, for the following time periods:
- Morning (00:00 - 06:59)
- AM Peak (07:00 - 09:29)
- Intermediate (09:30 - 14:59)
- PM Peak (15:00 - 17:59)
- Evening (18:00 - 23:59)
The reported punctuality figure for each month consists of the percentage of measure periods during that month where punctuality is:
- Good - average schedule deviation less than 4 minutes.
- Outstanding - average schedule deviation less than 2 minutes.
Void days
To produce a comparable measure, from time to time where exceptional traffic delays occur as a result of circumstances outside the bus operators' control, the punctuality data for that day will be declared void and discounted from the calculation.
Void days might occur as a result of:
- Very busy events attracting large crowds and potentially involving road closures, eg. York Races, Yorkshire Marathon;
- A serious incident in the city centre or on key arterial roads- eg. a major road traffic accident;
- Severe flooding requiring significant bus route diversions.
The following void days have been noted within the previous 12 months:
- 10th Jan 2023 due to severe traffic delays around York Hospital.
- 14th June 2023 due to police closure of Ouse Bridge.
- 2nd Aug 2023 due to major utilities works at Water End.
- 12th/27th/29th Sep and 5th Oct 2023 due to major highways works at Tadcaster Rd, Bishopthorpe Rd and Pavement/Shambles junction. These schemes contributed to an unusually high level of delays during the entire month of September.
- 14th Nov 2023 due to RTC at Fulford Interchange.
- 16th Nov 2023 due to over-running highway works on A1237 near Poppleton.
- 16th/17th/18th/24th Nov, 1st/2nd/8th/15th/16th Dec due to severe traffic delays from Christmas Fair and Designer Outlet.