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Should The Public Take Back Control Of Buses In Our Region?

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6 hours ago, lottiecass said:

No, I don't see why folk who do not use buses help pay for council run buses.

Do you only want to pay for services that you use?

 

Or, could public services actually enhance our city?

 

I’m not surprised by your selfish response, but I think you are wrong.


A good, subsidised, centrally planned bus service would cut road congestion and air pollution. What’s not to like about that?

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We will all be on public transport sooner or later as fuel engines are phased out and the price of electric cars rockets upward.

The way foreward is eco friendly reliable public transport that isnt soley run for profit,so yeah Id back this

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7 minutes ago, Pettytom said:

Do you only want to pay for services that you use?

 

Or, could public services actually enhance our city?

 

I’m not surprised by your selfish response, but I think you are wrong.


A good, subsidised, centrally planned bus service would cut road congestion and air pollution. What’s not to like about that?

Society has changed. People want things NOW, not in 10 mins, or not going where they want.

 

Efficiency is what all business is about, whether state or privately funded (same as always has been)

 

Buses are inefficient. I spend all day queuing with them. Some rammed, some empty. 

 

Putting into public hands want alter any of the above.

 

 

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Just to clarify - this isn't about public ownership of buses (though that would be nice too - perhaps as a  region-wide co-operative, maybe taxis too eh Ash?). It's about having the same system as our capital city, where the bus system is planned and organised by the public but services run to order by contractors.

 

At the moment in Sheffield the city council (or Sheff City Region) have no control over what bus services are provided or who runs them. We get whatever poor service we are offered by profit-maximising bus companies, with some token subsidies here and there. 

 

This situation has never been allowed in London, but us thick northerners have to put up with it. We need change on this issue, like so many others.

Edited by Bilge

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13 hours ago, busdriver1 said:

Bring it on, lets have a total fiasco like last time, buses not getting maintained, Ministry being kept busy taking death traps off the road, buses being used as political weapons with little or no control over them everyone paying for buses running round empty on rural routes as they were not needed but provided anyway. (example 287 ran through to Tickhill from Maltby and there is no record of any passengers being carried - EVER) yes, they are the sort of people that should run buses. Whilst the current situation is far from perfect lets not replace it with worse. 

Interesting though that the same people who are starving buses of cash they are entitled to want to run them themselves, will the cash suddenly start flowing then? I bet not.

Interesting people are saying reduce fares, we have some of the lowest fares in the country and its still not good enough. The current situation is as a direct result of companies being pressured into reducing fares. Guess what? less income means less cash for investment = 14 year old buses being moved into Doncaster as upgrades to existing vehicles as there is no money for newer. You wanted lower fares, you got them now live with the consequences. I Think its great. Better than a good TV comedy this is.

If you didn't live here then, how can you comment. It's hear say.  Total rubbish.

 

I think the OP probably meant before deregulation when the council and SYPTE  ran the buses. Cheap fares, 2p for kids! New buses every year, drivers (and conductors) that were Public Service Vehicle licenced and not Passenger carrying vehicle steering wheel attendants. Buses provided a proper work and school service and generally ran around full. Oh, and always had the six weekly inspections and full maintenance. Far less cars on the road as a result.

 

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Guest busdriver1
3 hours ago, Centrepin said:

If you didn't live here then, how can you comment. It's hear say.  Total rubbish.

 

 Oh, and always had the six weekly inspections and full maintenance. Far less cars on the road as a result.

 

I did live in the uk and was employed by a professional company that was given the job of sorting out several of these " fully maintained " buses you speak of.  I have never in my professional career seen buses at 20 years old in such a sad state of disrepair. The problem here is we were talking about 2 year old buses. What was happening here and in other PTE areas was an absolute disgrace and was the main thinking behind the 1986 traffic act that resulted in privatisation and deregulation of buses. Like it or not, the price you were paying for your cheap fares was the safety of the public.

As I have said before, I do not think the current system is perfect, it is not. The main failing of it is the lack of powers to force local authorities to keep their side of the deal resulting in drops to local services whilst criticising operators for their actions.  

A better solution would have been to have a National body set up to co-ordinate unprofitable but needed services away from local biases and political interference. This would do away with the glass walls at county boundaries and give a standard approach across the country.

 

As for the "hearsay" you talk of, I have worked with people who DID work here at the time and am happy to believe them when they relate stories about certain routes of the time. Like a driver that failed to report for work on a 287 and the entire shift on there did not run and nobody noticed. Sounds like a well used route that one.

Edited by busdriver1

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It was. How do you think people got from Maltby or Tickhill to Sheffield, were most of them worked? But what do we know we were just the ones sat on it, there and back. But well your mates must know more than we did. 

I can see where you are coming from though. As a motorcyclist I have often thought that bus drivers went around with their eyes shut. Cyclists tell me the same. 

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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!

Edited by Michael_N

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1 hour ago, busdriver1 said:

I did live in the uk and was employed by a professional company that was given the job of sorting out several of these " fully maintained " buses you speak of.  I have never in my professional career seen buses at 20 years old in such a sad state of disrepair.

 

As for the "hearsay" you talk of, I have worked with people who DID work here at the time and am happy to believe them when they relate stories about certain routes of the time. Like a driver that failed to report for work on a 287 and the entire shift on there did not run and nobody noticed. Sounds like a well used route that one.

Before deregulation the only 20 year old buses were in the museum at Tinsley.  Fact, not hearsay, go look it up.

 

Again hearsay, people you say that worked on them, utter rubbish. You don't know, you're repeating rumours from people who probably heard it from someone else who heard it from someone else. 

 

I remember not being able to breathe for cigarette smoke upstairs and downstairs on the full standing load buses passing the colliery around shift change time. BTW that's a memory direct from me, not what I heard from a friend who might or might not have seen one pass at a distance from his bedroom window before he got up for school.

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The main reason TfL are facing a big deficit is that the start of Crossrail was suddenly delayed by a year or more, and TfL's budget assumed revenue from that service.

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17 hours ago, Pettytom said:

Do you only want to pay for services that you use?

 

Or, could public services actually enhance our city?

 

I’m not surprised by your selfish response, but I think you are wrong.


A good, subsidised, centrally planned bus service would cut road congestion and air pollution. What’s not to like about that?

Put it this way pettytom, I can have a free bus pass but not bothered to apply. This is my choice not to use public transport , I also would never use trains for the same reason, they are not reliable . I'm sure I'm not the only person on here that's never been on the tram .

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I worked for SYPTE back when they ran the buses and they provided a first rate service.   Back then Sheffield got many state of the art new vehicles as SYPTE  worked in conjunction with manufacturers,  the hilly terrain providing an excellent testbed  for new engines, gearboxes etc .   My job (telecoms) took me into all corners of the organisation .

 

With regard the "why should I pay for what I don't  use" argument, I have no kids, but I have to pay for schools through taxation .......this is life!

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