A BUS company is to run a rival "Unibus" service for students in York despite losing a funding deal to another firm.

Transdev has announced its Unibus service is "here to stay", even though the firm has lost a university contract for the service, and is promising "the same friendly drivers and superb customer service."

First Bus announced in June that it had won a contract with the University of York, but with Transdev now pledging to keep its buses on the road students will have two different bus services to choose from.

First's new UoY66 service will run from Sunday, August 2, from the railway station, to the city centre, the university and York Sport Village via Lakeside Way. First will also run a free shuttle bus every 30 minutes, a late night clubbers’ bus, an early morning university to hospital service, and a new UoY56 service from the university to Kings Manor with a city-centre loop.

Transdev's York manager Adam Jones said his company felt it was important to keep offering choice on the busy university to city-centre route.

He said: "Unibus has been one of the biggest public transport success stories in York in recent memory, attracting more than double the amount of customer journeys in the past five years.

"There will be some changes to the route and timetable with us running to Heslington East Interchange instead of via Lakeside Way from August 2. However, we'll still offer a turn up and go timetable through term time, with us running right through vacation periods as normal too."

Transdev are also launching a £10 for 20 journeys "Unibus Tripper card", undercutting First's £17 for 20 journeys "Yorkey Card".

Meanwhile, a popular bus route that runs between Haxby and Acomb via the city centre has been given a stay of execution by a £28,000 injection of cash from the City of York Council.

First Bus had planned to stop the service - which the city council subsidised to the tune of £1000 a week - from the beginning of August, but a council transport boss has agreed to use £28,000 to keep communities along the route connected for the rest of the year.

The interim city and environment chief Sarah Tanburn approved the deal as the 13a is a relatively well used service, and the extension until the end of the year will give time for full review of bus services this autumn.