Andy C

According to the announcement three key points worsening traffic congestion that the council isn't addressing with adequate bus priority measures has significantly increased costs - more vehicles, fuel and drivers are required to provide the same level of service prices were unsustainably cheap weekly and 28 day tickets bought in advance have been subject to smaller increases than those bought on board Not to mention the impact of Covid and resulting lack of income of course.. NEW PRICES: CityBus - any bus in Sheffield 1 day £4.90 7 day £17.10 advance / £18.40 on board 28 day £64.10 CityWide - any bus or tram in Sheffield 1 day £5.40 7 day £18.40 advance / £19.40 on board 28 day £69.00 SY Connect - any bus or tram (including TramTrain) in South Yorkshire 1 day £7.40 7 day £24.70 advance / £27.30 on board 28 day £92.60 SY Connect+ - any bus, train or tram in South Yorkshire 1 day £9.20 7 day £32.10 28 day £120.40 Coming soon - Flexi5 buy 5 day tickets for the price of 4 to be used in a 28 day period - perfect money saver for part time commuters. will be available on CityBus, CityWide and SY Connect. Individual operator tickets these all remain frozen at 2020 prices until government emergency covid support funding ends.

LIVE BUS TRACKING Hulleys of Baslow have now joined Stagecoach, First and TM Travel in showing their buses tracking real time on the map at bustimes.org. Here is a link to the map set on Sheffield https://bustimes.org/map#13/53.381/-1.47

The new timetable is now in operation with a last bus back from Manchester at midnight Friday and Saturday and daytime buses running through to the airport. http://www.hulleys-of-baslow.co.uk/blank-page2616660d#SnakeX57 Live bus tracking is also now available at bustimes.org.

Whilst it is true the old 31 bus did suffer disruption from inconsiderately parked cars now and again, the reason it was withdrawn was the service wasn't financially viable and due to government austerity policies inflicting budget cuts on SYPTE there was no funding available to support it. Changes to existing services 52a, 61, 62 and 135 were able to cover some bits of the route but unfortunately it did still leave some parts of the old route without a bus, although there are alternatives a short walk away. Question is for the wider discussion, the funding that is available to support buses, including any extra money found, what is the priority. For example talk of using taxpayers money to pay for a free bus shuttling around the City Centre - is that need more important than a community bus service in Walkley?

All public transport in the UK, be that bus, train or tram, is currently operating under emergency Covid funding from the government to agreed service levels. In Sheffield South Yorkshire PTE are administrating the funding and service agreement. Whilst Supertram are not operating due to track renewal work they have taken the view it cannot be justified using public money to provide more buses than the services 7, 8, 52, 57, 58, 81, 82, 86 and 135 they are already providing to Hillsborough, Malin Bridge and towards Middlewood/Stocksbridge. These services operated by Stagecoach Yorkshire and First bus will be accepting tram tickets. Passengers on Stagecoach Yorkshire service SL1 can connect with the 57/58 to Hillsborough, Shalesmoor and the City Centre in Oughtibridge. Details of the tram service over the bank holiday weekend is at https://www.stagecoachbus.com/news/yorkshire/2021/may-2021/engineering-work-taking-place-over-the-bank-holiday-weekend-29-to-31-may This is the normal January fares increase, last years prices have been frozen until June. At this point it is only the Travelmaster tickets that are valid on all operators going up, individual operators ticket prices will remain frozen a little longer. Prices have to go up to cover increased costs of providing the service with inflation etc, unless Dan Jarvis is going to find some public funding to subsidise the fares. which are among the cheapest in Britain? The new prices are here: https://www.sytravelmaster.com/post/price-changes-from-7-june-2021

Redcap still closed and still has the job advert in the window. No one is daft enough to work for Sam Smiths I suspect.

There are plans for the area, some of the smaller schemes such as "Grey to Green" are already underway http://www.greytogreen.org.uk/phase2.html Victoria Quays is slowly coming to life too with the likes of the Dorothy Pax bar, True Loves restaurant, Victoria Junction cafe and A&G Passenger boats. The bigger plans I guess are in the queue behind the current Heart of the City developments - the Moor is done with work now taking place between there and the City Hall. The majority of the markets/shopping has relocated to the Moor, the focus in Castlegate in future developments is likely to be different. There was a piece in the Star about the Castlegate regeneration last year https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/surge-developments-create-one-norths-best-regeneration-zones-sheffield-1891114

The entire network was redesigned, timetables co-ordinated where multiple operators run together and cheaper multi operator tickets introduced when the Sheffield bus partnership "Buses for Sheffield" was launched in 2012. Frequency is generally based on demand. The vast majority of bus services in Sheffield are operated on a commercial basis with no public subsidy. Then gaps in the commercial network are filled by tendered services with a subsidy, these provide buses to areas or at times where running a service isn't financially viable but the provision is judged as socially or economically necessary. The budget for such services has unfortunately been cut over recent years as a result of the Conservative government's austerity policy. In the case of bus 52/52a, each run every 10 minutes with the times co-ordinated to provide a bus every 5 minutes. Likewise with bus 120. However with Sheffield's traffic congestion buses can run late, these routes also suffer having to run something of an obstacle course around the City Centre now that Leopold Street/Pinstone Street is closed plus of course there can be spikes in demand at certain times associated with places like schools and hospitals, it is easy for buses to get delayed and bunch together as a result. Sometimes buses on the 52 o 120 when late will be terminated short of the scheduled destination and jump onto its next trip on time to fix bunching, the 52a is harder to do that with due to many trips extending out to Wisewood or Loxley where service is less frequent. All buses are tracked with services operated by First, Stagecoach and TM Travel shown on a map for passengers too. First and Stagecoach show this on their apps, all three can be seen together on the independent bustimes.org website. The effectiveness of bus priority measures in Sheffield does need improving. The City planners do need to take on board the needs of bus provision much more in their thinking in areas such as the City Centre regeneration and giving planning permission to new housing estates.

The free concessionary travel scheme for pensioners and the disabled funded by the government offers free local bus travel 0930-2300 Mon-Fri and all day weekends and bank holidays. Anything above and beyond this has to be found out of local budgets. Currently on top of the free bus travel during the above hours SYPTE fund out of the local transport budget - free tram travel for pensioners and the disabled - free travel all day for the disabled - half price local train travel for pensioners and the disabled. - discounted travel for young people on buses and trams For free train travel more money would have to be found from somewhere to subsidise it. This would mean cutting something else, possibly a subsidised bus service that pensioners rely on. All the journeys made by train in South Yorkshire can be made by bus, albeit not as fast.

The problem isn't just gaps in/lack of priority measures. In some areas the bus lanes/gates are only in operation for limited hours - some of the times when there is traffic congestion for example Saturday afternoon, afternoon school run time and early evening they aren't in use and the buses have to sit in the same queues as the cars. Enforcement is poor. There are regularly parked cars blocking bus lanes. There are also examples where traffic lights can give priority to trams or buses but the council has switched that off. It has become a serious issue in Sheffield (lockdown aside of course) of buses becoming slower and less reliable due to traffic congestion, with longer journey times this also means more buses are required to achieve the same frequency therefore costing more to provide the service. Slower journeys are less attractive to passengers and if someone has a choice of sitting in a traffic jam in a car or bus, they will choose car. If a bus bypasses the traffic jam and offers an attractive and consistent journey time they may consider the bus. More people on buses instead of cars = less traffic congestion and better environment.

Cineworld at Valley Centertainment reopens Wednesday 19th May https://www.cineworld.co.uk/cinemas/sheffield/8079#/buy-tickets-by-cinema?in-cinema=8079&at=2021-05-19&view-mode=list If you are getting there by tram the Yellow route tram service (Middlewood-City-Meadowhall) is now running the full timetable (every 12 minutes in the daytime and every 20 minutes at night) and the Tram Train service (Sheffield-Rotherham) sees the evening service improved from 17th May with a half hourly service all the way through from 5:30am to midnight. Info at supertram.com.

Dempseys plan to reopen 21st June when hopefully Covid restrictions will be lifted and they can operate a nightclub style venue. https://www.facebook.com/DempseysSheffield Queer Junction is opening at a minute past midnight in the early hours of Monday 17th May complying with the Covid guidelines (table service etc). https://www.facebook.com/queerjunction

I see the Star is not only still campaigning for tax payers money to be spent on a free City Centre bus but now also to pay for pensioners to travel free on the trains as well as buses and trams. If there is some more funding to be found for public transport is this really the priority to spend it on? - The City Centre bus stops, particularly the ones replacing those on Pinstone Street/Leopold Street, need bringing up to standard. The old stops had shelters, seats, lighting, real time information and were in locations people felt safe waiting. The new stops do not tick any of those boxes. - There are some bus links completely missing that are much missed by some (for example the 31 around Lower Walkley, 64 down the Rivelin Valley and 293 via Bradway to Dronfield. There are also villages like Ringinglow that technically have buses are so limited they are useless other than for the school run. - Journey times to the City Centre from many areas are unattractive, often due to timetables having to allow for traffic congestion (where bus priority measures exist they aren't properly enforced). If there is a little bit of public funding for City Centre public transport available, lets make the journey to/from the City Centre attractive by getting the basic infrastructure right first. Get the bus stops sorted. Fill the gaps in the network. Improve the bus priority measures to get them running quicker and more punctual. Once more people are choosing to use the buses and trams into town then is the time to start talking about travelling around within the City Centre - after all if the passengers aren't coming to town they don't need to get around town! Perhaps in the meantime some posters/leaflets could be produced that promote the high frequency buses that already provide the key links within the City Centre. In fact, with the government announced "bus back better" idea as Covid restrictions ease, perhaps do a mail drop to every home in the City with a public transport guide featuring a map of all the bus, tram and train routes and list of all the unlimited travel passes so people are aware of what is already available. The City Centre B.I.D. could do with getting involved with championing public transport access too - all their promotions encouraging people to come into town to shop, eat and drink so far seems to focus on discounts at multi storey car parks!

The Meridians are an improvement on the Voyagers as they are a little less claustrophobic (possible because tilt kit isn't displacing electrical equipment from outside to inside), but otherwise I think on the Cross Country route the biggest issue with Voyagers is they don't have enough coaches on. A legacy of the Department for Transport... However a locomotive hauled train (which an Intercity 125 HST is a variant of) will always benefit from less noise and vibration without diesel engines mounted under the passenger coach!

Proposed changes to the roads around the Kelham/Neepsend area are here: https://connectingsheffield.commonplace.is/proposals/neepsend-kelham-city-centre

Indoor opening allowed from Monday 17th May! The test & trace sign in, max groups of 6, social distancing, table service and the rest are still required.

The Intercity 125 High Speed Trains still operate in small numbers on Cross Country's Edinburgh to Plymouth via Sheffield route alongside the more modern Voyager trains (that also do 125mph), however they have had a fair amount of money spent on modernising the coaches with electric doors and disabled access that meets current legislation. The only other operators still running the old IC125s (shortened and modernised) are Scotrail (on Edinburgh/Glasgow-Inversness/Aberdeen) and First Great Western (in the West Country).

First bus on Twitter reported the road was blocked by a protest

In other news.... From May 17th there are changes to Hulley's X57 bus from Sheffield to Manchester including the return of evening services and most services being extended to Manchester Airport. New timetable can be downloaded from the Derbyshire timetable library http://www.derbysbus.info/times/tt_A_Z.htm Not a bus but also from 17th May the evening timetable on the Tram Train to Rotherham Central and Parkgate is improved to run a roughly half hourly service right through to the last departures, which are 23:27 from Cathedral to Parkgate and 23:59 from Parkgate to Cathedral. https://www.stagecoachbus.com/news/yorkshire/2021/may-2021/changes-to-tram-train-from-16-may Looking further ahead and introduction of a new "Flexi5" ticket deal is planned in the summer, this is aimed at those only commuting part time (perhaps working from home some days) and offers 5 day tickets for the price of 4 and a month to use them. Choice of Flexi5 tickets will be: CityBus - all buses in Sheffield (sold online, fulfilled via smartcard) CityWide - all buses and Supertram in Sheffield (sold online, fulfilled via smartcard) SY Connect - all buses and Supertram in South Yorkshire (sold online, fulfilled via smartcard) Tram Only - Tram and Tram Train services operated by Supertram (sold via the Stagecoach bus app, already available https://www.stagecoachbus.com/regionaltickets/yorkshire/sheffield/mobile) https://www.sytravelmaster.com/flexi5 All the above tickets are also already available as 1 day, 7 day and 28 day passes. Also from 17th May there is a partial removal of social distancing requirements on buses which will increase capacity significantly. - You may now sit next to other passengers, even if not part of your own household, if neccessary - a limited number of standing passengers will also be permitted - only forward facing seats will be available to use - face coverings must be worn by law, unless exempt - windows will remain open for ventilation - you are asked not to eat or drink on board or leave litter behind - where possible you are encouraged to buy tickets online in advance or to use contactless payments on board rather than cash (contactless is accepted by First, Stagecoach, Hulleys and Powells).

I think the UBER pricing model is generally well known now - at normal times they are cheaper than other taxis but increase the price when busy. All is app based and price is quoted before you book. Generally I look at UBER first, if there is surge pricing in force I then look at City or Network taxis instead.

The article in the Star (which Sheffield Online copied and pasted) involved a wheelchair user who catches the 88 bus from Firth Park and goes to Orchard Square. Before the council made the changes, the 88 used to operate via Townhead Street and Leopold Street, stopping right outside Orchard Square. With that route closed off by the council, the bus now goes to a "temporary" stop on Arundel Gate. The main point being made was it was difficult for wheelchair users as a hill is now involved along with other little details like the "temporary" stop has no shelter or seat. There are alternatives - they could get off the 88 in the Haymarket/Fitzalan Square area and get a connecting bus or tram up to Church Street/Cathedral, but obviously that is all extra hassle. I think the main point is that the council in their City Centre planning has given no thought to it being an attractive destination by public transport, which is a shame given that greener travel is supposed to be on the agenda at the moment.

Tramlines have set up an official resale site where you can sign up to a waiting list to buy tickets other people have returned - https://tramlines.org.uk/waiting-list/

Sheffield isn't Manchester. Sheffield's buses operate as part of a partnership and all are on one map (link previously posted) and day & weekly passes that work on everything are available. You can split Sheffield City Centre into 3 zones of interest now really - The Moor, West Street/Division Street and bus/rail station. There are 2 main transport corridors in the City Centre, which is partly down to the current road layouts - Arundel Gate to Moorfoot and Fitzalan Square to University plus links to/from the bus station. All already have high frequency buses plus we have the tram from the station up to the University which is very handy for those arriving by train. Spending tax payers money on a free bus doing loops of the City Centre is not a high priority in my mind when more bread and butter parts of Sheffield's public transport infrastructure is suffering from a lack of funding. Lets get the journey to/from the City Centre more attractive first.

Ah, we're talking soft drinks and pre-covid.... and specifically the Abbey! It does seem to be somewhere that had regular changes of management over the last few years too. In more general terms, pre-covid (which is now over a year ago) the normal price for a pint of session ale was around £3 in a free house. At the moment venues have higher costs of operation with having to provide table service and everything else but much lower capacity with social distancing and currently outdoor only - therefore the costs per customer are much higher, so it is no surprise prices may be a bit higher in some pubs to compensate. This is also after a year of losing a lot of money - the cost of keeping the business/staff/premises whilst closed and not getting adequate government support. Then there is the whole side issue of pub company leases where independent local operators rent the pub from the likes of Heineken's Star/Punch Pub Company or Stonegate's Enterprise Inns and are often contractually tied to buy their wet stock from the pub company at inflated prices. Further to this there are the stories of Heineken charging full rent through lockdown to all tenants that aren't tied to buy Heineken brands pretty much forcing them out of business. Pubs need our support to survive until normality resumes, although I would obviously still favour the better ones with my custom!

tram is good from the rail station. from the bus station there are frequent buses - eg 95/95a/120 up High Street and West Street, 2/56/65/218/272 to Moorfoot. However, is there actually much need to get a connecting bus from the bus station these days? Other than National Express coaches, most buses that use the bus station also serve other parts of the City Centre. A free bus would be no different to any other bus in terms of finding out where it goes or stops.