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Bus Fares Up Again,Why?

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Hello bus driver again.

 

Just one question, you know what brainwashing is and how it works?

The reason I ask is because sometimes your responses sound more like a repeating grammaphone record than honest answers.

Please take that with a sense of humour.

 

Understanding comes through looking and seeing consciously with awareness.

Many people here  can see the loopholes used by greedy management.

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Guest busdriver1
1 hour ago, dutch said:

Hello bus driver again.

 

Just one question, you know what brainwashing is and how it works?

The reason I ask is because sometimes your responses sound more like a repeating grammaphone record than honest answers.

Please take that with a sense of humour.

 

Understanding comes through looking and seeing consciously with awareness.

Many people here  can see the loopholes used by greedy management.

To state the obvious yet again, I am not saying there is an element of what you would call greedy management here, others more in touch with the world as it is today here and now would possibly call it trying to balance the books in a very difficult operating area where copper wire was invented by 2 sheffielders fighting over a penny but hey ho. 

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I accept many older people’s opinions on current services are coloured by the days of cheap and reliable services with employees who were proud to deliver good customer services under the SCCsubsidised system which became unsustainable. However, just as with many other areas, the idea that competition would provide better services at lower cost has not worked and customer service has become a thing of the past as many of bus driver 1 posts confirm. In response to the poor bus services in the city Sheffield Green Party are asking users to complete weekly diary sheets of the routes they use and submit them as complaints to the supplier and cc the party so they can evidence just how poor public transport is in Sheffield 

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25 minutes ago, catmiss said:

I accept many older people’s opinions on current services are coloured by the days of cheap and reliable services with employees who were proud to deliver good customer services under the SCCsubsidised system which became unsustainable. However, just as with many other areas, the idea that competition would provide better services at lower cost has not worked and customer service has become a thing of the past as many of bus driver 1 posts confirm. In response to the poor bus services in the city Sheffield Green Party are asking users to complete weekly diary sheets of the routes they use and submit them as complaints to the supplier and cc the party so they can evidence just how poor public transport is in Sheffield 

Do the Green Party in Sheffield not catch buses themselves? Do they not already know what the situation is?

Are the Green Party in Sheffied just looking for complaints or will the diary allow positive comments and will be these positive comments be forwarded?

Anecdotal evidence will not persuade or influence anybody, a

more positive and veryfiable approach would be to include route, operator, time and to include ticket when issued so a useful data set can be provided.

 

This is a national issue, challenge Boris to do what he says he is going to do?

 

Single issue politics at its worst?

 

 

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Guest busdriver1
9 hours ago, catmiss said:

However, ......      .......   ....... customer service has become a thing of the past as many of bus driver 1 posts confirm. 

If you are suggesting customer service is not present because  a driver sitting and suffering constant abuse from passengers is not acceptable then yes it has gone. Strange though that the same driver in another area suffered no abuse and got many compliments from passengers. Hmmm wonder what the variable is there???

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I'm a little curious here, because busdriver1 makes quite a bit about the Sheffield buses being a "cheap" service. I'd like to understand better the facts behind that and perhaps see some evidence. Admittedly I have only done a few cursory searches around the net and this may be based on outdated data, but we seem to me to be pretty comparable price-wise to other cities. It's not particularly dramatically cheaper than Leeds to travel in Sheffield. Or Nottingham, or even London. They all seem to me to be fairly comparable. like, you may gain a cheaper monthly pass in one city, but pay more for one-off journeys and vice-versa, and this seems to be the theme. I quite liked the London deal of having ten journeys with a single ticket, but then that is the capital I suppose. You can easily find comments from Leeds bus users that are just as incensed as Sheffielders at price hikes for example. It's not like it's a unique thing. And have price rises there resulted in better services?

 

Tl;dr - what quantifies Sheffield as especially "cheap" in this discussion? Thanks.

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3 minutes ago, RyoHazuki said:

I'm a little curious here, because busdriver1 makes quite a bit about the Sheffield buses being a "cheap" service. I'd like to understand better the facts behind that and perhaps see some evidence. Admittedly I have only done a few cursory searches around the net and this may be based on outdated data, but we seem to me to be pretty comparable price-wise to other cities. It's not particularly dramatically cheaper than Leeds to travel in Sheffield. Or Nottingham, or even London. They all seem to me to be fairly comparable. like, you may gain a cheaper monthly pass in one city, but pay more for one-off journeys and vice-versa, and this seems to be the theme. I quite liked the London deal of having ten journeys with a single ticket, but then that is the capital I suppose. You can easily find comments from Leeds bus users that are just as incensed as Sheffielders at price hikes for example. It's not like it's a unique thing. And have price rises there resulted in better services?

 

Tl;dr - what quantifies Sheffield as especially "cheap" in this discussion? Thanks.

First Bradford is certainly significantly more expensive for comparable journeys than First Sheffield.

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10 hours ago, busdriver1 said:

If you are suggesting customer service is not present because  a driver sitting and suffering constant abuse from passengers is not acceptable then yes it has gone. Strange though that the same driver in another area suffered no abuse and got many compliments from passengers. Hmmm wonder what the variable is there???

I'm probably gonna polarise the thread and get veiled abuse thrown at me but from my experience of travelling by bus in recent months I've found that the drivers are constantly bombarded by rude customers, usually the elderly. On several occasions the driver has been dealing with a customer, putting a previous pass through manually (the card weekly passes mostly) & the OAP behind, having been asked politely to wait a moment, will just thrust their pass on the reader meaning the driver has to start again because the card reader overrides the driver's input. 

 

So I can understand why they don't really want to be that forecoming with great customer care when they're just met with such disdain when merely ask for a moment's patience. 

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11 minutes ago, Resident said:

I'm probably gonna polarise the thread and get veiled abuse thrown at me but from my experience of travelling by bus in recent months I've found that the drivers are constantly bombarded by rude customers, usually the elderly. On several occasions the driver has been dealing with a customer, putting a previous pass through manually (the card weekly passes mostly) & the OAP behind, having been asked politely to wait a moment, will just thrust their pass on the reader meaning the driver has to start again because the card reader overrides the driver's input. 

 

So I can understand why they don't really want to be that forecoming with great customer care when they're just met with such disdain when merely ask for a moment's patience. 

I agree totally, @Resident - I fortunately haven't had to travel on buses too often recently , but when I was, I usually found it was the free pass holders who were the trouble, along with (and I'll get hammered here) our 'ethnic' friends.

 

The drivers do a stressful enough job trying to get through horrendous traffic without having ignorant individuals trying to assert their 'rights' - to the detriment of everyone.

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Guest busdriver1
3 hours ago, MatLibrary said:

Because the No. 1 aim for the private bus companies is to make a profit. 

 

Libraries and buses should both be run in house by the council. 

 

There is an obligation from the SYPTE to pick up unprofitable / socially desirable services. Something they have for some time being reducing to the point where it virtually does not happen.  By taking the buses back into council control they would be obliged to take on the already loss making day time services and then provide the loss making evening / socially desirable services, and no doubt there would be a desire to reduce the fares. Brace yourself for the council tax rises to fund this all.

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On 15/02/2020 at 17:38, Martin C said:

First Bradford is certainly significantly more expensive for comparable journeys than First Sheffield.

Nottingham is a place held up as somewhere with one of the best public transport operations in the country. Other than a few Stagecoach buses that come through from Mansfield/Chesterfield and community transport routes there are two main bus operators

- Nottingham City Transport - owned by the council, running mostly local services

- Trent Barton - a private company owned by the same people as TM Travel, well regarded for their branding and customer service. They run mostly out of town routes to Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

 

On Nottingham City Transport, if you pay on board the bus, it is strictly exact fare payment only - you drop the coins down a chute into a locked safe underneath the cab. If you overpay you have to go to their depot to redeem the change voucher. Single and day tickets can be bought on board, weekly or longer must be purchased in advance.

- day ticket: £4.20 within city, £6.50 full network.

- weekly ticket: £18.00 within city, £24.50 full network

- Monthly ticket on direct debit: £55 within city, £84.50

Above prices are valid only on NCT buses.

 

Trent Barton

- day "Zig Zag" ticket is £6.60 and not valid before 9am or after midnight.

Above price is only valid on Trent Barton buses.

 

Robin Hood pass

valid on all bus and tram services within Nottingham City, costs £75 per month.

 

So to compare with Sheffield:

- First charge £4.40 for a day ticket, reduced to £4 on the app, for travel in Sheffield or £5 for their whole network

- First charge £14.50 for weekly ticket, reduced to £14 on the app, for travel in Sheffield or £20 for their whole network.

- Citywide pass that includes ALL buses and trams in Sheffield regardless of operator costs £18.50, or £17.50 online, for a weekly ticket. Also available a day ticket at £5.10 and a 28 day ticket for £61.20

I would suggest we are about similar for day tickets and cheaper for weekly and monthly tickets.

Edited by Andy C

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it is worth noting too that First haven't actually put their fares up yet though!

 

Pricing in January was National Rail, Travelmaster, Stagecoach bus, Stagecoach Supertram, Hulleys and to a limited extent TM Travel.

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