First York ticket offers to fight congestion

6 July 2017

First Group’s buses in York are offering reduced fares for its range of smart tickets in a bid to tackle the effects of increasing road congestion.

Smart ticketing aiding congestion

By offering a simplified range of smart tickets – on smartphone or the ITSO-based York by bus smart card, First York hope to encourage customers to take the bus, instead of the car.  By doing this, and using smart ticketing schemes that rapidly speed up boarding times, as compared to traditional cash tickets, will support their efforts in reducing the congestion in the city.

The local bus operator has been led to review its ticket prices due to a number of factors, with one being the increasing impact of congestion. Bus journey times are being heavily affected by congestion, especially in the centre of York, leading the operator to send out more buses onto the roads, just so that the service timetables can be maintained. In a bid to tackle this issue and speed up journeys, First York have introduced smart ticketing schemes such as the ITSO smartcard or more recently the mTickets app.

About First York

First York is the largest bus operator in the region, and operates the York Park & Ride scheme in conjunction with City of York Council. More than 100 buses transport around 50,000 people every day across York. Part of First Bus, one of Britain's largest bus operators, transporting 1.6 million passengers a day.