I WRITE in reply to the recent letters in the Evening Press regarding changes to our 19A /19C Clifton bus service.

I appreciate that the Theatre Royal has been the traditional stopping off place for Clifton passengers. Also that some have been inconvenienced, with difficulties in reaching Bootham.

However, we have found that Bootham has become unpredictable in the length of time taken to travel along it, causing delays and lost journeys because of traffic congestion.

The "bus user's surgery" held in Parliament Street on March 25 identified problems with the previous Clifton services such as the hourly bus to the hospital from Clifton being too infrequent, late running of some peak time journeys, and buses not travelling to the M&S side of York.

Stonebow was also perceived as being closer to the city centre than the Theatre Royal.

There are some real benefits to be had from the changes made to services. For instance, buses along Rawcliffe Lane (X19/18) are every 15 minutes and are joined at both Clifton and Station Avenue to form a circuit which, in effect, offers eight buses an hour along Rawcliffe Lane - a greatly improved service from Clifton to the York District Hospital.

The option of travelling in either direction to or from York has created additional choice for shoppers from the Clifton area because they call at Tesco, Sainsbury's, Foss Bank, and M&S.

The introduction of round-journey tickets means that a return ticket will allow passengers to board an X19 on Rawcliffe, heading toward Clifton Moor, and alight in Stonebow after passing the district hospital, or board X19 inbound alighting in Stonebow after passing through Leeman Road and Rougier Street.

I hope this explains the reasons behind the alterations to services. Passengers will appreciate the improved reliability and journey opportunities created by this change.

John Fletcher,

Commercial Manager,

First York.