YORK'S new superbus is set to hit city streets three months late - after the company behind its development admitted it was trying to overcome some teething troubles.

First expects to debut its FTR vehicle in March, once it has resolved issues with the £300,000 vehicle's prototype.

The firm, based in James Street, today said it was only prepared to launch the bus-cum-tram, which was due to start city services in January, when "everything is right".

The city is to receive ten of the FTR buses, an acronym of "future", which will run initially on the hugely popular service No 4 route between the University of York and Acomb.

Peter Edwards, First's commercial director, said the bus was being subjected to "an extensive testing programme".

He said that the development programme was taking a little longer than anticipated.

The Evening Press revealed in March how York had been chosen by parent company FirstGroup as the first city in the country to trial the new bus, which First believes is the future of passenger transport.

Nicknamed the StreetCar, York won the race to receive the new vehicle because of the millions which First has spent on developing bus transport in the city over the past five years.

Its objective is to take ten per cent of car journeys off the roads it serves within five to six years.

Mr Edwards said that, as the company was effectively breaking new ground by introducing the vehicle, everything about the StreetCar had to be absolutely right before it could be allowed onto the city's roads.

"We don't expect to launch until March. I am disappointed but it is understandable in another respect," he said.

"It is a brand new venture and we need to be sure it is right.

"It needs to be reliable when it hits the streets. Clearly, from our point of view we don't want the service to start on a piecemeal basis.

"We want it to start when we get the full complement of buses.

"However, the development programme has taken a bit longer than we anticipated.

"Essentially, we are breaking new ground technically.

"We have had to subject it to an exhausting testing programme and there are certain things which need doing with the prototype."

Coun Ann Reid, the council's transport chief, said: "We are still totally committed to bringing FTR to York and the council is working in partnership with First to deliver FTR. We do need to ensure it is right before we start running the service."

Updated: 11:08 Thursday, September 08, 2005