IT was hailed as a transport revolution. But after just two weeks of the Metro bus timetable, the passengers are in revolt. They have denounced the First York service as a shambles, a farce and the last resort.

City of York Council points out that it takes time for any new system to iron out early hitches. That excuse will not wash with bus users, however.

Firstly, this is far more than just teething trouble. This is chaos. People are arriving late for work, missing doctors' appointments, and being stranded in the city centre, unable to get home.

Only yesterday we reported how York head teachers were demanding improvements because so many of their children were arriving late because of the bus delays.

Secondly, one of the major reasons for the unhappy launch of the Metro service can be blamed directly on a breakdown of communication between the council and First York.

It is astonishing that transport planners did not foresee the potential problems caused by introducing "the biggest thing that has ever happened to public transport in York" at the moment when one of the city's largest road improvement schemes started.

They could not have prevented the clash: the new-look Copmanthorpe junction is urgently needed, and will take more than a year to complete. They could, however, have drawn up contingency plans.

Now, as the head of transport planning Dave Pearson has admitted, the council is "trying to fix things after they have already been broken".

To make the timing even worse, First York launched Metro before taking delivery of 12 double-deck buses. It is hard to credit that the new service took months of planning and cost nearly £12 million.

Metro was intended to encourage more people onto the buses. The council and First York must together find a way to get the service moving before it does exactly the opposite.

Updated: 11:44 Wednesday, October 03, 2001