South Yorkshire Franchise Proposals

[TheGuy77]

Consultation has now closed (well, 2 weeks ago). Oliver Coppard says next steps are in March. It'll probably happen, considering how terrible the buses are now.

 

[ALEMASTER]

Consultation has now closed (well, 2 weeks ago). Oliver Coppard says next steps are in March. It'll probably happen, considering how terrible the buses are now.

It'll most likely happen, as long as the funding is available from government.

Either way a decision needs to be made quickly, we are at the point where the local bus operators are no longer willing to invest as they expect the Mayor to effectively shut down their business soon.

The jury out as to whether franchising will actually improve bus services. Many of the issues are caused by things in the control of local authorities or government rather than operators - traffic congestion, roadworks, parked cars, insufficient funding for tendered services (such as evening, Sunday and rural buses), passengers being encouraged to buy single tickets rather than season passes, road systems changing that remove buses from popular areas and banish them to unpleasant and unsafe locations, politicians constantly publicly criticising public transport whilst wanting to look car friendly... and remember the current bus network was designed by South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (the Mayoral Combined Authority's predecessor) as part of the local bus partnership!

 

[JD2168]

It'll most likely happen, as long as the funding is available from government.

Either way a decision needs to be made quickly, we are at the point where the local bus operators are no longer willing to invest as they expect the Mayor to effectively shut down their business soon.

The jury out as to whether franchising will actually improve bus services. Many of the issues are caused by things in the control of local authorities or government rather than operators - traffic congestion, roadworks, parked cars, insufficient funding for tendered services (such as evening, Sunday and rural buses), passengers being encouraged to buy single tickets rather than season passes, road systems changing that remove buses from popular areas and banish them to unpleasant and unsafe locations, politicians constantly publicly criticising public transport whilst wanting to look car friendly... and remember the current bus network was designed by South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (the Mayoral Combined Authority's predecessor) as part of the local bus partnership!

And we all know how well this went with things going downhill since October 2015 in particular. Large reduction in double deckers resulting in standing loads during the middle of the day, optimistic running times that didn’t work, route going where people didn’t want to go, too many changes at once. Look at how many of the new routes introduced still run in the same style today. The bus service in Sheffield & South Yorkshire has been trying to recover in some ways since.

The current South Yorkshire service is effectively a Saturday service during the week, with some of the least frequent services seen for a long while.

 

[Trainman40083]

It'll most likely happen, as long as the funding is available from government.

Either way a decision needs to be made quickly, we are at the point where the local bus operators are no longer willing to invest as they expect the Mayor to effectively shut down their business soon.

The jury out as to whether franchising will actually improve bus services. Many of the issues are caused by things in the control of local authorities or government rather than operators - traffic congestion, roadworks, parked cars, insufficient funding for tendered services (such as evening, Sunday and rural buses), passengers being encouraged to buy single tickets rather than season passes, road systems changing that remove buses from popular areas and banish them to unpleasant and unsafe locations, politicians constantly publicly criticising public transport whilst wanting to look car friendly... and remember the current bus network was designed by South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (the Mayoral Combined Authority's predecessor) as part of the local bus partnership!

Local bus operators not prepared to invest. But TM Travel recently got 10 ex London Optare Solos !! Okay, they were about 15 years old, but still an upgrade.