Michael_N

Reminder, the First South Yorkshire consultation closes this Friday, 15 November. Stagecoach Yorkshire consultation has already closed.

If anything the whole area around Castlegate/Fitzalan Square seems to have been designed to make things worst than they were before, even for buses and taxis. Before these changes you used to rarely see the Waingate/Commercial Street/Flat Street junction getting blocked, now it happens on almost a hourly basis, even impacting on the trams sometimes with traffic backing up along Waingate and blocking the junction with Commercial Street. Can't help but think all this could've been avoided if the bottom part of Fitzalan Square was left as a through road with the traffic signals and the top half been pedestrianised. Just don't make sense. Blonk Street/Wicker is a nightmare now too, with a noticeable increase in traffic at the bottom half of the Parkway and along Derek Dooley Way as all the ways out around the Wicker have been closed to through traffic. Also maybe one for @Planner1, wouldn't the junction at the end of Wicker/Blonk Street/Nursery Street have been better with a mini-roundabout rather than the mess it will be? Its even caused some bus routes to have to be permanently altered and no longer serve Waingate/Wicker areas (10/24/25/56).

Just a slight point to raise, while all is good and wonderful with this proposal - some people might want to check the latest news outlets relating to Transport for London and the £700m deficit they're now facing. This is leading to full services like the 48 being completely withdrawn, lots of services being downgraded and scaled back from serving Central London etc. It's not looking good! The main problem is congestion, and until this is sorted it doesn't matter who runs the buses as they wont be reliable, nor any additional benefits to using the bus in terms of the private car and therefore still suffer the same problems. For me personally what is needed is to follow Edinburgh City Councils approach and look at making all bus lanes 7am to 7pm daily. There also needs to be better priority for buses at junctions (like what the trams get) and more direct, limited stopping services (especially at peak times) in order to tempt people out of their cars and onto buses. I already know Sheffield has some of the cheapest bus fares in the country, that are commercial and not heavily subsidised in London and there are some fantastic tickets available (5 for a fiver = any 5 people travel together all day on Saturday and Sundays for £5 etc.) but this needs to be better published. People will always moan no matter what, but the grass isn't always greener!

The X1 is a complete joke of a service and it’s not uncommon to see 3 or 4 running around together. This is the main reason people are not using it, the reliability of the service is horrendous. The 69 provided a much better service before it was withdrawn and it provided a direct(ish) service between Sheffield and Rotherham that avoided most of the traffic around Meadowhall by running direct along Attercliffe Common. The X1 routing means it’s longer in terms of journey time from Rotherham to Sheffield than the X78. The 74 looks like it’s going to be a former route - the 130. From a pure speculation point I’d imagine once it reaches Canklow Roundabout it will somehow combine with the current 208 and potentially provide a half hourly service into Sheffield? To say this is a consultation, the effort by both First and Stagecoach is p**s poor. Where’s the in-depth detail about the changes, proposed new route maps and even a proposed timetable so people can have a look and see if it will work for them!? Not everyone wants to use the Tram as it’s more expensive, and half the time you’re lucky if it isn’t cancelled due to problems with either the vehicles, staff shortages or Network Rail issues. I do note that if any tram is to fail to operate it’s the #39 off Cathedral And #09 off Parkgate. I’m still amazed how it’s reached 1 million passengers and 100% satisfaction - clearly someone has been at play with the figures as in reality many are not happy with any of the current services and the few times I’ve used it, what was a full tram to Tinsley/Meadowhall South then becomes an empty one to Rotherham.

Make sure you and all your fellow colleagues fill in the online consultation then.

From the looks of things, it will move from a 10-15 min service to a 30 min service between Sheffield and Meadowhall and will remain a 10 min service between Meadowhall, Rotherham and Maltby. Quite a downgrade!

There are currently 2 bus consultations running with First South Yorkshire and Stagecoach Yorkshire across a number of services in the Sheffield/Rotherham and North Derbyshire areas. The info has been posted below and you can view their websites to fill in the consultations by clicking on the following links: First South Yorkshire - https://www.firstgroup.com/south-yorkshire/routes-and-maps/customer-consultation-proposed-service-changes Stagecoach Yorkshire - https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/yorkshire/proposed-changes-in-chesterfield-jan-2020 The changes in detail are as follows... First South Yorkshire: 113 Service withdrawn 116 Frequency change to operate every 30 minutes. Service 22a/22c Frequency change to operate 20 mins at peak times, every 40 mins each way during daytime. Service X1/X10 Service X1 to operate 4 buses an hour Rotherham to Maltby, with 2 buses per hour extending to Sheffield via Meadowhall. Service X10 to operate 2 buses per hour Meadowall-Rotherham-Maltby-Doncaster Service 208 Service diverted to also cover Wickersley Service 74 Service rerouted to Operate Rotherham, Brinsworth, Meadowhall, Sheffield Stagecoach Yorkshire: Service 43 This service will be rerouted to serve Newbold, running via Newbold Road, Littlemoor and St John’s Road, creating new links to Whitttington Moor and onwards to Dronfield and Sheffield, without the need to travel via Chesterfield town centre. Buses will run twice an hour during Monday to Saturday daytimes over the full route with an extra bus per hour between Dronfield and Sheffield on Mondays to Fridays. When combined with service 44, there will be a bus every 15 minutes (every 20 minutes on Saturdays) between Meadowhead, Woodseats and Sheffield. Existing services 50, 50A and 50B will continue to provide up to four journeys per hour on Sheffield Road to Sheffield. In addition service X17 will continue to provide a fast link from certain stops on Sheffield Road to Sheffield. The link between Sheffield Road and Dronfield will be maintained by service 44 albeit on a lower hourly frequency. Service 44 A revised timetable will be introduced to coordinate with service 43 (see above) but will still run every hour during the daytime. Service 51 Buses will run every 30 minutes during Monday to Saturday daytimes. Bigger buses will be introduced. The extension to Chesterfield rail station will be withdrawn due to low usage. Hourly service X1 Chesterfield – Clay Cross - Alfreton – East Midlands Outlet - Nottingham provides an additional fast journey per hour between Clay Cross and Chesterfield along the A61. Service 70 This service will be withdrawn due to low usage.Alternative facilities exist for some customers on services 50, 50a, 50b, 53, 74a and 80. Service 72 This service will be replaced by service 80 with a revised timetable between Brimington and Chesterfield and will run as service 80 via Chesterfield Royal Hospital. In Sheffield the route will extend to The Moor to better serve the growth areas of Sheffield City Centre. Between Staveley and Chesterfield buses will run via Hady and Chesterfield Hospital, creating new links. Service 74 The timetable will be revised to coordinate with service 77, providing direct buses every 15 minutes during the daytime between Brimington and Chesterfield. Service 74 will continue to operate every 30 minutes between Chesterfield and Staveley, but will be reduced to operate hourly between Staveley and Duckmanton with one journey per hour operating to Mastin Moor instead as Service 74a to provide two buses per hour between Lansbury Avenue and Chesterfield with service 80 Service 80 The timetable will be revised. One bus an hour will be extended beyond Brimington via Staveley, Mastin Moor, Renishaw, Killamarsh and Crystal Peaks to Sheffield (replacing service 72). In Sheffield, buses will serve The Moor. New links will be created to/from Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

You can use any Sheffield ticket up to Meadowhall Interchange. After that you would need a South Yorkshire ticket as you're crossing into Rotherham.

No, bus companies can do something about it. It happens in other cities where correct scheduling and increasing the vehicles at peak times take place. First South Yorkshire are too busy penny pinching at the minute. Stagecoach are much better at scheduling their services, indeed they give their drivers around 6 minutes on the 88 to catch up in town, where as First generally just give 2 mins on both the 81/82 and 75/76 etc. More realistic and better scheduling would would be a start. That way services would become more reliable and therefore people would start using the services more if they actually turned up when they were supposed to!!!

How exactly is the driver an idiot? 12 people waiting for a bus and no one sticks their arm out - so quite rightly so the bus didn't stop.

You have to ring Streetpride on 01709 336003 or you can log it on one of the external sites such as Fix My Street etc.

They are making a lot of cutbacks this time around, particularly to the evening and Sunday service provision. As an example: Rotherham to Thorpe Hesley/Chapeltown - will now just see a 1hr 30 min service provided during the day on Sundays, on service 136. Thorpe Hesley to Chapeltown will now no longer have a bus on a Sunday. Unlike some other areas, this will also not have an evening service on a Sunday. SYPTE are cash strapped due to government cutbacks.

Would it not be cheaper to use the tram Park and Ride at Halfway, or even park somewhere say on Norfolk Park and travel in on the tram? Daysaver is only £4.20 but if you’re close to town could just pay the £1.80 singles each way (£3.60 in total). Or even get a Weeksaver for £14?

£2 is really cheap for that journey tbh. There are plenty of other examples of much poorer areas than Sheffield having far more expensive fares. Want to try a quick jaunt up the M1 to Leeds to see the comparison. That's the problem with the cutbacks, the fares are too cheap and not enough income is coming through to fund and maintain the services in their current formation. One of the main bug bears for me and many others is reliability. I don't care if a bus is every 10 minutes or every 30 minutes, so long as I can rely on it turning up and running close to time I can plan my journeys around this. If you think back to how services used to be run when it was SYPTE, many services were much less frequent than they are today. Don't know whey we have buses running through the day carting fresh air around. When demand drops off at off-peak times you'd expect many buses to go back to the garage and a reduced daytime service to start operating like what used to happen. Must cost a fortune in diesel, insurance, wear & tear and general operating costs (wages etc.) running a 10 minute service all through the day with few customers onboard - most being free pass holders.

Not sure what timetable you've looked at, but the new 32 timetable route description shows it running the same route through Shirecliffe as present. Infact between City and Parson Cross it will be the same route, with the exception it will now start/terminate at Pond Street Bus Station and run via Flat Street rather than Arundel Gate.