Sheffield Bus Changes

[RyoHazuki 10]

I hate to be a moaner, but I reckon Sheffielders have earned the right to have a good old moan about this. We've been had.

 

I can't help feeling this has been engineered to serve First. They were haemorrhaging customers in the north of the city on the old 75 route, as many people waited for the 87. Better service, nicer journey, less fuss and even a wee bit cheaper. I never liked First's monopoly at this side, constantly rising prices and poor service (it was £66 for a First monthly pass at one time!) and when the 87 was introduced, that was it, I never used First again. I dare say many others felt the same way, as the 75 has constantly empty for some time.

 

Now, I've had to use First more times in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years. I've hardly seen the Stagecoach no. 1.

[Andy C 85]

I miss the 87 too.

Bypassing Woodseats on my long journey from NGH to Sheffield 8 was always a bonus.

 

Ah yes, I still miss the 293 which did exactly that for those of us at Bradway!

 

---------- Post added 11-11-2015 at 17:42 ----------

 

I wasn't especially unhappy when I heard about the changes. Living in the north, it didn't seem too bad to me. A bus every six minutes. Seemed OK. I couldn't have accounted for the whole idea being put together by people who at best don't have an understanding of the service and the customers, or worse, seemingly despise them.

 

I am absolutely fed to the back teeth of waiting interminable lengths of time only for a single decker bus to show up rammed, leaving paying customers constantly having to stand up. And many people are taking this out on each other instead of blaming the companies involved. Coming home from town the queues for the 1/1a are just unbelievable. It used to be that a bus got into town from the other end and people alighted, leaving room for new passengers. But in the brave new "joined up services" world, this now means more people crammed onto fewer services going farther distances. It doesn't matter which shift I'm on, the journey either to work or coming home is a horrific experience.

 

It seems to me too that there are way too many different services accessing Barnsley Road. The beauty of the 87 service was it avoiding this traffic hotspot going into Burngreave. Better for customers, drivers and the service generally. Now, Barnsley road is a constant crawl no matter what time you hit it. It seems the north, yet again, pays the price but doesn't get the service.

 

I'll happily pay more to have the old 87 back. It might be pointless, but I'm signing the petition. Gotta do something.

 

And yet the change of which services went via Rock Street was something requested during the public consultation...Obviously some people shouted louder than others.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Andy C

[wendyG 17]

I've signed the petition,hope some thing gets done:rolleyes: because this new system is just and what's happened to all the new buses we had earlier this year? we've been given horrible old ones,cheers First thanks alot!

[frankster 10]

Third failure in three successive days. Caught 97 on wicker at 21:36 tonight. Got dumped off bus 10 mins later on High street as replacement driver missing. Driver phoned somewhere and promised a replacement bus was coming. No surprise it didnt arrive and 30 mins later im now on the 98 with a 20 minute walk waiting for me when I get off. Total and utter shambles

[Andy C 85]

Third failure in three successive days. Caught 97 on wicker at 21:36 tonight. Got dumped off bus 10 mins later on High street as replacement driver missing. Driver phoned somewhere and promised a replacement bus was coming. No surprise it didnt arrive and 30 mins later im now on the 98 with a 20 minute walk waiting for me when I get off. Total and utter shambles

 

I trust you are lodging a complaint with First every night as well as sharing it with us here http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/south_yorkshire/help_contact/contact_us/

[wendyG 17]

Stand by any Doncaster bus users - it's your turn next!

http://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/dbp/

 

Great,so there not happy at fu**ing Sheffield up going to do it to Doncaster now,that's just brill,the x78 I catch to get to work is the only one that go's on that road where I need to be and there bad enough to start with,going to be worse now,cheers!

[Andy C 85]

Great,so there not happy at fu**ing Sheffield up going to do it to Doncaster now,that's just brill,the x78 I catch to get to work is the only one that go's on that road where I need to be and there bad enough to start with,going to be worse now,cheers!

 

I trust you have filled in the consultation survey and told them!

 

Incidentally I notice they are proposing to cut back on airport services too.

[MZ2832 10]

Have to agree about the 87 in North Sheffield. It was a reliable service that has now been lost.

 

I could understand the logic of changing over the routes of the 97/98 with the 20 but in practice it just isn't working. The 97/98 single deckers from town to Scott Road are just too crowded. I think First have realised this and started putting some double deckers on but it's hardly the route for double deckers.

 

Delays on the southern section back to town are worse than previously and the stop outside the Crucible now has 3s arriving early so that the 97s, 98s, and 20 are having to stop one or even two stops shorter outside the Lyceum.

 

And all this is not to mention the buses that disappear off the electronic board before they even appear or, if they appear, being taken out of service and back to the depot.

 

If First don't have suitable buses or can't commercially provide the service they were contracted for then why isn't their contract being terminating and being awarded to a company that can deliver.

[Andy C 85]

Have to agree about the 87 in North Sheffield. It was a reliable service that has now been lost.

 

I could understand the logic of changing over the routes of the 97/98 with the 20 but in practice it just isn't working. The 97/98 single deckers from town to Scott Road are just too crowded. I think First have realised this and started putting some double deckers on but it's hardly the route for double deckers.

 

Delays on the southern section back to town are worse than previously and the stop outside the Crucible now has 3s arriving early so that the 97s, 98s, and 20 are having to stop one or even two stops shorter outside the Lyceum.

 

And all this is not to mention the buses that disappear off the electronic board before they even appear or, if they appear, being taken out of service and back to the depot.

 

If First don't have suitable buses or can't commercially provide the service they were contracted for then why isn't their contract being terminating and being awarded to a company that can deliver.

 

Contract? The 97, 98 and 20 are commercially operated services.

[ormester101 10]

Ah yes, I still miss the 293 which did exactly that for those of us at Bradway!

 

---------- Post added 11-11-2015 at 17:42 ----------

 

 

And yet the change of which services went via Rock Street was something requested during the public consultation...Obviously some people shouted louder than others.

 

consultation what was that even a bus driver said to me it was decided before

 

---------- Post added 12-11-2015 at 00:53 ----------

 

another thing is the queueing of buses causing big distruptions at high street and peace gardens

[frankster 10]

I trust you are lodging a complaint with First every night as well as sharing it with us here http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/south_yorkshire/help_contact/contact_us/

 

Nope. Ive logged 200+ problems with them (not for late buses...for missing buses) for over the last two years and have over 160 apology letters...nothing changes and I'm extremely weary of the associated admin involved. They don't even run the Customer Promise policy they used to anymore so there's no penalty for them when they mess up. They ignore emails now and force you to fill in their extremely tedious online form...the reliability of the 97 has been rubbish for years. What needs to happen is for Stagecoach to run a parallel service and provide more options for my multi operator pass I've bought.

[bagger 10]

Yesterday got the number 8 to town and the driver stopped at the stop outside Sainsburys just before the Lyceum. That stop isn't a designated stop for the number 8, it used to be when the the number 8 was a 44 but not any more. Twice this week the driver has pulled in to let people off when they pressed the bell, don't think they realised that the bus doesn't stop there anymore. I asked the driver why he stopped when that stop wasn't served by the number 8 any more and he said he was just being helpful. I pointed out that he wasn't being helpful to a lot of the people on the bus who now thought that the number 8 DOES stop there after all and that the subsequent drivers who DON'T stop there will probably be nagged by annoyed passengers.

 

Went into the interchange on Arundel Gate to complain about this and the bloke in there said it was up to the driver if he wanted to stop and let passengers off!!! Pointed out that drivers choosing when and where to stop is NOT how a bus route works and there' no wonder it's all a complete shambles. Here we are 12 days in to the new 'service' and the number 8/8a is still as unreliable as ever, late, buses missing etc. Best get used to it because I can't seem them changing anything.