Scheme to speed up public transport to be trialled

A trial scheme designed to speed up public transport in York city centre by cutting congestion will begin in January.

City of York Council voted unanimously to restrict parts of Rougier Street, George Hudson Street and Micklegate to buses, emergency vehicles and taxis between 07:00 and 23:00.

The £2.3m plan, known as the Rougier Route, will begin as an 18-month trial, a meeting held ahead of the vote on Tuesday was told.

Councillor Kate Ravilious, who is in charge of transport, said: "It takes buses a third longer than it used to. If we carry on, it means higher costs for the operators and higher ticket costs for passengers."

The changes come after the council's analysis found more than 1,000 bus trips were made along Rougier Street every day.

Ravilious previously said a bus journey through the bus gate area took six minutes longer in 2025 than it did in 2019.

She said bus passengers were "routinely" catching a service earlier than the one they needed in order to get to their destination on time.

Traffic in and around York city centre is notoriously busy, with journey times routinely affected by delays due to congestion.

Labour councillor Ravilious said investing in the Rougier Route would "enable operators to add more services and reduce ticket prices".

She added: "Until we implement the scheme we won't fully know what the impact will be. It's really important that it is a trial, we can make those adjustments as we go along, and there will be adjustments."

Ravilious said there would not be any fines, but instead warning letters, for anyone contravening the new rules within the first six months of their implementation.

The trial has been welcomed by campaigners and bus companies.

Representing the York Bus Forum, which describes itself as "the voice for bus users in York", Doreen Magill told the meeting she had compared current bus timetables to 2015 and found the same journey across the city - from York College to Heworth - now took 15 minutes longer.

"Rougier Route won't solve the problems but it will help," she said.

"It's the first step to encouraging people to use the buses."

First Bus York general manager Stephen Moyle told councillors the company "strongly supports" the Rougier Route, which he said "addresses one of the biggest challenges facing public transport in York".

"Our buses are delayed by congestion in the city centre every day. We want to see reliable services that people can depend on – when they are reliable, more people will choose to use them, which reduces congestion."

Stephen Fenton, who leads the largest opposition group on the council, the Liberal Democrats, said they had questions about the "unintended consequences" of the scheme, but were keen to engage with in it "in a positive way".

"If we can divert traffic onto the outer ring road that's a real game changer," he said.

"At the moment, a lot of motorists know if they try to traverse the northern outer ring road they'll be sitting in traffic, so they try to cut through the city centre.

"If we can make the outer ring road less congested, more reliable, it'll enable us to do a lot more in the city centre in terms of supporting bus use, walking, cycling or wheeling."

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