Tram Track Broken At Manor Top — No Trams To Halfway Or Herdings Park

[Irene Swaine]

21 minutes ago, busdriver1 said:

Some drivers will switch to an alternative if that alternative offers a useful and attractive alternative be it bus, tram, or train. Many areas where local government works with operators instead of empire building and creating vanity projects have seen this to be true.

Yes and drivers are more likely to switch to the bus if they can access it from reasonably close to home. 

 

 

[RollingJ]

4 minutes ago, Irene Swaine said:

Yet it has operated successfully for over 25 years. (1)

 

Sheffield Community Transport have a fleet of minibuses and work in partnership with Travel South Yorkshire. They are a not for profit organisation that specialises in providing links to isolated areas using....minibuses. They even provided local connecting services such as the 31 and S6 during the 2009 recession and beyond. Or guess what, the city clipper minibuses could be used for said services, instead of carrying fresh air around town. (2)

(1) You mean it has operated for 25 years, true. However, it is not that heavily used at most times, is not exactly a frequent service, and does not interwork with other services.

 

(2) I know who SCT are and what they do - will check their fleet size and staffing levels later, if I remember. The Sheffield Connect service is a SYCMA contracted service, run under contract by SPCT, using, ISTR, 4 vehicles.

[Irene Swaine]

1 minute ago, RollingJ said:

(1) You mean it has operated for 25 years, true. However, it is not that heavily used at most times, is not exactly a frequent service, and does not interwork with other services.

The service I got on from there on Thursday was quite busy upstairs and downstairs and I used to catch it 5 times a day when I worked in The Peak District and it always attracted a crowd.

[Irene Swaine]

3 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

know who SCT are and what they do - will check their fleet size and staffing levels later, if I remember. The Sheffield Connect service is a SYCMA contracted service, run under contract by SPCT, using, ISTR, 4 vehicles.

Yes, it's definitely not run on a profitable basis. Don't you think using these four buses to connect places such as Killamarsh white city estate with Halfway P+R and the Wisewood Estate with Middlewood P+R or Hillsborough Interchange would be a better use of these publicly funded resources?

[RollingJ]

8 minutes ago, Irene Swaine said:

Yes and drivers are more likely to switch to the bus if they can access it from reasonably close to home. 

 

 

And some places are somewhat inaccessible to a proper bus service. Just using a local example - the Green Oak/Aldam/Laverdene estates - which cover quite an area, combined, are totally unsuited to anything much bigger than a 12-seater minibus, and the nearest buses for any of them run down Baslow Road - which is quite a walk from them - up a fairly steep climb, and yet I don't hear many complaints - people understand that if they live there, they have to get to the main road. And yes, the 97/218 routes that serve the area are quite well used.

[RollingJ]

5 minutes ago, Irene Swaine said:

Yes, it's definitely not run on a profitable basis. Don't you think using these four buses to connect places such as Killamarsh white city estate with Halfway P+R and the Wisewood Estate with Middlewood P+R or Hillsborough Interchange would be a better use of these publicly funded resources?

Don't take this as me agreeing with you - I don't, but how often would those four vehicles be able to cover the routes - if you could persuade SYCMA to cancel Sheffield Connect, pay the compensation for breaking the contract, and then negotiate new contracts to cover your suggestion?

[Irene Swaine]

4 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

Don't take this as me agreeing with you - I don't, but how often would those four vehicles be able to cover the routes - if you could persuade SYCMA to cancel Sheffield Connect, pay the compensation for breaking the contract, and then negotiate new contracts to cover your suggestion?

Traffic permitting, half hourly on weekdays and Saturdays and hourly on Sundays. Wisewood to Middlewood is a short journey by road but a heck of a walk by foot, the same for Killamarsh. 

[Irene Swaine]

12 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

And some places are somewhat inaccessible to a proper bus service. Just using a local example - the Green Oak/Aldam/Laverdene estates - which cover quite an area, combined, are totally unsuited to anything much bigger than a 12-seater minibus, and the nearest buses for any of them run down Baslow Road - which is quite a walk from them - up a fairly steep climb, and yet I don't hear many complaints - people understand that if they live there, they have to get to the main road. And yes, the 97/218 routes that serve the area are quite well used.

There will always be streets that are simply a no go. But there could be other streets that back on to them that a bus service could use to save people leg work on the hills. And the 98 goes up the hill to King Ecgbert School anyway.

[SheffieldForum]

I believe The Tribune will be doing a story on the Sheffield Connect service - and public transport in Sheffield - later this week.

 

 

[Irene Swaine]

5 minutes ago, Irene Swaine said:

There will always be streets that are simply a no go. But there could be other streets that back on to them that a bus service could use to save people leg work on the hills. And the 98 goes up the hill to King Ecgbert School anyway.

Edit to add, Mickley Lane & Laverdene Avenue look suitable for a midi bus.