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Post by simonk82701 on Jun 29, 2023 8:28:23 GMT
First seem to be keeping their powder dry. Don't appear to have bid for much but watch this space. Will Stagecoach maintain the 137 service as well as operating the 138, anyone know? The 7 extension to Rotherham seems a very good idea. I wonder if Stagecoach will continue to operate the evening service 136? It is good to see South Pennine expanding further. I don't live local to their services, but staff seem helpful and keen to make things a success! I'm local to the South Pennine services in Penistone and they're a great little operator. Fair play to them. Yes, they seem very keen to help support a local rural network, unlike some of the larger corporate operators. I wish them all the luck. I wonder if they are taking over TM's 24a and 29 in the evening, I bet that's a goner. Why the 29 mostly stopped serving Sheffield city centre, I am not sure.
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Post by simonk82701 on Jun 29, 2023 9:30:31 GMT
I mostly agree with you alemaster. County boarders acting like a glass wall is a definite issue. I feel that that is why SYMCA should come into line with it's surrounding areas and cut it's costly optional perks. The number of times I see a kid trying to travel into Worksop on their zoom pass is farcical, then when drivers tell them the cannot, all they get is grief. When I say cheaper fares I mean nationally, they are only cheap at the moment because the Government subsidises them. A four mile local single journey for me before 9:30am is normally £5.10. or £7.80 return. Missing links and reliability issues yes, but I would argue that's up to SYMCA to solve.There were many routes that received no bids, that I think was down to driver shortages, as well as dealing with the bureaucracy of SYMCA, who couldn't even put new timetables up in Rotherham bus station until 10 days after the October 2022 service changes. Whilst Covid has played it's big part, operators and SYMCA can only blame it for so long. Why for example is my local depot very reluctant to employ part time staff when that is what some staff want? It's better to have a driver some of the time than for them to walk away which I have seen happen. On top of that, some cabs at the minute are over 30 degrees. Companies could make changes over time that would cost very little money, but they are too set it their ways. Why was I on a bus the other day with the heater pumping warm air out. changes in demand in terms of where people want to travel, when and why that the network hasn't adapted to, very true. How long do they need to adapt? The issues I list are mainly from the view point of a user and when we talk about "the industry" needing to change that isn't just the businesses that provide the bus service - it is the local authorities and government they work with who all need to be on the same page. For journeys entirely within Sheffield, the single fares without the government fare cap scheme would be generally £2.50-£3.50 with the CityWide day ticket at £5.90 and Citywide weekly £21.80 (or slightly less in advance). These prices aren't unreasonable. Talking of child fares and seeing your comment, there could be an argument that a national scheme like the Senior/Disabled ENCTS one for children of school and college age might be sensible - half the adult fare like the trains perhaps with the local authority borders not being an issue? The deregulated system we still have is based on private operators running what they can commercially and the local authority, SYMCA in our case, filling the gaps with tendered services they subsidise. However here we also had the Sheffield Bus Partnership where SYPTE drew up the network, it is probably time for all to work together to review it once again. There should by now be a decent sample of ticket machine data to analyse, combined with road traffic data, to see where and when the demand is now for travel by both bus and car. SYMCA is headed by an elected mayor so what the money gets spent on is something of a political decision and the value of some initiatives could debated until the cows come home with different people having different views, however personally I think the starting point should be a reasonably comprehensive public transport network for all across the area running from early until late with initiatives such as subsidised travel for young adults etc being something that happens only if there is still money left spare. Where I live buses stop running at 8pm so all those 18-21 year olds with their 80p passes cannot actually use them to go out to the cinema, bowling alley, skating rink, pub, friends house or whatever for socialising in the evening because there are no buses to use it on! I'd suggest some of the comments about SYMCA may be a little unfair - contracts weren't bid for I guess for a variety of reasons, limited staff resourced will be part of it but the short lengths of contracts made them unattractive too, why would a business invest in drivers and vehicles (which now have to be clean air zone compliant too) for a contract that lasts less than a year? Information provision was probably also made more challenging if things are being done last minute - there will be a timescale following operators providing the registration and electronic timetable files for processing) and if a lot has changed at the same time thats a lot to generate, print and distribute! We also have to keep in mind they get funding from a variety of sources and in different pots that often can only be used for something specific. Another issue is there is a lot of commercial work that has been cut (for example 52a to Wisewood/Loxley, 24 to Bradway, SL to Stocksbridge etc), where communities expect SYMCA to pick up the slack but simply cannot afford to. Sheffield City Council also need to share some blame. Its their job to provide suitable road infrastructure for a bus service to be provided and run reliably. It isn't the private operators fault if buses are slow, late and unreliable due to traffic congestion; not serving new build housing estates because the planning department didn't require the developer to include roads suitable for buses; being unattractive because City Centre roads previously served by buses with flagship bus stop facilities are closed without proper replacement facilities provided. From a political point of view they really ought to also be encouraging public transport use, however they seem to do the opposite. The bus operators do still have issues with staffing and increasing costs of operation - obviously it is well documented about the covid related issues recruiting and training new drivers which coincided with the logistics industry suffering similarly from Brexit woes, of course there could be a hangover of things that were already a problem before Covid (long hours, duties that don't quite work, internal processes for defect reporting maybe?) that you'll be in a better position than myself to comment on. However, my experience where I live is there are missing local links but the main route into Sheffield that still remains is actually a pretty good service in the daytime (every 15 mins Mon-Sat daytime) despite the odd trip getting cancelled, however the big failing now since last October is we now have no buses after 8pm (used to be a different operator in the evening who have now removed their service). Again mostly I agree. The clean air zone can in my view, only be implemented if alternative services are actually available. I am sure I read somewhere that SY has lost 15-20% of it's entire bus network in the last 12-18 months. A great time for the council to discourage the use of cars at the same time as cutting services not! Sheffield city council seem to want to have their cake and eat it! The reason I was so critical of SYMCA and it's timetabling in October 22, wasn't because I expected everything to be perfect in the interchanges. No they couldn't even put up a piece of a4 paper telling passengers which stand a service departed from. I also completely agree with you, what is the point in having no evening on Sunday service but an 80p fare for children and young adults that they cannot use, other than for home to school transport as there is no hope of social evening activities? Some operators could help themselves by allowing things like par time working without a battle. As you say, we also need to ensure that multiple roadworks are not carried out on the same routes at the same time. SYMCA seem too keen to protect perks that they can no longer afford. I am afraid I think they need to start thinking the unthinkable. The low hanging fruit has been picked. I could be wrong but I always thought that First received a subsidy to run the 52a to Loxley, surly it's better to pay a smaller subsidy to extend an existing commercial route, than to have to pay for an entire bus and driver to Loxley? This needs to happen more not less in my view. However would operators actually bid for longer combined routes? That's the question. Planning for new estates is also key. Why would the council be so stupid as to not to plan for buses. God it gets worse.
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Post by simonk82701 on Jul 3, 2023 21:25:07 GMT
Looking at bustimes.org the 21 TM travel service is being withdrawn. This could be an error. Have Stagecoach got it? Or is the night service withdrawn? Very short notice to passengers from SYMCA as usual if this is the case. Three weeks to go, no new timetables out yet. Evening 8 and 24a appear to be gone. Then probably by late September we'll have all this again. How are people supposed to hold down jobs when trying to navigate this every 6 months or less?
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Post by littlenipper on Jul 4, 2023 13:06:05 GMT
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Post by dougie on Jul 5, 2023 6:25:34 GMT
Cheers for posting A mixed bag, overall positive I guess, as things slowly pick (driver numbers becoming less of an issue etc, so more firms able to make competitive bids, rather than the situation where nobody could be found to run the daytime 18s on Saturdays) Bad news around Oxspring with the evening/ Sunday cuts to both the 24a and 29, good news around Rotherham with a couple of “new” services (7, 114, 138) I understand the “temporary” nature of the timetable design (as a cash strapped PTE struggle to create dozens of new leaflets), but hopefully these don’t become “the new normal” Strange that one morning journey on the new Stagecoach 114 starts in Thorpe Hesley, I don’t think anyone in that side of town will cross reference all timetables to find this, so it seems strange not to include it as a version of the 135 (given that plenty of other diagrams around Rotherham see a vehicle arrive at the bus station then head out on a different service number a minute or two later)
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Post by rothlad on Jul 5, 2023 8:17:55 GMT
Cheers for posting A mixed bag, overall positive I guess, as things slowly pick (driver numbers becoming less of an issue etc, so more firms able to make competitive bids, rather than the situation where nobody could be found to run the daytime 18s on Saturdays) Bad news around Oxspring with the evening/ Sunday cuts to both the 24a and 29, good news around Rotherham with a couple of “new” services (7, 114, 138) I understand the “temporary” nature of the timetable design (as a cash strapped PTE struggle to create dozens of new leaflets), but hopefully these don’t become “the new normal” Strange that one morning journey on the new Stagecoach 114 starts in Thorpe Hesley, I don’t think anyone in that side of town will cross reference all timetables to find this, so it seems strange not to include it as a version of the 135 (given that plenty of other diagrams around Rotherham see a vehicle arrive at the bus station then head out on a different service number a minute or two later) 114 trip from Thorpe Hesley is a replacement for the current Cawthorne's 138 service. Based on school movements from Thorpe Hesley/Kimberworth through to St. Bernard's High School. However, it appears the trip will run during school holidays also so will provide an extra peak trip for those commuters on services 135/138 towards Rotherham.
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Post by simonk82701 on Jul 11, 2023 16:37:19 GMT
According to SYMCA website the 29 and 24a Penistone have now been reinstated with no changes to route or timetable. Great to say it was withdrawn before. But how can anyone plan anything with last minute changes?
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Post by ady1977 on Jul 11, 2023 18:23:09 GMT
i know its not to do with yorkshire but its stagecoach yorkshire.. when are the changes in chesterfield happening as theres no new time tables yet and there ment to be happening on the 23 of this month so there a bit late putting them up for the 74..90 and 1/1a
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Post by syjunkie on Jul 11, 2023 18:28:16 GMT
i know its not to do with yorkshire but its stagecoach yorkshire.. when are the changes in chesterfield happening as theres no new time tables yet and there ment to be happening on the 23 of this month so there a bit late putting them up for the 74..90 and 1/1a That would show on the Derbyshire side of things not south yorkshire
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mojoe44
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Post by mojoe44 on Jul 11, 2023 21:04:18 GMT
i know its not to do with yorkshire but its stagecoach yorkshire.. when are the changes in chesterfield happening as theres no new time tables yet and there ment to be happening on the 23 of this month so there a bit late putting them up for the 74..90 and 1/1a Not happening in July and never were, whoever published that in the Derbyshire times was wrong. It'll be September at the earliest if it does happen.
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Post by simonk82701 on Jul 12, 2023 18:43:52 GMT
First will run service 8 in the evenings and Sundays.
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Post by crossscythe on Jul 23, 2023 11:55:36 GMT
Glad that bus services are coming back to Whiston old village.
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