People in South Yorkshire have been left ‘frustrated and angry’ by the major changes to local bus networks.
98 bus routes across South Yorkshire will undergo changes from the end of October, including some reduced services.
Around 10 of these routes are experiencing a reduction in services, resulting in less frequent buses during the daytime, evening and on Sundays.
South Yorkshire Transport have said: “Every year we have a change over where we get a new plan.
“The main reason that some of the changes have been made, especially with the cuts has been due to less bus drivers being available.”
(Stagecoach has been the most impacted with changes to 53 routes. Source: Steven’s Transport Photos)
However people in South Yorkshire have not taken well to this change to public transport, with many highlighting that buses are running as infrequently as every two hours.
Mary Wright, 62, a regular bus user on the 7a route, Sheffield said: “ I usually arrive at my stop on Normanton Spring and my bus will come every 20 minutes or so.”
“Now I could be waiting hours for one bus, and I rely on it to get me from A to B. It’s not fair on people like us.”
Many other bus users were left ‘frustrated’ by South Yorkshire Transport’s decision to change these bus routes and their frequency of arriving at stops.
In response to the public criticism of the changes, Travel South Yorkshire have said: “We handle complaints and we send them through to the bus companies themselves.
“The more complaints there are about a particular route, the bus company can see that there is a clear demand for it to be returned to how they used to run.”
There are certain routes that may not change because there are some areas where there is a lot of “anti-social behaviour”, and they’ve cancelled buses out of “concern for the safety of drivers”.
On the whole the change has had a negative reception from the public, especially given that the city has only recently introduced the Clean Air Zone, which was brought into place in February this year.
This discourages cars and lorries from entering the city boundary with the hope of reducing carbon emissions, and therefore providing public transport as a more efficient method of travelling in and out the city centre.
However, if these new changes to the bus system will impact the rate of buses arriving at stops, then people will be left waiting much longer.
Companies such as First Bus, TM Travel and Stagecoach have all been affected by the changes.
Stagecoach will be impacted the most with 53 routes being affected,which is over half the total number of routes undergoing changes.