Bus firm fined for poor service

Yorkshire Tiger Limited consistently operated at a level significantly below the expected standards set by the industry regulator.

Deputy Traffic Commissioner Anthony Seculer concluded that the vast majority of disturbances had been foreseeable and said it was appropriate to mark the company’s failure to meet the needs of the travelling public by imposing a financial penalty.

His decision follows a public inquiry into the firm’s bus services during which the Deputy Commissioner heard evidence from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in relation to Yorkshire Tiger’s operations.

Bus operators who run registered local services are expected to operate 95 per cent of routes within a window of tolerance of up to one minute early and five minutes late.

Evidence presented to the inquiry revealed that during a three day monitoring exercise, 35 per cent of services were found to be non compliant (two early and five late out of 20 observations), the overall punctuality rate between September and December 2014 was 80 per cent and in 2015, seven days of bus monitoring revealed an overall non compliance rate of 20 per cent (10 failed to operate, 18 were early, 63 were late out of 432 observations).

The Deputy Commissioner concluded that the operator had responded promptly to requests for explanations and assurances but that the measures taken to date had not achieved the promised or desired improvements.