TAXI customers at York Railway Station are forking out up to £3 before they even reach the road - because of controversial route changes.

Drivers at the station rank today revealed the "crazy delays" caused by the new way out of the station round a one-way loop at Tea Room Square.

The taxis travel no more than 92 metres and it takes about 40 seconds to walk round the route.

But taxi chief Ian Gillies said about 50 people every week-day, about 250 a week at least, are hit by the £3 fare.

Council chiefs have revealed the work, which has suffered months of delays, has gone £125,000 over budget.

Station Taxi drivers charge a minimum fee of £1.90 set by City of York Council, but bosses revealed the meter was reaching £3 at busy periods before their cars could get on to Station Road. Some drivers said it was taking nearly ten minutes before they could get out.

They say the delays are caused by a new pedestrian crossing at the loop's exit, and traffic going in and out of the station's short stay car park. Buses were also blocking the loop's exit when traffic is heavy.

"The situation is chaos," said Alan Rowley, secretary of York Taxi Association.

"The council has spent more than £1 million improving things, but it takes me seven minutes to get onto the main road."

The new route is part of council improvements to the station which has included scrapping the taxi rank in the middle of Station Road to relieve congestion. The work was originally due to finish in December. Now it is expected to cost £1.2 million and will not be completed until the end of the month.

The upgrade was devised by the council in partnership with GNER and Network Rail.

Mr Gillies, secretary of Station Taxis, said during busy periods his taxi meter was at £3 before he had driven out of the station

"It's appalling. At times it's just impossible to get out."

A City of York Council spokeswoman, said: "The aim of the station frontage scheme is to make better use of the limited highway space in front of the railway station to improve the transport facilities, along with making it easier and safer for passengers to use, whether they arrive on foot, cycle, bus, train or taxi.

"To reduce congestion in the station portico, provide easier access to the station short stay car park and for HGVs to access Tea Room Square, a new entry from Station Road was created.

"For safety reasons the consequence of this is that all traffic will travel in a clockwise direction round Tea Room Square."

The spokeswoman said they had spent an extra £125,000 on the project because of unforeseen problems such as damaged drains, and structural difficulties with underground cellars.

No rush at rush hour for travellers

LUCY STEPHENS tried catching a cab out of York Station during a busy evening rush hour.

IT was 5.30pm when I hopped into a taxi at York Station. There was already a queue of at least 15 people waiting.

The meter clicked on - my starting fee was £1.90. We began inching out of the station, a couple of taxis moving slowly in front of us. After a few moments, the fare went up to £2. At this point we had reached the beginning of the road loop after the station forecourt.

Things speeded up a bit and we made reasonably steady progress round the loop, but by the time we were ready to join the main road, my fare had already reached £2.20.

So that was 30p already spent for a journey which had not yet even reached the ring road. Time spent: about two minutes.

My taxi driver said I was one of the lucky ones. Many passengers were already at the £3 mark by the time their cab had reached the inner ring road, and one driver had even reported a meter reading of £3.50 by that point.

Updated: 09:42 Wednesday, March 29, 2006