Sheffield Bus Network Changes - September 2019

[catmiss 12]

Further up date on the hourly 135 replacing the 31. A couple of incidents in the last week where  the bus has bypassed lower Walkley area altogether, don’t know if this was because they were late or because the drivers’ still don’t know the route . Apparently some drivers are making unauthorised drop offs between stops on Walkley Road/top of Burgoyne Road in sympathy with elderly/disabled customers but passengers can be left with the steep climb up Whitehouse Road if they fall foul of this ‘Russian roulette ‘ route. Incidentally the bus stops remain on the now unserviced route with no information re the new ‘service’. Complaints to SYPTE and the Council elicit politically correct responses which basically say ‘you’re old/disabled, don’t pay so don’t really matter’

[catmiss 12]

On 17/09/2019 at 17:07, Andy C said:

For what its worth I'm already fed up with cuts where I live - the 25 to Bradway no longer runs in the evening (stops 6pm on Sundays and about 8pm the rest of the week), after that time it is just a 24 bus once an hour.

 

This cut seems to be down to the evening service at the Woodhouse end being tendered and Stagecoach losing that contract to First and the funding is only enough for one vehicle to shuttle Woodhouse-City.

 

From what i hear anecdotally the numbers of Bradway people using buses has plummeted over the last few years since the 293 was withdrawn and the 25 route was changed - the journey time into town is now so outrageously slow and buses no longer serve some popular places like Abbeydale Road and London Road, the cut to a skeleton evening service is likely to kill patronage even more...

 

Also the fact you now cannot get by bus from Bradway to Dronfield when they are neighbouring places is also rather poor...

It doesn’t take a mastermind to work out that making services unreliable and/or impractical for customers will result in reduced passenger numbers thereby justifying further cuts. 

[Ms Macbeth 73]

6 hours ago, Resident said:

You realise half the city was shut for a road race and the rest was heaving with students arriving thanks to the epic planning skills of Sheffield Council. 

 

Services were severely affected. 

 

Yes, thats just this weekend though. These cross city services all fall foul of similar problems.      52as regularly come in pairs,  and the tracker continually shows buses that never appear. A young woman in Hillsborough waited in vain for a 135  that showed as 'due' on the tracker for the 20 mins I waited for my 52a bus, and she'd been there ages before me.  At least I can use the tram.

[BigAl1 143]

  17 hours ago, Resident said:

You realise half the city was shut for a road race and the rest was heaving with students arriving thanks to the epic planning skills of Sheffield Council. 

 

Services were severely affected.

 

yes that is exactly when you would like the displays to be providing accurate information indeed rather than show rubbish if the buses are being subjected to prolonged delays that foul up the estimated times they would be far better putting an announcement saying because of the situation they are unable to provide information. It is a pity that SYPTE take the view that because they are sometimes right it does not matter if they are sometimes (often) wrong

[Resident 1,185]

17 hours ago, Ms Macbeth said:

Yes, thats just this weekend though. These cross city services all fall foul of similar problems.      52as regularly come in pairs,  and the tracker continually shows buses that never appear. A young woman in Hillsborough waited in vain for a 135  that showed as 'due' on the tracker for the 20 mins I waited for my 52a bus, and she'd been there ages before me.  At least I can use the tram.

Unfortunately vehicles bunching up is always going to happen on high frequency services, especially at busy times. 

 

1st bus comes and everyone gets on it, boarding & alighting lots of passengers takes time, which isn't planned into the schedule (typically a stop is timed as 30secs) 

This them makes the bus behind schedule and the 2nd one, which hasn't needed to stop because there's no one waiting.

 

There does seem to be a lot of issues with the 135 service. Not got a clue why although it takes nearly 2hrs end to end, maybe it's just too long a route? 

 

As for the information boards, as far as I know they're operated by a 3rd party under contract to SYPTE. 

 

We all know, passengers & bus companies alike that SYPTE do as they please and ignore everyone's concerns. 

[Ms Macbeth 73]

35 minutes ago, Resident said:

Unfortunately vehicles bunching up is always going to happen on high frequency services, especially at busy times.

 

1st bus comes and everyone gets on it, boarding & alighting lots of passengers takes time, which isn't planned into the schedule (typically a stop is timed as 30secs) 

This them makes the bus behind schedule and the 2nd one, which hasn't needed to stop because there's no one waiting.

 

There does seem to be a lot of issues with the 135 service. Not got a clue why although it takes nearly 2hrs end to end, maybe it's just too long a route? 

 

As for the information boards, as far as I know they're operated by a 3rd party under contract to SYPTE. 

 

We all know, passengers & bus companies alike that SYPTE do as they please and ignore everyone's concerns. 

And the long cross city routes have far more chances to be delayed than the previous local, regular buses. Too expensive to run I suppose.

[Resident 1,185]

2 hours ago, Ms Macbeth said:

And the long cross city routes have far more chances to be delayed than the previous local, regular buses. Too expensive to run I suppose.

Well that's one factor. The other is vehicle/driver shortages. 

 

Bus companies are loosing drivers quicker than they can replace them at the moment. A lot of that is down to retirement. Older drivers who've worked behind the wheel for 30+ hanging up their ticket stubs. 

[BigAl1 143]

16 hours ago, Resident said:

Unfortunately vehicles bunching up is always going to happen on high frequency services, especially at busy times. 

 

1st bus comes and everyone gets on it, boarding & alighting lots of passengers takes time, which isn't planned into the schedule (typically a stop is timed as 30secs) 

This them makes the bus behind schedule and the 2nd one, which hasn't needed to stop because there's no one waiting.

 

There does seem to be a lot of issues with the 135 service. Not got a clue why although it takes nearly 2hrs end to end, maybe it's just too long a route? 

 

As for the information boards, as far as I know they're operated by a 3rd party under contract to SYPTE. 

 

We all know, passengers & bus companies alike that SYPTE do as they please and ignore everyone's concerns. 

It is completely irrelevant as to who operates the information boards it is the responsibility of SYPTE to  specify, award and monitor the delivery and if it is not working then that is 100% the responsibility of SYPTE. This is the standard way companies that do not have a customer focus tend to blame others for their faults rather than accept responsibility and sort it out.

 

With some like information displays the key question for management is what will happen when, as it will, there are problems and all to often this is where they fail as to take this into account costs more and as exemplified by SYPTE it does not matter if it is wrong cause sometimes it is right. You only have to look at the tram displays and all too often when there is no service they continue to display time of next fictitious tram. yes during something like the run the bus displays are unable to show at many stops expected arrival times because of the disruption and the way they are designed and in this case as I said then they should be, as I said, be far better putting an announcement saying because of the situation they are unable to provide information

[sulzer 10]

They talk rubbish regarding routes I live on the 81/82 awful route and it's awful now it goes through to the other side of town when it was just a stannington to town and back it wasn't perfect but hell of a lot better

It's like the 95 I know people who use it regularly and the stopped that running to intake after doing so for god knows how many years to improve the service to walkley and now where does it go? Yeah that's right meadowhall you couldn't make it up

[catmiss 12]

Sorry if I’m repeating myself BUT I really believe that some of the changes to unprofitable routes are designed to deter customers thus providing evidence that the service is not required and top of the list for cuts next review.  I appreciate funding issues but the destruction of public transport across the city is not only at odds with the green agenda but may well bite the powers that be on the bum at the next election. 

[Guest busdriver1]

On 25/09/2019 at 01:20, catmiss said:

Sorry if I’m repeating myself BUT I really believe that some of the changes to unprofitable routes are designed to deter customers thus providing evidence that the service is not required and top of the list for cuts next review.  I appreciate funding issues but the destruction of public transport across the city is not only at odds with the green agenda but may well bite the powers that be on the bum at the next election. 

Your reasoning is understandable but not quite right. SYPTE who oversee these tendered services and are very good at it - ON PAPER.

The problem is, most of these people are not and never have been bus users and look at services purely as a numbers game.

Area X needs a service so divert serve xxx to serve that area = problem solved. 

The fact that the resulting service is far too long and passes through several know pinch points never even cracks the top 10 because they dont understand things like that.

My area suffered from exactly the same problem, this was not actually an SYPTE **** up, this was a First one, but, as their staff go on the same courses to learn how to plan services it is to be expected.

The service in my area does not now exist as when Rotherham Depot closed it was too difficult to operate it reliably from Sheffield so it was dumbed down to the point where it was even less use than before. This was done by missing out certain areas. (The ones where people actually used it). 

The bus industry is populated by number crunchers who would not be able to pick out a bus in an identity parade and certainly have never been on one.

[Retro Queen 1]

4 hours ago, busdriver1 said:

Your reasoning is understandable but not quite right. SYPTE who oversee these tendered services and are very good at it - ON PAPER.

The problem is, most of these people are not and never have been bus users and look at services purely as a numbers game.

Area X needs a service so divert serve xxx to serve that area = problem solved. 

The fact that the resulting service is far too long and passes through several know pinch points never even cracks the top 10 because they dont understand things like that.

My area suffered from exactly the same problem, this was not actually an SYPTE **** up, this was a First one, but, as their staff go on the same courses to learn how to plan services it is to be expected.

The service in my area does not now exist as when Rotherham Depot closed it was too difficult to operate it reliably from Sheffield so it was dumbed down to the point where it was even less use than before. This was done by missing out certain areas. (The ones where people actually used it). 

The bus industry is populated by number crunchers who would not be able to pick out a bus in an identity parade and certainly have never been on one.

Can I just ask - how do you go on with no bus service at all in your area?