Thursday 13th November 2025
It’s not just Great British Railways (GBR) “coming soon”, so too is a “Gateway” scheme to improve access to York railway station. Whereas no-one is quite sure what the future GBR will look and feel like, anyone visiting York at the moment can’t fail to notice extensive works taking place to deliver a “transformed” travel experience.
York City Council has said the scheme “will transform the city, creating an attractive and welcoming entrance to the east of the station, complementing the planned new western entrance on to York Central. It will drive accessibility and transport benefits and provide a suitable setting for York’s iconic and nationally significant walls together with space and opportunity to encourage people to dwell and linger in what is a unique heritage asset.“
The scheme “will provide significantly improved access to the station for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users. Make it easier to change between different modes of transport. Create new public spaces and a more pedestrian friendly experience. As well as create an improved setting for the city walls and other heritage buildings in the area.”
The scheme is due for completion by the end of this year (ie in just seven weeks time), but when I passed by recently it looked to me as though there’s still quite a bit of work to do.
The upside of the scheme is greatly improved public realm immediately outside the front of the station created by moving the taxi rank and drop off areas to the south of the station instead of under the covered station canopy. It will also see an end to the chaotic traffic arrangements to access and exit from the taxi rank and the drop off area to the north of the station entrance/exit.
The downside is bus passengers no longer find their bus stops immediately outside and opposite the station entrance with new bus stops being located to the south.
One major change has been the demolition of the Queen Street bridge (over long lifted railway tracks to the original York station site) which brought traffic to the front of the station with Google showing as it was just before it came down in 2023…
… and with demolition work underway in 2024.
Google’s satellite image captures the soon-to-end-arrangements of the drop off and pick up arrangement to the north of the station and where the bus stops and taxi rank used to be located.
It’s not ideal for bus stops to be moved further away but on balance it seems the right thing to do. Indeed, during my recent visit there were the usual chaotic scenes of taxis and others trying to access the drop off point and causing gridlock in Station Road and Queens Road causing significant delays for all traffic including buses in both directions…
…as motorists just sat motionless with their indicator on to turn into the station but nothing was moving under the canopy.
There are four bus stops on either side of Queen Street in the new arrangement…
…and York City Council has produced an updated map showing their new locations.
Feedback from the consultation about the project in 2024 led the Council to increase the passenger capacity of the shelters. They’re Etesian Green shelters which look good in the brochure…
… but when installed look rather exposed especially if there’s an easterly wind blowing at the same time as a heavy downpour of rain.
I’m not sure they’d offer much protection.
I visited on a sunny Saturday afternoon last month when rail replacement coaches were operating due to engineering works on the East Coast Main Line. These were departing from the first stop RD (closest to the station) and as you can see were causing quite a blockage on the pavement…
… although it was difficult to work out whether the temporary barriers were impacting the available space.
Stop RD is used by a hotch potch of services, which on the face of it, seems odd to allocate to the nearest stop to the station entrance/exit.
I’m looking forward to seeing the completed scheme in a few weeks (or will it be months?) and enjoying the new chilled out calmer entrance and exit arrangements immediately outside the station…
…although I’ll miss wandering outside and jumping straight on to a bus.
But will it be worth the cost? The original 2021 budget for the project was £26.5 million but with rising “construction costs, inflation and market volatility” this has inevitably proved inadequate being increased to £36.2 million in January this year. However, in July the City Council’s Executive Committee agreed to add a further £18.5 million to the scheme making for a new total of £54.7 million with £14.5 million funds diverted to help with the shortfall from another major scheme that’s in financial trouble – dualling the Outer Ring Road, which has gone from an original £67.4 million budget to £164 million (that’s not a typo) resulting in a £100 million funding shortfall. That work has consequently now being stalled or to use York City Council’s technical term: “phased”.
As well as that diverted money, £2.8 million of Bus Service Improvement Plan funding is being “reprofiled from delivering radial route bus priority into delivering York Station Gateway” including a new loop road “to enable bus services arriving at York City Centre to turn at the Railway Station, removing the need for circuitous bus routing” to turn round.
Most of the funding has come from the West Yorkshire Transport Fund, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transforming Cities Fund, the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority and £0.5 million from LNER.
A final phase of the project due for completion in 2029 includes a new mutli-storey car park the cost of which is being borne by Network Rail (or even GBR, as that’s “coming soon”).
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
I agree with your comments on the bus shelters – Yorkshire weather can be quite windy. One can’t help feeing that if it was a tram stop, something larger and more protected would have appeared.
It seems a bit strange that when a station gets well-used, the planners’ first thought is ‘create more space – make people walk further’ – rather than ‘put on more buses and get people away from the station quicker’.
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In some places the walk is designed to get people to be active or pass shops that might encouraged to do some local shopping
JBC Prestatyn
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This matter of bus shelters giving proper enough protection from the elements Roger is quite a national, bonkers! , wide mass swathe of mindless folk who have put them up or designed them in the first place without that bit if good sense and care
In this case they do far better than a sad mass of thousands (!!) all over the land that eg simply protect on the road side though that side is northeast which is bar far far far the less wet windy side. This weekend looks like it will be a bad day for west protection facing shelters as these will be though with a rare easterly and driving chill rain in southern parts of England and Wales.
Do we need officers nationally on every Council , who whenever, — ones given this firm duty to make sure –, that all new bus shelters which go in and are one sided, go on to protect from the prevailing wind direction.
Some bus shelters used to be of an arch style. ! Maybe they didn’t look trendy and smart enough! But they did the job better for us the buses users !?
Many thanks for the Post Roger .
PS did they really need not to have the bus stops directly outside? I wonder ? I think there should be a national imperative that every Station does this in their designs unless they really cannot .
Weary travellers need to be encouraged by simply: out the front door and there!!! : the buses, to one’s home or hotel in the case of many visitors to York
David (M)
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One problem with having a more enclosed style of bus shelter is that most of these stops are used by several routes, so people queueing aren’t all going to be waiting for the same bus. The more enclosed the shelter is, the more difficult it will be for some people to see when their bus is coming and get out to it. I agree that the shelters do look pretty ineffective, but there will be competing factors to take into account and it isn’t just about keeping costs down.
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In addition to the visibility issue there are personal safety perceptions to consider. If you watch how people use enclosed bus shelters in busy city/ town centres you will see the reluctance people have to place themselves in such a constrained public space – even when it’s raining.
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My one and only visit to York was rather unsatisfactory despite this being done on the cheap: L-Plated Honda CD175 – a holiday jaunt by motorcycle from home in Surrey. I found it difficult finding a parking space near the NRM and as I am not a steam-buff I found my visit rather disappointing. For me its only star attraction is the Class 77 Woodhead Route electric. They haunted me off the pages of my Ian Allan books despite me living in Surrey. Ugly yet awesomely powerful – double headed and double banked with a westbound mineral bound for Fiddlers Ferry. I probably stayed only a short time worried about where I had parked “Romeo” (UGF666R). As to “Romeo” later during my visit to York. After visiting the Minster I became totally disoriented within the city centre’s historic narrow streets. Had I not remembered “WHIP MA WHOP MA GATE”, its parking space, and been able to ask passers by I might still be looking for it!
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the only issue for me as a person with mobility issues is the longer walk to the stops , I also think ( probably for the same reason ) it would be good to have a crossing between the bus stops some people change buses at this stop and to walk down to the existing crossing and back to the stops on the other side is not good when walking is difficult .
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If you were wanting the shops, you’d not be getting off at York station!!!
The bus shelter design is a disappointment but they are virtually identical to the shelters that were previously across the road (aside from the heritage one). Otherwise, the relocation makes a lot of sense as it was bedlam before. So whilst the “weary travellers” have a few more steps to take, it’s not as if they’ve been moved to some obscure spot 200m away.
I’m wondering how many of those commenting are familiar with York station – the old layout was far from ideal and it was a scrum to get through the various cars/taxis and bus passengers to get to the other side of the road.
BW2
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I’m reminded of some Swiss stations where the bus stops are not just outside the station but actually accessible directly from the platforms.
Jim Davies
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Jim, this example of Schaffhausen springs to mind. The Bahnhof is the focal point of the city bus network (not the shops), plus there’s an adjoining bus station for regional postboxes. Incidentally Schaffhausen only has a population of 37k (in 2022) compared to York with 141k. Yet it has a municipal bus network and quality facilities like this!
Peter Brown
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Investment in this public realm is to be applauded but…
as already mentioned, the bus shelters will not protect from the elements (and bear in mind that some of the longer bus services only operate hourly (or less frequently);
and the public transport user will continue to be disadvanted by private cars not only passing on the road, but heading for the soon-to-be-built multi storey car park.
Several missed opportunities here, alas.
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The area was certainly long overdue for a remodel, and most of it has been well thought through. I agree it seems daft putting the sightseeing services etc nearest to the station, and I can’t see where the new loop road “to enable bus services… to turn at the Railway Station” is (are – from both directions?). And will there be enough room for East Yorkshire’s services to await custom for quite a long time as they do at present.
As an aside, “Gateway” seems to be the word of choice where a station is concerned. Equivalent to “hub” for bus-only sites.
JOhn
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I cant believe it will take until 2029 for the multi storey to be finished,it closed in Febuary and nothing seems to be done
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Interesting to see the costs quoted for the local road schemes (plus the cost escalations). Railway projects always seem to have scarily high costs, but many do not realise that what appear to be very local and marginal road schemes can frighten the horses in terms of costs too.
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I wish that I could share your enthusiasm for this, Roger, but I can’t.
As a fairly frequent bus/train swapper here, I can only see life being much grimmer than it was before the project started.
As you say, the stops are much further from the station, and the shelters not worthy of the name. The traffic calming will be negated when Network Rail/LNER’s new multi storey car park opens in 2029 with its doubling of present capacity, but using the same access road at the south end of the station. The station will end up with just 9 bus stops, leaving no resilience for growth or for any extended, Swiss styled, timetabled pauses to facilitate connectivity.
It’s interesting but sad to compare this project with Hull City Council’s approach to integration with their Hull Paragon Station Interchange. This adjoins the station, has an all-undercover and traffic-free approach from it and sports 38 bus and four coach boarding points.
However did Network Rail, LNER and the City Council get York’s version so wrong?
Eden Blyth.
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While a central bus station for York is talked about a lot, it isn’t an easy fix. The first question is, where would you put it? Without losing all the car parking at the front, or at least pushing the multistorey car park even higher, which would detract from the area considerably, there’s just no space for it at the front of the station. Alternatively, if it’s round the back and accessed from Leeman Road/Cinder Street then you’ll need to find a few million pounds to fund the extra buses needed to extend the routes out there, plus another goodness knows how much to lower Leeman Road to allow double deckers under the railway bridge.
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No, it isn’t an easy fix, but there were possibilities. A half-sized multi storey would have allowed space next to it, keeping the current car parking provision. It might have even been possible, if the NR/LNER will and English Heritage Listed Building Consent was there, to reopen the arches in the station wall running behind the proposed taxi rank, reposition that, and convert it into the bus/passenger concours interface for a row of herringbone bus stands running out from the wall. This would have given 15 or 20 bays, but would have needed the road outside the station to be much further towards the city wall than that settled on. We seem, infortunately, to be now stuck with what we’ve got; a 1970s style inner city car parking led scheme that will not age well.
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There are good reasons why there is no bus station in York. Even if space could be found, the rail station is at the opposite side of the river to the shops and tourist attractions (NRM excepted). Finding space adjacent to the historic centre would be difficult and land values are high. Much of the local network operates through the city centre and P&R services do various city centre loops. A Hull type interchange wouldn’t work for York.
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This is a massive missed opportunity to create a York Interchange. To the left of the station buildings, where the open bit if the car park is. Enough room for nose in bays for terminating (like the X45/6/7) or waiting services (like Coastliner 840/3). Through services like 12/13 stay on the street. Direct access to the platforms. Get all ither services terminating in there (eg 18s and 415s) and you get a world class interchange, like Hull has. I can’t beliebe they’ve messed it up this badly.
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If you’re going to have nose-in bays then you need to have enough spaces for buses to fully reverse out within the confines of restricted access, and I’m not convinced there’s space for that.
Plus, how do you get Arriva to run the 415 to the station when it would require them to add at least one, probably two, extra buses into the cycle, significantly increasing the cost of running the service? I’m sure you wouldn’t see a concomitant increase in ridership from having the service extended to the station. Transdev would probably be OK to extend their buses from the north because they’re turning at Station Avenue anyway, but even then it could be touch and go whether the extra time can be accommodated.
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I was peripherally involved in the response from my bus company and had exposure to some of the others. There was generally a positive view (including from Arriva) to the idea from all the bus companies and if some services were on the street, there is enough room on that site – in fact, there were 4 (if I recall) possible arrangements that worked put forward.
The real problem was bus layby facilities, but even then, there were options.
In fact, there was only one option that was universally opposed by the bus companies. Just have a wild stab in the dark about which one is being built……
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I so agree with you about the Paragon Interchange. I would be surprised to find anything better anywhere! Well worth a visit for anyone here who hasn’t seen it!
Brian Musgrave.
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You took the same words out of my mouth Eden! The multi-story car park will eventually ruin any short term advantages, and indeed, as it has been known to rain sometimes in York, moving bus stops some distance down the road with “shelters” that don’t seem to shelter much, the bus passenger is certainly disadvantaged.
Why the obsession these days with “pedestrian realms”? High streets all over the UK are now such, and many dare not walk them after dark. Here, the area which could hold two bus lanes, most of which are electric, would have been far better than a large open space which serves nothing. Do they think people are going to stand admiring the daffodils on the bank opposite for four weeks a year?
Terence Uden
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Surely the Paragon interchange (I’ve never been there) was facilitated by the railway station having so much redundant space after branch lines in the area closed. Also trains have a much shorter turnround time today. York probably gained fewer of these benefits, and it’s a through station so there can be end-of-platform concourse.
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Despite the stops being further away, there is lots more room available with the stops spread further out
The previous set up as chaos with city buses, long distance buses and buses waiting for time all getting in each others way, often blocking each other in. There may have been different stops but because buses would all turn up at once, they’d stop wherever they could. The cars queuing around the tiny drop off area then blocked everyone in stopping buses from leaving.
It’s also worth noting that the undercover part currently used for taxis will become an extension to the concourse as per Newcastle and Nottingham
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My old local bus stop was a traditional design facing away from the fast 50mph limit 3 lane road. It’s road facing replacement means in the rain you get soaked under the shelter from spray and splashing, so waiting passengers now stand away from the shelter in the open in the rain as you get less wet.
The council have also “ improved “ the public realm at the railway stations two entrances by drastically reducing drop off and pick up parking, so when London trains are due there is gridlock .
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It does appear to be a general improvement taking into account the constraints of the site. The team behind it will have likely done their best with the resources they have. Of course, they didn’t think to ask Roger for his input!
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I observe that the closest bus stop to the station entrance accommodates the services most likely to be used by visitors, who are the people least likely to grasp the nuances of the local bus system. So while unintutive operationally, I think it speaks to a certain customer need.
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all that money spent and it’s going to be prettier but not more efficient. Further to walk to get on a bus and a,few trees!
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Really interesting Roger as we were in York in August. Schaffhausen indeed is representative of so many Continental stations where the buses stop immediately outside. But the geography is historic and must be very difficult to improve. In Schaffhausen the road outside has been the same for ever, with both trams and trolleybuses in the 1960s. The Postbus station used to be further away, across the tracks. Malcolm Chase, Fleet
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As with the works currently in progress at Leeds station, this scheme will significantly expand and enhance the pedestrian space “public realm” immediately outside the station and will improve first impressions for the visitor. But it pushes buses and taxis further away from the station and weakens to principle to interchange. Transfer from the station onto taxis and northbound buses could previously be done under cover – not now. What irks me with this is that funding intending to improve transport and mobility is diverted to “place making” .
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As ever, the car is king. Restricting car access to the station to be only to/from the south and with suitable restrictions elsewhere, would allow Station Road to be a proper bus station for both through and terminating services. In the 60s I used to go from Tadcaster to Stillington and beyond right through the centre and could probably do so now, which is ridiculous.
Garry Brown
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Has anyone actually thought the shelters are designed to STOP homeless people and brainless good for nothings sleeping/waiting in them? Most people can track their bus so should be waiting somewhere indoors nearby (York Station, it’s pubs, Sainsbury’s local etc) and only need to come out about 5 minutes before it’s due.
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I am not sure why York needs a large car park , I can only assume it is for people who leave early or arrive late at times when local buses are not running or for people staying a week in hotels. Maybe better research where car park users are coming from and see if bus services can be amended or provided. This might mean a need to employ more drivers and maybe invest in more buses which wont have a cheap ongoing financial cost. I think when I have used buses in York it has tended to be from the stops somewhere near what I think of a cinema near one of the city gates , but the whole city is pretty walkable with no severe hills and I recall large numbers of buses turning on roads by the Jorvik experience and the Minster which seemed well used. Using a Park and Ride seems the most logical for the day visitor
JBC Prestatyn
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York acts as a railhead for a large swathe of North Yorkshire and even the East Riding that has no rail service. Accessing the train other than by car is unfortunately impractical for many people living in these areas.
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While you visited York, did you notice the very misleading £1.50 “tap on tap off” vinyls on First York buses?
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No; I forgot to look at that.
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This is good news, the area directly outside York station has been looking run down for a long time, it was far too cluttered as it was, so needed change.
I’m not convinced moving the bus stops a few meters away from the entrance is the end of the world either.
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