fbb Has Tried But Is He Right? (1)

Who Knows?

It is reported that the children of Shiregreen estate in Sheffield have learned a new "nursery rhyme" which they sing enthusiastically as they play their street games outside their homes on the estate. The words vary,  but are something like this.

Buses, Buses

See what the fuss is!

Where does the new route go?

Weird bus stop names,

No times in the frames,

No map, so how do we know?

 

The "lyrics" have supplanted a similar ditty about a woman of contrary demeanor who grows strange but well aligned flowers in the plot in front of her house. The old version, say the kids, is "silly". The new one, they explain, is what mummy and daddy are talking about all the time.

Services To Shiregreen 

Shiregreen is a vast ex Council estate to the north of Sheffield and to the east of the A6135 to Barnsley. It was developed progressively and rapidly in the 1930s to improve the lot of Sheffielders who were stuck in near slum conditions, notably in and around the heavy industry clustered along the Don valley to the north east of the city.

As the building work continued, buses were pushed further and further into the estate, ending up running both ways round a large loop, as shown in red below.

Initially buses only ran to Firth Park (aerial view above, bottom centre) where they connected with frequent trams to city. After road improvements, said trams had a reserved track through the middle of the roundabout, seen below looking north ...

... and below looking south.

Trams would continue northbound to a terminus typically in the middle of Barnsley Road at Sheffield Lane Top.

The roundabout and its short length of "reserved" track is still there but preserved, with rails, as a decorative and historic feature of the shopping centre.

Later the buses were extended into city via Rock Street, a route which will feature later in this complex and frustrating route change. Here on the right are a couple of buses on their way to town.

For most of their life, the buses to Shiregreen were numbered 150 and 151 but in the early 1970s they became 47 and 48 and were later linked cross city with services running south east-ish - again of which more later.

In the most recent change they became 75 and 76 but the big circular loop remained untainted and stable throughout this period of approaching 100 yeats!

Here is today's route map.

With the arrival of the Sheffield Bus non-Partnership, Stagecoach was running a competitive 88 (GREEN). the full length of Sicey Avenue using part of this long road never previously served by a frequent Sheffield service.

Although Sheffield folk grumped about the changes of route numbers, they soon adapted. They even coped with the fact the Shiregreen's buses were now running into the city via a different route; via Firth Park Road instead of Hucklow Road (DARK BROWN) 

... and via Burngreave Road instead of Rock Street.

Still awake at the back? Good!

Then fbb will plough on with his brain already aching.

And there is good news! - not much, but a bit!

The 75 will continue to serve Shiregreen!

Here is how the PTE explains it.

Service 75: From 01 September there will be timetable and route changes to partially replace service 1a, and service 75a will be introduced to provide connection to Fox Hill.

In South Sheffield, there will be no route changes. In North Sheffield, both service 

75 and 75a will leave the city via Rock Street (instead of Burngreave Road).

From Firth Park, both services will operate through Shiregreen.

Service 75 will then continue via Ecclesfield to Chapeltown (and High Green), whereas service 75a will continue via Lindsay Avenue towards Parson Cross and Fox Hill.

Combined, services will provide journeys up to every 15 minutes.

And here is how First Bus explains it.

Between Batemoor and the City Centre, the route will remain unchanged. 

In North Sheffield, this service will be revised to operate via Rock Street, Pitsmoor, Firvale, Northern General Hospital, Hucklow Rd, Bellhouse Rd and Hartley Brook Road.

Buses will split to operate via Ecclesfield Village to Chapeltown.

Service 75a will operate via Lindsey Ave, Bucannon Rd, Parson Cross Asda, Cowper Ave to Foxhill. 

During the daytime (Mon-Fri, services will be every 15 mins (every 30 mins to Chapeltown and every 30 mins to Foxhill)

So the 75 (and 75a) will be going a completely different way between city and Firth Park; they will actually be using the same route as the old 47 and 48 or the even older 150 and 151.

From Firth Park, however, the 75 and 75a make it round about three quarters of their former loop route before striking off. The timetable information is minimalist ...

... with just one time point between Shiregreen and Fox Hill or Chapeltown.

The PTE (Travel South Yorkshire) gives us what it calls ...

... which sounds like a list of stops but might be a list of roads served. In fact it is neither!

The names in BOLD are district names although they do not appear in the PTE list where you might expect them to appear geographically. So, for example, the former tram stop at Firth Park comes geographically between Hucklow Road and Bellhouse Road and not as listed.

According to the list above, once the 75 has left its former loop (below, far right)  ...

... it tuns north on Barnsley Road to terminate at Chapeltown. Currently, this is the terminus of First Bus 1a which gets there direct and not via Shiregreen. It is PALE BLUE on the map above.

The 75a runs west to Fox Hill where it will use the former turning circle once used by the tram replacement service 42.

fbb cannot dredge from his coal measures brain exactly when the 42 ceased, but the turning circle is still there and used by the locals as a car park.

An hourly 86 does use the stop, but not for terminating or turning.

But how does the 75a get to Fox Hill? fbb had assumed that it will run straight along Deerlands Avenue as shown by his red line on an map above.

The PTE list of stops and or roads mentions 

Parson Cross

Lindsay Avenue

Adlington Road

The PTE text mentions just

Lindsay Avenue

towards Parson Cross

First Bus text offers

Lindsay Avenue

Bucannon Road

Parson Cross

For the record it is Buchanan Road.

But, joy of all joys, First Bus has a map!

This offers ...

Lindsay Avenue

Buchannan Road

Parson Cross

... which is a link never before operated by anyone, ever!

Buchannan still wrong on First's map!

Adlington Road (as per the PTE route explanation) is not shown by First.

Indeed, Buchanan Road has never had a bus service, ever!

So fbb asks, Why is First going that way? 

Commercial desperation?

There is currently a route 32 (DARK BROWN) which wiggles over part of the route ...

... and would appear to serve much the same function as First's 75a. The 32 runs hourly Monday to Saturday and is tendered by the PTE.

fbb predicts that the 75a to Foxhill will not last!

So what about the "other half" of the Shiregreen service?

Aaargh!

 Next fbb  "Trial" blog : Thursday 22nd August