First York cites driver shortages and bad behaviour by pupils as reasons for cancelling buses serving some of the city's schools.

As a parent of one of the children affected by this action, I would like evidence from First York that the pupils from my son's school are so much more badly behaved than children from other schools who will continue to get bus services.

I completely condemn bad behaviour on buses by pupils, and would be more than happy to help tackle this problem.

Indeed, pupils from my son's school participated in an identity card scheme which was designed to help.

The service my son uses has been under threat since September. When I contacted First York at the beginning of this term to inquire about the problem, I was told that the route was uneconomic - hence the decision to charge full adult fare for the children. Lack of drivers was not mentioned

The gentleman at City of York Council also made no mention of driver shortages.

However, he did say that, due to arrangements inherited from North Yorkshire County Council, the council does subsidise other uneconomic school routes. However, it had no intention of extending this provision.

The issue of pupil behaviour is a red herring in this context. If the route is uneconomic, then it wouldn't make any difference if the kids had haloes and harps.

But if First York could make money out of it, with or without subsidies, I wouldn't mind betting that it would find some way round both this apparently insoluble behaviour problem and the shortage of drivers.

First York is not a service. It is a profits-driven business. The least it can do is be honest about it.

Jane Roberts,

Irwin Avenue,

Heworth, York.

...I TRAVEL from Fulford into York and return regularly using public transport, and I am appalled at the time taken to travel short distances.

As during the coming years more and more cars will be coming on to our roads, it would seem that permanent gridlock is going to occur at certain times of day. What a horrendous future to look forward to.

What is required is a radical approach to solve this problem.

All the roads leading into York take traffic in each direction. The ideal solution would be to have the public transport buses using single bus lanes both in and out of York.

How would it be if all traffic coming into York used specific roads in one direction only, so that public transport used the left hand lane and all other traffic used the right hand lane. As an example all traffic from the A64 junction with the A19 at Fulford moved along Fulford Road into York, and all traffic returning to Fulford would have to use the outgoing road, which would be Hull Road and back on the A64 to the A19 junction.

To encourage the public to travel on public transport it is necessary to offer an inducement. So why not make the fare on any public transport in the York area a sliding one based on distance, with a maximum of £2 and any £2 ticket permitting the holder to transfer from one bus route to another?

The thought that the buses would be moving speedily would generate a lot of interest. It is obvious that the bus operators would require some form of subsidy, which could come from general taxation or local rates.

This is just an observation by a car driver to generate discussion.

Henry A Lamb,

Delwood,

Fulford, York.

Updated: 09:41 Saturday, December 29, 2001