Park & Ride
Wright Axcess-Ultralow in August 2023 at the Rawcliffe Bar site, April 2012 Bus services have been operated by
First York, under contract to the
City of York Council, since the late 1990s. In June 2016, the park and ride contract was put up for tender. However, as none of the bids met the council's criteria, First York was granted a twelve-month extension, until January 2018, with the intention of commencing a fresh tender process. In January 2018, First York was awarded a further seven-year contract to operate the park and ride network. In June 1990, the first permanent
park and ride site opened at Askham Bar. Four years later, a second site was opened at Grimston Bar, near a junction with the
A64. June 1995 saw the contract for the York Park and Ride pass from Stephensons of Easingwold to
Rider York, then a subsidiary of
Yorkshire Rider, after beating interest from
York Pullman. With the operator gaining a five-year contract for the service, 20 new
Wright Axcess-Ultralow bodied
Scania L113CRLs, most branded in a designated blue livery and some being in White Flagship livery, each equipped with luggage ramps supplied from
Marks & Spencer, were delivered for use on the network by the end of the year. Further deliveries of Ultralow-bodied Scanias for the service followed in 1996 and 1997. In November 1998, the
York Designer Outlet was opened, with a park and ride service commencing shortly after. In February 2000, a 900-space site at Rawcliffe Bar commenced operation, located a junction to the
A19. In July 2004, a site was opened at Monks Cross. In 2014. services were extended to serve the nearby Vangarde Shopping Park, with fully-electric single-deck
Optare Versa vehicles introduced into service the following year. In July 2008, a fleet of 17
Wright Eclipse Urban bodied
Volvo B7RLE single-deck vehicles were introduced, with 25 articulated
Mercedes-Benz Citaro arriving the following year. The delivery saw the replacement of
Wright Eclipse Metro bodied
Volvo B7Ls and articulated
Wright Eclipse Fusion bodied Volvo B7LA single-deck vehicles formerly allocated to the network, which were introduced at the turn of the decade. In June 2014, the site at Askham Bar was expanded and relocated to a new 1,100-space site – as part of a £22 million project. In the same month, a new site was opened at Poppleton Bar, with services operated by a fleet of fully-electric Optare Versas. Following an order in May 2019, a fleet of 21 fully-electric
Optare MetroDecker double-deck vehicles were introduced into service on the park and ride network in July 2020. The Poppleton Bar park and ride site closed in March 2020 due to the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic, with the site being used by
Public Health England from April as a temporary mass testing centre throughout the pandemic. After the testing centre was closed in the summer of 2022, a bus driver shortage and a delay in funding forced the reopening of the Poppleton Bar park and ride site to be delayed until 1 April 2023. The reopening of the site was part of the City of York Council's Bus Service Improvement Plan, which was funded by a £17.36 million grant from the
Department for Transport. == Services ==