44 bus will be discontinued in December

Unibus announced earlier today that their 44 bus service that runs between the city centre and campus will be axed in December.

Transdev, who operate the service, held the official university contract through Unibus until last year. In June 2015, Transdev continued to run Unibus and “go it alone and without their financial support” when rival company First were awarded a new five year contract by the university.

Transdev were the first company in York to offer a 24 hour bus service 7 days a week, a feature now also boasted by the 66 bus service.

The two buses have been running along side each other for the past year but competition has evidently been too strong. Unibus is regularly rated higher than First by both staff and students offering free WiFi and USB charging ports. But sadly they lost the battle to the alternative bus along the same route.

Therefore, as of the 4th of December, the service will no longer operate between the university and city centre but will continue to run between Acomb and the centre.

YUSU President, Millie Beach, wrote in a Facebook post:

“I’d really like to thank Transdev for providing a great bus service to students over the years and for their really friendly, welcoming drivers. Having said that, this is a commercial decision and we must support them in that.

“I know a few of you have asked about what this means for the 66 and refunds on tripper cards etc. I’ll see what I can find out over the next week and get back to you.”