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January 2020 Bus Service Changes

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@Andy C - I'll post my perception/observations on the 97/98 and 218 services later, but can't comment on the 24/25 a I don't use them.

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In other news, on Supertram, timetable changes from 15th December to the tram train and Purple route tram services:

 

Tram Train (Sheffield Cathedral to Rotherham Parkgate) - changes to the evening service with later last departures (22:44 Mon-Sat, 20:32 Sunday). Early morning and Sunday service reduced to every half hour.

 

Purple (Sheffield Cathedral to Herdings Park) - Evening and Sunday service reduced to half hourly due to low passenger numbers. Last tram to Herdings to depart later Mon-Sat (23:42).

 

There are also some very minor tweaks to timings Mon-Sat daytime.

 

See https://www.stagecoachbus.com/news/yorkshire/2019/december/st-tram-train-and-purple-route-timetable-changes to download a PDF of the new timetable leaflets.

 

There are no changes to the Yellow route (Meadowhall-City-Middlewood) or Blue route (Halfway-City-Malin Bridge) tram services.

Edited by Andy C

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Looks the South Yorkshire Bus runners are trying there best to make people late for work then end up being sacked,cutting bus times to much just make it a lot harder to get to the place you want to,then when no bus turns up you stuck in a tango,and not everyone will pay taxi fares to get to there destination

Edited by 1295galaxy

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11 hours ago, RollingJ said:

This was moved here by a mod.  I agree is has no relation to the topic, and the move miffed me slightly - I composed a long answer to  Retro Queens post, only to totally loose it as the topic was merged before I had chance to post, and a much shorter reply was deleted for some unknown reason almost as soon as it had appeared.

 

Unfortunately, this route  suffers as you say from severe congestion - especially on the southern end between Woodseats Road and Moorfoot, and although I don't use it much beyond Arundel Gate going north, also from Spital Hill to NGH - in both cases because of stupidly (and in many cases illegally) parked cars/vans). Many years ago when the 97 ran up Shirecliffe Road, it was a reasonable service although a bit slow round the estate roads which were clearly not really designed for 33ft. long buses.

I don't know why my thread was moved either.

 

My bus was missing again tonight. It failed to appear at the due time on my phone app or the electronic board at the bus stop but then suddenly appeared as being due in 15 minutes so I decided to wait for that. When it came I was told by the driver that he was going as far as the Northern General and that was it. So I had to wait for the next 98 as I need the bus to go to the end of Wordsworth Avenue.

 

Roads are congested all over the city but routes like the 52 don't seem to be affected. Its honestly no joke when you've been at work all day to have to stand in the cold and wet for ages waiting for a bus just to get you home.

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8 minutes ago, Retro Queen said:

I don't know why my thread was moved either.

 

My bus was missing again tonight. It failed to appear at the due time on my phone app or the electronic board at the bus stop but then suddenly appeared as being due in 15 minutes so I decided to wait for that. When it came I was told by the driver that he was going as far as the Northern General and that was it. So I had to wait for the next 98 as I need the bus to go to the end of Wordsworth Avenue.

 

Roads are congested all over the city but routes like the 52 don't seem to be affected. Its honestly no joke when you've been at work all day to have to stand in the cold and wet for ages waiting for a bus just to get you home.

My genuine sympathy. I don't know, obviously, what time you were waiting for the bus, but I guess it was in rush hour? In these cases, buses are often pulled short - or as happens frequently at my end  of town, run 'out of service'. It could be that the driver was close to the end of his allowed driving hours, could be to try and get the bus back on schedule, or for a number of other reasons, but if it is only a 30 minute service anyway, that is no consolation to us passengers.

 

As I would have said in the long reply to you that disappeared when your original topic was merged, I do have a contact at Olive Grove who I will try and have a word with, but he is semi-retired and only in 3 days a week. I've missed him this week, but will try and make time to catch him next - watch this space.

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4 minutes ago, RollingJ said:

My genuine sympathy. I don't know, obviously, what time you were waiting for the bus, but I guess it was in rush hour? In these cases, buses are often pulled short - or as happens frequently at my end  of town, run 'out of service'. It could be that the driver was close to the end of his allowed driving hours, could be to try and get the bus back on schedule, or for a number of other reasons, but if it is only a 30 minute service anyway, that is no consolation to us passengers.

 

As I would have said in the long reply to you that disappeared when your original topic was merged, I do have a contact at Olive Grove who I will try and have a word with, but he is semi-retired and only in 3 days a week. I've missed him this week, but will try and make time to catch him next - watch this space.

Thanks for this. The bus I went for tonight and last night was at 6.20 so not really in the main peak rush hour. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a ten minute service but once every half hour and then missing is beyond a joke as you say.

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That does seem a weird time for this type of problem, but I have seen similar at almost any time of day - can't quite understand it,but will see what my contact can explain/find out for us.

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19 hours ago, Andy C said:

On the South West side of the City it is interesting to compare perceived reliability of services

97/98 to Totley/Totley Brook - very poor. Suffers disruption on Abbeydale Road and on the North side of the City around NGH and Hillsborough.

218 to Bakewell via Totley - Has had a route change to avoid traffic on Abbeydale Road. Still sometimes hits traffic on Cemetery Road and/or Bakewell but generally not too bad

25 to Bradway via Woodseats - There is a perception of good if slow service. Quite long journey times are scheduled to allow for traffic but also behind the scenes I get the impression that when there is significant traffic problems Stagecoach cancel alternate buses and send them out of service fast to Bradway to pick up their next Woodhouse bound trip on time. As a result you often find one is missing but the next one is on time. They can get away with this when buses are every 12-15 minutes and run alongside the  First 24 which runs similar route as far as Lowedges to the same frequency.

As promised, my observations/experiences.

97/98 in both directions: - horrendous would be my description, it doesn't matter what time of day I go for a bus, you can guarantee that even using a real-time tracker, you have no idea when or if the bus is going to turn up - I've known me to be at the Devonshire  Road stop and see both the shelter display and BusTracker on my iPad show 97's and 98's as being 3 minutes away for up to 10 minutes! Then they both come together. This is in the direction to city, and there are no traffic problems on either route from their termini. Obviously, there is disruption from Carterknowle as far as Moorfoot, but that doesn't explain the situation  prior to that.

 

218 - I rarely use this to city, but the odd times I have since the route change, they have been on time. However, I use it frequently to Bakewell and apart from Chatsworth House on nice days and Bakewell itself, I never have a problem.

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Trackers would be good if they were reliable. Even busses that show as tracked often disappear, not to mention the ones that just show the time table time. I've asked First about this and was told they have problems with the tracking system. Well boo hoo, try standing waiting for a late night bus and not knowing if it was running late or not at all.

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12 minutes ago, mickf said:

Trackers would be good if they were reliable. Even busses that show as tracked often disappear, not to mention the ones that just show the time table time. I've asked First about this and was told they have problems with the tracking system. Well boo hoo, try standing waiting for a late night bus and not knowing if it was running late or not at all.

I understand your frustration - see some of my earlier comments.

If a bus is only showing scheduled time, I am always sceptical as to its' actual existence, but am aware that for some very strange reason, a large number of the FSY fleet appear to have inoperative or flaky transponders, which leads to some of these problems.

There was a problem earlier this year when the live time display would say a bus was 3/4/5 minutes away,  only for it to appear within seconds, but from my observations that has been resolved.

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Both First and Stagecoach drivers seem incapable of following advertised diversions. Due to the current works on Waingate the 7/8/8a/95/95a are advertised as being diverted from Bridgehouses roundabout via Bridge St, Millsands (calling at both stops to replace the one on Nursery Street), Bridge St, Sning Hill and Castle St to rejoin their normal route on Haymarket. There is a notice on the Nursery St/Joiner St stop advising passengers to use the stops on Millsands instead.

Drivers of the vast majority of buses on these routes though seem to ignore this planned diversion and continue to run via Nursery St (then after Lady's Bridge divert via Bridge St to Snig Hill - like all the buses coming off The Wicker).

I suspect that it's actually quicker to use Nursery St - but if the drivers' real life experience backs this up surely they should be feeding this  back to their management to get the planned diversion via Millsands cancelled. - but in the meantime they should be running as advertised via Millsands.

It's very frustrating to be stood at the Vulcan House Steel stop on Millsands only to look over the river to see a succession of buses proceeding into town along Nursery Street!

 

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11 minutes ago, Martin C said:

Both First and Stagecoach drivers seem incapable of following advertised diversions. Due to the current works on Waingate the 7/8/8a/95/95a are advertised as being diverted from Bridgehouses roundabout via Bridge St, Millsands (calling at both stops to replace the one on Nursery Street), Bridge St, Sning Hill and Castle St to rejoin their normal route on Haymarket. There is a notice on the Nursery St/Joiner St stop advising passengers to use the stops on Millsands instead.

Drivers of the vast majority of buses on these routes though seem to ignore this planned diversion and continue to run via Nursery St (then after Lady's Bridge divert via Bridge St to Snig Hill - like all the buses coming off The Wicker).

I suspect that it's actually quicker to use Nursery St - but if the drivers' real life experience backs this up surely they should be feeding this  back to their management to get the planned diversion via Millsands cancelled. - but in the meantime they should be running as advertised via Millsands.

It's very frustrating to be stood at the Vulcan House Steel stop on Millsands only to look over the river to see a succession of buses proceeding into town along Nursery Street!

 

Report this to the operator concerned.  As they no longer seem to have inspectors checking these things, sadly it is up to us - the passengers - reporting it.

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