Bus services in York are set to get the biggest shake-up in the history of public transport in the city, the Evening Press can reveal.

Every home in the city is to be leafleted in a major consultation exercise as First York prepares the way for a new, simplified 'metro' system that could be introduced from next spring.

It will mean the present labyrinthine network of bus routes being scrapped and replaced by a new, simplified system of 'core' routes on a model similar to that used on the London Underground.

Colour-coded routes will run from outlying areas of York such as Osbaldwick, Haxby and Skelton - with buses running about every ten minutes.

First York bosses today pledged the revamp - being carried out in line with City of York Council's ongoing transport review - would give the city's people a 'public transport network they can be proud of.'

The new 'metro' routes will make use of extra bus priority lanes to ensure they are quick and on time.

"I doubt whether the service has ever changed so radically," said First York managing director Brian Asquith.

"What we want is to get people out of their cars on to buses. It will be a simpler, easier to use service and it should help ease traffic congestion in the city."

The move to improve bus services comes as the Evening Press reveals, in the first of a two-part investigation into York's bus services today, that some services are being cancelled because First York can't recruit enough drivers.

The Evening Press has been deluged with complaints from bus users, complaining of late or cancelled buses.

One driver, who does not want to be identified for fear of losing his job, claimed today poor pay and conditions meant First York could not recruit enough drivers, adding: "It is chaos. You never know from one day to the next what service you will be driving."