Askham Bar Park & Ride Reopens

Askham Bar Park & Ride reopens

First York and City of York Council are set to re-open an important Park & Ride corridor this weekend as part of continuing plans for bus travel to play its part in supporting the revival of York’s economy.

The Askham Bar Park & Ride site will welcome customers from Sunday 5 July to cater for an expected increase in visitors and shoppers as the city’s bars, restaurants, hospitality and more areas of retail open with the further easing of lockdown. From next week, commuters are expected too as businesses and services begin trading and employees return to the workplace.

The service will operate every 10 minutes during weekday peaks, every 15 minutes off-peak and every 15 minutes at weekends.

The Sunday frequency is also being increased to every 15 minutes (from every 30 minutes) on three other Park & Ride services: Rawcliffe Bar, Designer Outlet and Monks Cross. This will increase further to every 12 minutes on Sundays from 12 July.

The enhancements to the city’s Park & Ride network are being made to help manage continued capacity restrictions on buses due to social distancing.

Marc Bichtemann, Managing Director of First York, said: “Daily life is resuming as the York economy continues to recover and bus travel will increasingly be a part of this in the weeks and months ahead. We are ensuring that our buses continue to be safe for those that rely on them as levels of demand change and we get people to work, the shops and other destinations.”

He added: “I would like to thank our customers who are following the Government rule to wear a face covering, unless they are exempt, which is helping to keep everyone safe. We want to encourage customers to do the right thing and bring one to wear on the bus.

“If people are considering using the bus to travel, perhaps for the first time, it is now a legal requirement to wear a face covering when boarding and throughout the journey.

“We have social distancing measures in place on the bus to help people stay safe and our First Bus app enables customers, including wheelchair users, to live track the location of buses nearby and available seats or space, helping them to plan journeys.” 

Andy D’Agorne, Deputy Leader of City of York Council and Executive Member for Transport, said: “We are pleased to be re-opening this site, to support sustainable travel into the city and would like to encourage residents to use the park and ride sites across the city to help reduce traffic congestion.

“As more people are cycling, we are also widening existing cycling lanes and providing park and pedal, so that people can safely and quickly travel between the park and ride sites and the city centre by bike.”

Full details of the Park & Ride changes and timetables can be found on the First York website https://www.firstgroup.com/york and at https://www.itravelyork.info/

Find out more information on Park & Pedal.