Figures released today show that 2024 was the busiest year for York’s Park & Ride since 2017, with the total number of journeys exceeding 4.5 million, almost one million higher than in 2023.
December saw the most trips for a decade, recording nearly 500,000 journeys, a 3.5% increase on the previous highest monthly total set in December 2016.
City of York Council estimates that people boarding at the Park & Ride sites in December resulted in over 61,700 cars not travelling into central York – equivalent to a line of traffic that would be long enough to reach central London.
In December, First Bus sold 148,310 tickets at the Park & Ride sites alone (the remaining journeys being people who joined the bus along the route or were returning from the city centre). Industry standard definition of occupancy per car for a leisure trip is 2.4 people. This gives us a total of 61,700 cars that didn't come into the city centre over Christmas. Google Maps shows that the road route from York Minster to Westminster Abbey is 210 miles. If we say a car takes up 6 metres of space on the road, 61,700 times 6 metres is 230 miles. Therefore, 61,700 cars would stretch all the way to central London.
York’s Enhanced Bus Partnership, which oversees £17.2 million of government funding for the Bus Service Improvement Plan, ran a marketing campaign to promote the Park & Ride as well as direct bus services for six weeks before Christmas. Working with Make It York and all bus operators, the social media posts and adverts reached over 2.2 million people in a campaign targeting towns and cities where previous research has shown Christmas Market visitors come from.
Councillor Kate Ravilious, Executive Member for Economy and Transport at City of York Council, said:
Just shy of half a million journeys in one month is an incredible milestone to reach, so thank you to all the residents and visitors for using the Park & Ride, and thank you to First Bus for increasing the number of buses available during this incredibly busy period.
First Bus invested in more services on the network in November and December, increasing frequency on several routes to support the York local and visitor economy in anticipation of customer demand. First Bus replicates this investment during other busy periods to keep York visitors and commuters moving sustainably throughout the year.
Cllr Ravilious continued:
The numbers are phenomenal but we do also need to recognise that York still experienced congested streets in the run up to Christmas, so while we are delighted, we continue our work throughout the year to support and promote the city’s bus services as well as other sustainable forms of transport.
"Our young people’s ticketing and marketing campaigns, which and are funded by central government, have over the last 12 months helped make bus use more attractive and given more people more options, and we will soon be consulting on improvements to the Park & Ride sites."
Kayleigh Ingham, Commercial Director of First Bus North & West Yorkshire, said:
The superb performance throughout 2024 is a tribute to the commitment and high standards of service delivered by the First Bus team.
"We’ve demonstrated that bus is an easy and sustainable way to travel into York. We’re attracting more customers due to good value fares, zero-emission buses, and our service, which is delivered with a smile. The benefits this brings, with cleaner air and quieter city centre roads, contributes to York’s environmental targets."
Sarah Loftus, Managing Director of Make It York, said:
It is wonderful to see the great results for bus travel for the year and 500,000 journeys during the Christmas period is fantastic.
"We are very fortunate to have a bus service within the city that supports both demand and sustainability. Collaboration between all parties on communicating key messages was key and we look forward to working with and supporting the transport sector throughout 2025."
These Park & Ride figures follow the Department for Transport’s own statistics released late in 2024 which show that York’s bus services as a whole (including all local services and the Park & Ride) are once again in the top ten of all local authorities for the number of bus trips per resident. An average of 70.6 journeys per head of population in 2023 and 2024 ranks York the best in Yorkshire and nationally sits 9th out of 90 English local authority areas.
The data also showed that York’s bus trips are up 35% from 2021 and 2022, almost quadrupled from 2020 and 2021 and now back within 3% of the level they were in 2019 and 2020 (the year before COVID-19). This is one of the best post-pandemic recovery rates in the country.
In addition to December’s figures, November 2024 was the busiest November ever recorded, with 10% more passengers than the previous record set in 2016.