Routes Most Deserving Of Increased Resources (Speculation) (Read 1,260 times)

[dougie]

The dust seems to be settling from the huge changes caused by Covid/ a driver shortage caused in part by the post-Brexit labour shortage/ significant cost pressures in areas like the price of fuel/ the collapse of operators like Powells.

These problems haven't gone away, and I've not started this thread to discuss the underlying reasons (e.g. I can see that there had been a need for some time to give Bus Drivers a proper pay rise, when you compare the increasing demands of the job with the regular above-inflation rises seen for train drivers since the Millennium, I'm not trying to start an argument about the rights and wrongs of Covid lockdowns or the war in Ukraine that caused a lot of the energy "spike" - such things are off topic here)

And other problems remain (local authorities continue to face perilous finances, hence the big cuts to evening/ Sunday frequencies, kids face a 25% fare increase next month with a much bigger rise for older teenagers - we have some uncertainties unique to South Yorkshire like the future of Supertram integration now that it'll be PTE-operated rather than with Stagecoach retaining a commercial incentive to co-ordinate things - and some things that are industry wide, like electric buses remaining too expensive for most operators to buy without significant subsidies at a time when the deadline for new cars to abandon petrol seems to have been delayed another five years (rumours continue about the long term future of certain operators/ depots in SY, but then that's been the case for some time, so I'm not speculating here)

But there are some positives. South Yorkshire has found the money to bring back some subsidised routes like the 10/10a in Sheffield and the 138 in Rotherham, Derbyshire seems to have had a more generous settlement hence enhancements like the X17 becoming half hourly south of Chesterfield with extensions beyond Matlock, some small increases in commercial services has happened like the 43a from Sheffield to Lowedges or the extension of the Stagecoach 83 from Ecclesfield to Chapletown

It feels naive to assume that the 2019 levels of service will ever come back, and they were already generally down compared to a decade ago (remember when cross city corridors in Sheffield like the 120 were every four minutes, with the X78 every eight minutes all the way from Sheffield to Doncaster, or resources were sufficient for High Bradfield to have two buses an hour to the central Sheffield?)

But, let's be slightly optimistic and assume that some recovery is possible for local buses, as fuel costs/ driver numbers stabilise and demand slowly returns with the simplicity of the capped fares)

So, assuming only a mild boost, which local routes do you think are most deserving of some increase in resources (whether daytime frequency/ evening and Sunday frequencies/ double deckers replacing smaller vehicles)?

As someone Sheffield based, I'd suggest the following seem to be worthy of consideration

The 6 from Greystones to the City Centre. At the moment the hourly 6 is forced to do the jobs of the original TM Travel 6 (Millhouses Tesco - Carter Knowle - Banner Cross - Brocco Bank - Hallamshire - City Centre) which ran every twenty or thirty minutes plus the lengthy diversion to serve the Halls of Residence at Endcliffe (which once had the fifteen minute frequency of the First 44, but was covered by the Powells 10/10a until they were abandoned) and the link from Greystones (which once had a fifteen minute service directly along Ecclesall Road into the City Centre on the First 83/87, but was generally every twenty minutes once co-ordinated with the Stagecoach 83a along Ecclesall Road). Maybe the hourly service is okay off-peak on the Carter Knowle/ Tesco end (I don't know whether there's much of a Park & Ride market these days, as there once was with the 505), but the combination of the diversions and the overall frequency reduction feels a bit "light" from Greystones into the City - one additional vehicle could provide a parallel hourly service from the old loop at High Storrs school that the 83/87 used to the City Centre if it ran directly along Clarkhouse Road past the top end of the Botanics rather than going via Endclife, giving a second bus each hour from Greystones to the Hallamshire and City Centre

The 86 from Parson Cross to Archer Road. It's retained its roughly half hourly frequency but cuts have been made to various parallel routes (from Bracken Hill to Grenoside/ Fox Hill - Penistone Road - Sheffield the First 13 became the 85 became the 135 became withdrawn, the Stagecoach 7 and First 8 from Parson Cross - Penistone Road - Sheffield went down from a combined ten minute service to a combined fifteen, the same proportionate reduction applies to the First 75/76/97/98 along London Road/ Abbeydale Road and the half hourly TM Travel 218 was diverted away from the bits of Abbeydale Road that the 86 serves. As a result the 86 always looks a fairly busy route - I was on a pretty busy single decker yesterday at what felt like a journey that wouldn't be expected to be busy on many corridors (heading into the city centre in the middle of the afternoon) - it does get the occasional double decker but I think that it's a candidate for either more double deckers or at least a frequency increase on the section from Parson Cross to Archer Road since the middle section seems to be the busiest bit. Frustratingly the long nature of this route means it'd take at least an additional three vehicles to provide an extra half hourly service on the Parson Cross - Archer Road section (to make that every fifteen), so it may be more realistic to just hope for a capacity increase whilst retaining the existing PVR, or focus on just the Parson Cross section or just the Archer Road section

I've suggested a couple of examples to set the ball rolling - this isn't necessarily intended as criticism of Stagecoach, the two routes that I've picked are partly an issue because of cuts to parallel services made by other operators/ PTE - and I'm trying to play nicely and not just suggest my local routes (though I could rant about aspects of their capacity!)

I've seen criticism of other areas of South Yorkshire (the main Hospital corridor in Doncaster, for example, and can see from certain timetables that the frequency has gone down a fair bit to some other places although I don't know whether these are justified cuts based on changing passenger demands, e.g. Dinnington to Rotherham). In some cases, the old frequencies were never sustainable or only existed as part of "competition" along part of the route - demand for buses changes as working patterns/ shopping patterns/ night time socialising change - but I'd like to think that there were at least some areas that were being discussed as worthy of some kind of enhancement when resources allow

[The Captain]

Down to resources I'm afraid.
Look at the 52s and 120s after 8pm, First don't want to know so that leaves 4 buses on the 52 and 5 on the 120 operating a half hour frequency, the Students are back, it's carnage, Stagecoach have been dropping the odd trip too because of a staff shortage, the 10s might have been a great idea and we'll received in August but now the kids are back and everyone is now reverting back to the cars as the evenings get dark and cold it's near impossible to run to time, the Hallamshire, Brocco Bank, Sheldon Rd and Chesterfield Rd are just big car parks, the buses worth of drivers might have been better used on the 52s and 120s suffering with no staff.
Let's face it we are all still on some sort of Saturday schedule and a bus every 6 minutes on the major routes is just a memory.

[bususer]

Are all evening and Sunday services funded by the PTE or are any commercial?

[swfcforever]

Doubling the X17 from Sheffield to Meadowhall. Extending the Wirksworth ones from Sheffield to Meadowhall. Stagecoach then can compete against First and Supertram, with a Unique route that the X17 takes. Therefore instead of once an hour, having one every half an hour between Meadowhall and Matlock. Would require 2 extra buses. I travel on it regularly and it carries quite a few passengers.

[crossscythe]

Service 57 is In need of improved frequency on evenings and Sundays and more 57As are needed to serve Worall & Wadsley.

Service 81 at the Dore end needs better frequency on evenings and Sundays.

[bususer]

Service 81 at BOTH ends needs more buses at evenings and Sundays.

[teapot42]

Oct 18, 2023 19:20:34 GMT swfcforever said:

Doubling the X17 from Sheffield to Meadowhall. Extending the Wirksworth ones from Sheffield to Meadowhall. Stagecoach then can compete against First and Supertram, with a Unique route that the X17 takes. Therefore instead of once an hour, having one every half an hour between Meadowhall and Matlock. Would require 2 extra buses. I travel on it regularly and it carries quite a few passengers.

I'd like to see the X17 frequency increased between Sheffield and Meadowhead also, maybe dropping a few stops to really differentiate it from the other services in terms of journey time.

One idea I had was to have it every 20 minutes to Unstone / Sheepbridge, then one hourly turns off and runs via Dunston to Chesterfield. Anyone from there who wants a bus to Sheffield has to go via the town centre adding ages to the journey, and with lots of new developments there I feel there is a strong market for a direct link. (The other idea I'd had was the run the 44 this way, maybe even converting the 'short' 43 in to another 44 for a 30 minute frequency)

Granted this does unbalance the timetable but is the first step towards 4x hourly. The third bus could extend to the Hallamshire / Uni possibly - plenty in Chesterfield work there so a direct link would be beneficial as changing adds a fair chunk to the journey time, and once Stagecoach lose the tram it becomes worse.

[crossscythe]

Oct 20, 2023 15:22:24 GMT bususer said:

Service 81 at BOTH ends needs more buses at evenings and Sundays.

The Dore end needs it more. The Stannington end has the 61/62 and the 82 to the Hall Park Estate. Dore has no other service.

[bususer]

The 82 doesn't go to Stannington, it goes to Hall Park Head. It doesn't go in the village at all. That's like saying the 98 goes to Totley Brook, which isn't Dore. The 61/62 only go as far as Hillsborough and anyway is pretty infrequent.

Personally I think there is a case for scrapping the child fare reduction and using the money instead for more buses such as the 81.I bet this would be controversial but if it were scrapped at least for over 11s it would be a saving. If they can afford to run a mobile phone they can afford to pay full fare, but that's just my view.

[bususer]

Is there n argument to be made that areas with the highest Council Tax get the most supported buses. If this tax pays for the support (I don't know if it does) then these people are paying more towards bus support then people in lower Council Tax areas. Just a thought.