Bus Timetable Changes 3 September 2023

[Irene Swaine]

20 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Have a gold star - you know your 2x tables.

Wow you were professing to dislike "unpleasantness" on another thread, pot...kettle.

[RollingJ]

Just now, Irene Swaine said:

Wow you were professing to dislike "unpleasantness" on another thread, pot...kettle.

That's 'unpleasant'? - you really must have a thin skin.

[YorkieontheTyne]

14 hours ago, Irene Swaine said:

7 hours ago, RollingJ said:

That's 'unpleasant'? - you really must have a thin skin.

Thin? I must disagree with you there RollingJ. Irene’s skin is as thick as it comes. I’m the one who “claims to be a bus driver” who retired to the north east that got mentioned earlier in her waffle.

Back in the 80’s we used to run the X48 Sheffield - Manchester. It did nowt passenger wise, not even those with so called business diplomas.

 

[RollingJ]

58 minutes ago, YorkieontheTyne said:

 

@YorkieontheTyne- I know what you mean - and I remember the X48 dead bus, too.

[HeHasRisen]

I dont even think National Express run direct services between Sheffield and Manchester, so that says it all really.

Edited August 25, 2023 by HeHasRisen

[RollingJ]

1 minute ago, HeHasRisen said:

I dont even think National Express run direct services between Sheffield and Manchester, so that says it all really.

They don't.

[Andy C]

None of the coach companies - National Express, Megabus or Flixbus - operate direct Sheffield to Manchester services (there may still be some via Leeds). NX used to do a few trips a day that called at Stocksbridge but that never returned after Covid. I guess the route doesn't fit with the budget model of following motorways and also probably cannot compete with the train - the faster trains can get you to Manchester in under an hour, they run half hourly from early until late and there are quite reasonably priced tickets available if you book in advance.

 

As for the Hulleys X57, it catered for a variety of markets - Sheffield to Ladybower/Derwent, which the 257 still provides, Glossop-Manchester and Sheffield-Glossop/Manchester. Passenger numbers were variable, but the comments from Hulleys suggested the biggest thing that killed the route was the Snake Pass regularly getting closed, often without warning. They had buses getting to Yorkshire Bridge to find the road closed or buses diverted via Woodhead running non-stop Sheffield-Glossop bypassing most of the passengers!

 

After the X57 ended Hulleys used that resource to make improvements to their service 257, which now provides an hourly service Sheffield-Broomhill-Crosspool-Yorkshire Bridge-Bamford then on to Bakewell Monday to Saturday whilst on Sundays it runs Sheffield-Yorkshire Bridge-Fairholmes all year round with extensions in the summer, currently to Glossop and Castleton (part of this is under contract to Derbyshire County Council). September sees further improvement to the 257 with the introduction of an evening service Monday to Saturday.

 

Most of the other September changes seem to fall into one of three categories

- School bus contracts commencing for the new school year

- Extra journey time added to allow for increased traffic congestion when the schools return (however no extra resource available to add so the frequency has to reduce as a consequence)

- changes to the evening services (some of which are actually improvements to the times of the last buses!)

 

The new PDF timetables produced by SYMCA are on the Travel South Yorkshire website https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-gb/newsupdates/service-changes

The new timetable data is also now loaded into the bustimes.org website - https://bustimes.org/districts/263

Edited August 25, 2023 by Andy C

[Annie Bynnol]

   I think we should applaud Hulley and Derbyshire for their efforts. I used to catch the X57 on a monthly basis until it ended in its different forms. The busiest section was usually between Glossop and Manchester-which  appealed to the pensioners. 

[Andy C]

In other news, whilst Bradway (and some other areas) still have no buses at all in the evening, I've noticed that on weekdays Totley gains a bus just after midnight on weekdays and Lowedges gains a later last 76 on Saturdays, although this appears to be at the expense of Jordanthorpe which sees the last 75 run at an earlier time.

 

The more interesting changes are of course to come in October - beginning of October sees changes to more of the Derbyshire County Council tendered services whilst the end of October sees the new contracts for evening/Sunday services tendered by South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) come into force, this is expected to be cuts.

[Irene Swaine]

27 minutes ago, Annie Bynnol said:

   I think we should applaud Hulley and Derbyshire for their efforts. I used to catch the X57 on a monthly basis until it ended in its different forms. The busiest section was usually between Glossop and Manchester-which  appealed to the pensioners. 

Hulley's & Derbyshire Council have done great work. I always find Hulley's drivers to be very professional and have good customer service skills too. 

 

Derbyshire CC puts the SYMCA to shame.