I CAN confirm that the council has made some changes to the new Dial and Ride service after consultation with existing passengers.

We recognised that it would be important to make as few changes to the existing service as possible, therefore we retained 18 of the original 24 journeys.

However, to be able to expand the service to cover the whole city, rather than only parts of it, we had to make some changes.

It was always going to be difficult to design a new Dial and Ride service that exactly meets the needs of every one of the thousands of older and disabled people in York.

The new service has increased the availability of Dial and Ride to the whole of York, running five days a week, rather than four.

In addition, all trips are run on a weekly basis, rather than some running on a fortnightly basis, as was the case in the past.

After requests from passengers we have added additional destinations, including Haxby and Acomb shops. The new service can now carry 25 per cent more people compared with the old service. I hope this explains our thinking and actions and assures readers our intention was to improve the service for most people.

Daniel Johnson,

Principal transport planner

(communications),

City of York Council,

St Leonard's Place,

York.

Updated: 09:26 Friday, April 22, 2005