We have briefed a mystery passenger - Our Man On The Omnibus - to sample a selection of bus journeys around the district and comment on all aspects. This trip is from Tadcaster to York

I HAVE been hearing reports of the delays at Copmanthorpe caused by the roadworks, so I've been out to see for myself, posing a hypothetical question: "If I lived in Tadcaster, and wished to catch the 16.30 train from York to London, and I went for the 15.55 bus, due in York at 16.20, would I catch my train?"

Route: Part of Coastliner (842) from Leeds to Thornton-le-Dale.

Driver - good.

Passengers: When the bus arrived at Tadcaster bus station, I was the only passenger to join it, though a lot of children from the local comprehensive school alighted. While I was going upstairs, I realised from the noise that there were a lot of children still on the bus. Some of their language would not be allowed on television before 9pm. I saw two boys playing an unsophisticated game of tearing their bus tickets into as many tiny pieces as possible to throw the results on the floor.

But what bothered me most was a youth who would not sit down, wandering around the upper deck. I fear that one of these days he'll find out the hard way that this is not a very prudent thing to do. Sometimes an emergency causes the driver to slam the brakes on - and if that were to happen, and if this youth fell, he might well cause injury to other passengers.

Punctuality: The bus arrived three minutes late at Tadcaster. The through route in Copmanthorpe is no longer possible so the bus goes in from the A64 interchange and comes out the same way. This added another eight minutes to the journey time. We arrived at York station 11 minutes behind time. As I went into the station at 1631, I saw the back of the 16.30 GNER disappearing towards Kings Cross. Just as well my question was hypothetical!

Comment: If you live in Tadcaster and want to catch a London train; either go to Leeds - not so good because there is a considerable distance between the bus and train stations; or going via York - travel on the bus half an hour earlier than planned.

Tadcaster bus station is near the River Wharfe, and if you go on the bridge and you look upstream, you'll see a fine stone viaduct, which for many years has not carried rails; I understand that this old railway bridge has a preservation order on it.

There are alternative bus routes between Tadcaster and York which avoid Copmanthorpe. These are the York Country bus services C1 which run through villages to the south of A64 and C3 which runs through villages north of the A64.

They are known as CONNEXIONS and are supported by North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council, running between Tadcaster and Askham Bar Park and Ride with through-ticketing to York. They have a good record for punctuality.

* Next week Our Man On The Omnibus samples the Yorkshire Coastliner journey from York to Pickering.

Updated: 15:00 Monday, November 26, 2001