SIX new traffic marshals have been recruited for York city centre over the busy Christmas period in a desperate attempt to try to keep traffic flowing.
The announcement comes two weeks after York faced traffic gridlock on the first weekend of the Christmas market – and as the city prepares to welcome hundreds if not thousands of Wigan Athletic fans for an FA cup second-round tie against York City at the community stadium this evening, potentially adding to congestion.
The traffic marshals will be deployed near busy car parks where traffic queues build up on weekends throughout the run-up to Christmas. Their job will be to warn motorists when car parks are full - and to advise them where else they might be able to park.
They will be on duty today and tomorrow - and on Fridays and Saturdays up to December 23.
York’s transport boss Cllr Pete Kilbane stressed the marshals would not have power to force motorists to turn back but instead would be offering friendly advice about how to avoid traffic queues - or where to find a car park that was not full.
Cllr Kilbane said the main reason for employing the marshals, at a cost of up to £17,000 until Christmas, was to try to keep traffic flowing so York’s buses could run on time.
Two weeks ago, on the first Saturday of the Christmas market, Press reader Derek Ralphs described having to wait for almost two hours for a bus home to Pocklington from York Railway Station.
Even when he did manage to get on a bus, it promptly got stuck in Piccadilly, he said.
“Cars were queueing to get into the multi storey car park, preventing buses getting access to their bus stops. Many buses were severely delayed as a result,” he said.
Cllr Kilbane conceded that traffic jams caused by cars queuing for full car parks meant buses were getting stuck at peak times in the city centre.
In the last couple of weeks, as many as 15,500 people have parked in York city centre each weekend, he said – most of them on Friday and Saturday.
That has obvious implications for the city’s overloaded transport system.
“If cars queue, then buses can’t get through,” Cllr Kilbane said. “We have Park&Ride buses running every ten minutes - and that’s fine, so long as they can get through!”
In an attempt to ease the problems, there will be one traffic marshal positioned near each of the Tanner Row, Coppergate, Shambles and Union Terrace car parks, and two at the Marygate car park, between 8am and 6pm every Friday and Saturday between now and December 23, Cllr Kilbane said.
Cllr Kilbane admitted the marshals were merely a stop-gap solution – and that what was really needed was a transport plan that put the emphasis on alternatives methods of getting into York city centre other than cars.
A major ten-week traffic consultation was launched in York just last week – and Cllr Kilbane said that by next Christmas he hoped a new traffic plan would be in place.
But for this year, he urged motorists to listen to the traffic marshals - and also to think hard about whether they needed to drive into York at all.
“The people who choose to take the bus, or who cycle or walk – they are the real heroes,” he said.
The traffic marshals have been welcomed by First York bosses, and by business leaders.
First York operations manager Tom Donnelley said: “We are pleased to see any initiatives that help to keep the bus network moving.
"Working closely with City of York Council we’ve increased frequency at four key Park and Ride sites to add an extra 98 journeys at the weekend.
"We encourage visitors to take advantage of this relaxing way to travel into the city, with free parking on site to help reduce the number of cars on York’s streets.”
Andrew Lowson of the York BID said anecdotal evidence was that there had been a big increase in visitors to the city centre compared to the same time last year.
That was good news, he stressed - but the ‘extra resource’ being put into attempting to tackle traffic congestion was welcome, he admitted.
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