being one of the long suffering commuters of the dreaded 201 rural links service between sheffield -stocksbridge -meadowhall.
I now find that a poster on the buses states that after a certain date ,most 201 services will be either 10 minutes early or 10 minutes late.
the date was september .- already gone i think.
but yet none of the bus stop timetables have been altered,
and ive just been on the s.y.p.t.e rural links website and it still states the old times from july 26th.
what is puzzling me and many others, is that the bus times have obviously altered as they no longer arrive at the usual times.

(mind you not that this is anything unusual for a service that
sometimes turns up 45 mins late.)

But my point is how do we know if the bus is going to be 10 mins late or 10 mins early.
are we to be mind readers.
if theres anyone who visits this forum who works for s.y.p.t.e
could you please enlighten me.

Actually we're still in September and will be till the end of next week :D

yes but what i mean is i think the date mentioned on the poster
has already gone.
unless you know different.
then if so please enlighten me about the subject in hand instead of being a clever cloggs.

does anyone know anything about these service changes.

HI THERE....

Below is a transcript of a press release ran in our paper some weeks ago on the 201 service.

It details the offical timetable changes...

Hope it helps....

(Ed)

TIMETABLE changes to service 201 North Sheffield Link are being introduced from 19th September.

The First South Yorkshire service will now operate approximately 10 minutes earlier from Sheffield Interchange to Meadowhall via Hillsborough, Stocksbridge and Chapeltown, and 10 minutes later from Meadowhall to Sheffield Interchange via Chapeltown, Stocksbridge and Hillsborough.

Service 201, which runs from Sheffield Interchange to Meadowhall, provides links to employment opportunities, along with health, shopping and leisure facilities. It is an hourly service which runs Monday to Saturday.

The 201 North Sheffield Link is funded from the Government's Rural Bus Challenge Competition with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund through the South Yorkshire Objective 1 programme.

For further information please see the new timetables available from your local Travel Information Centre or call Traveline on 01709 51 51 51 or visit www.rurallinks.co.uk.

thank you for explaining.

but the rural services website still havent put new timetables on.
anyway thanks.
my son will be pleased to know too as he has to go to work on that bus and relies on it.

It's on the Transport Executive website. Select find out more then choose timetable changes from the drop down menu.

The new pocket guide for the 201 is available at PTE travel shops when I went in 25/9/03 to renew my travelmaster ticket.

congratulations 201,
today 25 mins late, yesterday 7 mins early and wednesday didnt turn up at all.
the new timetable isnt even remotely followed.
at this rate my son is going to lose his job.
complained on website many times but never even got a reply.

And they wonder why people are reluctant to give up their cars

the 201 seems to go from bad to worse, it would seem that after 6 is going to be with drawn and a change in bus company.
What is happening!
Can we get back our lost service!
Any throughts on how to make it happen!
:(

Just for information about the 201 service ... this is a non commercial service, so the PTE has to find the best value it can when it sends out an invite for tender. The New contract starting 1st Aug 2005 has been won by Yorkshire Terrier.
I guess the loss of the two late evening journeys is lack of use.
Details of the current awarded contract are not yet released for public viewing however looking at the PTE website details of the contract which finishes today are available.
The contract for the period 28/7/02 to 30/7/05 received 3 bids and was won by First SY after a retender with the PTE suppling the bus and First accepting a Minimum cost Basis tender of £156,000 per year income from the PTE. In more simple terms this means First has to take some risk as well ( Not much if The PTE supplies the BUS!)