South Yorkshire Bus Service Needs Improvement

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38 minutes ago, Andy C said:

That's understandable for the short period when City Centre businesses couldn't open without social distancing arrangements being put in place, but a year has now passed and nothing has changed!

The 'emergency' funds that were available last year were available immediately. 

 

the follow-up stuff is coming from a different fund (TCF), that was only made available ... earlier this year (?) - and has to go through a more complicated (standard) application and approval process.

 

(i think the applications are now in, and waiting for approval .. ?)

 

hence the gap.

[BigAl1]

All too often with government funding the requirement to spend it now trumps the need to spend it wisely.

 

 

[Resident]

"South Yorkshire MP Alexander Stafford calls for new body to run 'abysmal' buses"

LINK  (Facebook)

Willing to bet that Mr Stafford would end up on any commitee/board set up to run this proposed new body...

Some of the comments are absolutely hilarious.

Bleating about how expensive buses are now (they are not, some of the cheapest in the country by a long shot), moaning that they can no longer get across the county all day for '34p'.

We have a body that is meant to do everything he wants, South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. They're useless & don't do anything. Much of their charge has been sold off to private contractors

 

Operation & maintainence of bus stations - BidVest Noonan 
Bus Stops & Shelters - Alight Media

Affordable fares - TravelMaster tickets are fairly cheap

[Guest busdriver1]

4 hours ago, Resident said:

"South Yorkshire MP Alexander Stafford calls for new body to run 'abysmal' buses"

LINK  (Facebook)

Willing to bet that Mr Stafford would end up on any commitee/board set up to run this proposed new body...

Some of the comments are absolutely hilarious.

Bleating about how expensive buses are now (they are not, some of the cheapest in the country by a long shot), moaning that they can no longer get across the county all day for '34p'.

We have a body that is meant to do everything he wants, South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. They're useless & don't do anything. Much of their charge has been sold off to private contractors

 

Operation & maintainence of bus stations - BidVest Noonan 
Bus Stops & Shelters - Alight Media

Affordable fares - TravelMaster tickets are fairly cheap

Sorry but what planet are you on? Sheffielders want brand new buses, every 3 minutes with polite staff that will not object to being insulted and abused and a maximum 10p fare. AND a bus to every stop in the county from their front door. Everything else is just profiteering and needs stamping out

[Resident]

1 hour ago, busdriver1 said:

Sorry but what planet are you on? Sheffielders want brand new buses, every 3 minutes with polite staff that will not object to being insulted and abused and a maximum 10p fare. AND a bus to every stop in the county from their front door. Everything else is just profiteering and needs stamping out

Very firmly on the same page as you, even as a regular bus user.

[Martin C]

5 hours ago, Resident said:

Very firmly on the same page as you, even as a regular bus user.

Seconded!

[The Joker]

10 hours ago, busdriver1 said:

Sorry but what planet are you on? Sheffielders want brand new buses, every 3 minutes with polite staff that will not object to being insulted and abused and a maximum 10p fare. AND a bus to every stop in the county from their front door. Everything else is just profiteering and needs stamping out

Perhaps we deserve it, having suffered many years of poor service including late / delayed / missing services that we’ve been paying through the nose for*
 

*Disclaimer: 

The situation may have improved since I last took the bus 10 years ago.

[Guest busdriver1]

2 hours ago, The Joker said:

Perhaps we deserve it, having suffered many years of poor service including late / delayed / missing services that we’ve been paying through the nose for*
 

*Disclaimer: 

The situation may have improved since I last took the bus 10 years ago.

Sheffield has some of the lowest fares in the country so hardly paying through the nose for them. As for the delays etc, talk to SCC who have on more than one occasion entered into agreements to ease the traffic problems for bus operators and on exactly the same number of occasions failed, and in some cases made things worse. Given the way staff are treated and the companies are treated I would say you have a better service than you deserve. i.e. you have a service at all.  

From the initial de-regulatioon of buses in 1986 SCC and SYPTE have made it their goal to make the bus system less than useless in order to further their political aims of having control again despite them making a hash of it last time.

[Andy C]

Covid related staff shortages and strikes aside the service isn't really that bad but there are areas that need improving.

 

Sheffield people are notoriously tight which may explain the small number of fancy bars and designer clothes shops in town and the bus ticket prices reflect that. The most expensive single fares within Sheffield are between £2.50 and £3.20 - less than a Costa Coffee with regular travellers able to save on that with good value weekly and monthly unlimited travel passes available, including the range from Travelmaster that work on all bus operators with tram and train options also available. A 28 day CityWide bus & tram pass costs £65.60, that works out at £2.34 per day and this can be purchased online and loaded to a smart card. Prices of tickets last changed in January 2020 and have been frozen in price throughout the pandemic.

 

Our local authorities work in partnership with the operators to provide impartial travel information via travelsouthyorkshire.com where you can download timetables and route maps for all services in Sheffield. They also provide timetable information at bus stops and supply real time open data to third party developers that operate useful websites and apps such as bustimes.org.

 

Buses are mostly modern, low emission and well turned out. First have been putting their buses through refurbishment and repaint, the newer Stagecoach buses have features such as comfy faux leather seats, USB phone charging sockets and next stop announcements.

 

The main routes run fairly frequently in the daytime and there are very few areas of the city with no bus or tram service close by.

 

So what needs to improve?

 

Punctuality, reliability and journey times - the issue is generally traffic congestion. This is something that council needs to invest in rather than operators with improvements to bus priority measures and better enforcement of existing measures. The council have attempted to make a start on this issue by proposing the bus lanes on Abbeydale Road and Ecclesall Road have extended hours, however there has been quite vocal opposition!

 

Evening services and missing links - these are often buses that fall into the category of not being financially viable but nethertheless important to the social and economic  needs of the communities they serve. Such services are ones local authorities would normally provide a subsidy for and put out to tender. Over recent years these have been the victim of public sector budget cuts.

 

Bus stops - the local authority is responsible for bus stops. The best ones have a well lit shelter, seat, timetable information poster and electronic real time departure boards. The worst are just a flag on a lamp post. Those passengers that previously boarded buses by the Peace Gardens that the council have now banished to temporary stops on Arundel Gate or Rockingham Street will know all about this...

[Resident]

7 minutes ago, Andy C said:

So what needs to improve?

 

Punctuality, reliability and journey times - the issue is generally traffic congestion. This is something that council needs to invest in rather than operators with improvements to bus priority measures and better enforcement of existing measures. The council have attempted to make a start on this issue by proposing the bus lanes on Abbeydale Road and Ecclesall Road have extended hours, however there has been quite vocal opposition!

 

Evening services and missing links - these are often buses that fall into the category of not being financially viable but nethertheless important to the social and economic  needs of the communities they serve. Such services are ones local authorities would normally provide a subsidy for and put out to tender. Over recent years these have been the victim of public sector budget cuts.

 

Bus stops - the local authority is responsible for bus stops. The best ones have a well lit shelter, seat, timetable information poster and electronic real time departure boards. The worst are just a flag on a lamp post. Those passengers that previously boarded buses by the Peace Gardens that the council have now banished to temporary stops on Arundel Gate or Rockingham Street will know all about this...

Punctuality can also be improved by passengers by the simple act of actually being prepared to board the bus. Fare/passes out ready before they're stood by the driver's cab.  Far too many times I've been waiting at a bus stop and people have left it till they've stepped on the vehicle to then rummage around their pockets/handbags for their money or smartcard or in some cases opening the app on their phone then faffing purchasing the ticket via the app whilst the bus sits there losing time. 

Evening services are always going to lose money and as you say, Sheffielders are tighter than a duck bottom, so making money in the daytime to cover the loss isn't easy. I think most Sheffielders would have a cardiac arrest if they used a bus in some counties. For instance, I took a 30min journey in Cumbria and for a single it was over 7 quid. 

Bus Stops, well where do I start? There are a great number of sheltered stop that used to be lit but have been turned off. The only ones that seem to be lit these days are the ones that have the solar panel roofs but they only work if there's been enough daylight. 

IMO all bus stops should be lit, by mains, currently the only ones that are lit are the ones handed over to Alight Media for the ad boards. To save power they could employ something like a PIR sensor to activate the lights & displays. It'd also help drivers as an unlit stop would show that no-one is waiting. 

One thing I've never understood is the PTE's choice of colour, particularly when it's dark. Which fool chose midnight blue? It must be almost impossible for a driver to see a single pole in the dark at distance in that colour at night.

Surely a dayglo colour infused with some retroreflective material would be better?