Are They Having a Laugh?

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 Today's scheduled post is postponed 

  to allow for this stop press blog  

      It's ALMOST unbelievable          

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Travel South Yorkshire [TSY] does it again!

Regular readers will remember that, from 24th July, Stagecoach and First shook hands, kissed,  made friends and started JOINTLY operating the busy cross-city bus route between Fulwood, Sheffield and Halfway as service 120. The Optio Orange scheme (as it is imaginatively and meaninglessly called) provides for day and weekly tickets to be fully inter-available between the two operators and, most significantly, offers a jointly promoted timetable for the main cross-city route.

Both operators have published the same (combined) timetable on their individual websites. It is genuinely and indubitably now a jointly operated route.

So let us stroll round to the terminus on Barncliffe Road ...

... and check the times of our next bus as displayed in the frame at the bus stop. First, Monday to Friday buses:-

A very frequent service down the steep Crimicar Lane and terminating at Fulwood shops. Nice if you need to go to the co-op, every 10 minutes; the stop at the bottom of Crimicar Lane is on the right.

But look at the times for journeys to Halfway or Sheffield Centre. According to this panel you can only get into town in the evenings. Curious and obviously totally wrong.

Saturday is similar, so let's look at Sunday:-

First and Stagecoach jointly (that's supposedly the top panel for each block of days, including Sundays) appear to run a shuttle down to Fulwood every 20 minutes and Stagecoach alone offers a 20 minute frequency to Sheffield Centre and Halfway on the bottom panel. At least you can get to the City all day on Sundays.

What actually happens is this, TSY please note (as you don't seem to understand timetables):-

Monday to Friday daytimes, First Bus runs from Barncliffe Road to City and Crystal Peaks every 8 minutes; Saturday daytimes similarly but every 10 minutes. Meanwhile Stagecoach operates from Hallamshire Hospital to Halfway giving a joint 4 or 5 minute frequency over the core busy section.

In the pictures above, the top panel actually gives the First Bus times; Stagecoach NOT included, despite the heading. And these buses go to Sheffield Centre, continuing to Crystal Peaks, NOT to Fulwood only as TSY would suggest.

In the evenings and on Sundays, First Bus and  Stagecoach run alternately over the full length of the route from Barncliffe Road to City and Halfway. Frequency is usually every 10 minutes, dropping to every 15 minutes late evenings and early Sunday mornings. So some of the buses in the upper panels, which generally run to City and Crystal Peaks, also continue beyond to Halfway.

The bottom panels are the Stagecoach (only) times and here TSY is, astoundingly, correct; they also go on to Sheffield Centre, Crystal Peaks and Halfway. An fbb diagram will explain all. 

So the timetable at Barncliffe Road is:-

Wrong about which company operates the services

Wrong about where most of the buses go

Wrong to ignore (undermine) the First and Stagecoach scheme

In a word, absolutely DISGRACEFUL. 

 

And, finally, SYT kindly published a leaflet with a simple list of all the changes from 24th July:-

 

The published list is a bit too big to add to this blog, but reference to the following revised Sheffield services was omitted completely from this utterly useless leaflet.

40, 41, 42, 43A, 44, 47, 48, 50, 50A, 56, 61, 62, 64, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 81, 82, 83, 87, 88, 88A, 95, 120, 123, 201, 206, 251, 252, 257, 261, 267, 268, 271, M64, X4, X5, X10, X14, X15, X17.

So, NEARLY right, SYT, but not quite!

And the 73 and 74 are still WRONG on the SYT web site, anyway; they haven't published an update, yet. Here's the correct timetable ...

... courtesy of Derbyshire, which started on Monday 25th July. It's not the same as TSY's November 2010 version; now there's a surprise!

Information on service 120 has been kindly supplied by Mr John Hardey who lives round the corner from the bus stop featured. Many thanks, John.

Next blog : due Thursday August 11th
    delayed Dagenham Dock Part 3