Green activists have been out posting timetables on bus stops for altered services. Passengers have had no information at the bus stops from Travel South Yorkshire more than a week after massive changes took place on October 2nd.
Ecclesall Green Party candidate Peter Gilbert who updated around 50 bus stops said,
“There was nothing at all to alert people to the changed 6 or cancelled 83 services. I contacted Travel South Yorkshire to complain and have called on South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to hold them to account. They claimed they hadn’t got the resources, so I decided to do their job for them.”
While posting up the new timetables to inform the community Peter met 81-year-old Johanna Lattimer of High Storrs Drive. She said,
“The thing that I find so bad is that they didn’t let us know. It was only sort of rumour. I was standing here waiting for the bus to go to the theatre the other week and a lady came past and she said, ‘you know they’ve taken the bus off don’t you?’ And I said, no I didn’t know. So I didn’t know it was being taken off nor did I know whether we were going to have a bus at all. And there are a lot of people in this area much older and less able than I am that are reliant on the bus even to get down the road to the shops.”
Peter Gilbert continues,
“It’s one thing for the bus companies to reduce our vital services, but so much distress could be prevented if Travel South Yorkshire put updates at affected bus stops. The private bus companies and Travel South Yorkshire are failing passengers.”
Hillsborough Green Party activist Eamonn Ward, who has also been posting timetables said,
“The vital 52A is no longer running past Hillsborough Interchange to Wisewood and Loxley. It has been replaced by the inferior 31 but you would have no idea looking at unchanged information at bus stops. The Wisewood Estate now has no bus service on Sundays and no direct service to Hallamshire Hospital. It means people cannot get to work and inevitable isolation for older people.”
Councillor Christine Gilligan, deputy chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee said:
“The Green Party campaigns to bring public transport back under public control with proper government funding to protect routes and services. But local leaders at the Mayoral Combined Authority also need to stop prioritising private car use over public transport and build a far more ambitious aim for South Yorkshire’s public transport network. Sheffield Green Party have a vision for transport in Sheffield and South Yorkshire called Get Sheffield Moving. Find it at www.getsheffieldmoving.org”
Notes
Information from the Green Party about the changes to bus timetables is here. https://sheffieldgreenparty.org.uk/2022/09/30/hillsborough-bus-changes-from-october-2nd/
Peter Gilbert’s call on South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to hold TSY to account.
https://twitter.com/petergilbertuk/status/1577310467822845952?s=46&t=Sm4eZKCtEsLhMyrlGu7aNw
Travel South Yorkshire’s response.
https://twitter.com/tsyalerts/status/1577550462743724033?s=46&t=G1ff4FSvfWlXmcuFRYrbKg
