South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive does not have a very good track record in serving the people of the Metropolitan County that was once Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster. This lack of effectiveness is illustrated by a couple of pictures received yesterday from a correspondent as he wandered around Rotherham.
On Greasbrough Road (a little bit of it, isolated by inner ring road stuff), next to the Bridge Inn ...
... is a bus stop clearly labelled "alighting only".
In the frame is a departure list for service X78, Sheffield Rotherham Doncaster, but, of course, you cannot board one here, only alight! Even if you could, the list is for buses travelling in the opposite direction to that shown on the stop's list.
And so to Corporation Street ...
... just outside Wilko.
Here you can find helpful information of all sorts but of particular interest is ...
... details of Christmas and New Year services of over two months ago.
The PTE, in all its stranger manifestations ...
... seem to lack focus and accuracy as it goes about its noble business.
There was, you may remember, the farcically wrong "underground style" route map.
This was designed (using the term in its loosest sense) to help the weary passenger to find their way around.
Not much help for Firth Park, where the diagram shows services ...
1, 1a and 88 as calling. But so do 3, 3a, 75 and 76 - in the PTE "designer" hands they miss the key suburban shopping centre completely. Or you could try to go to Southey Green ...
... where the mangling of truth is so convoluted that no one could ever plan a successful journey!
Then the diagram purports to show "frequent" services. There are actually vast swathes of the Sheffield network as shown on the map which never rise above every 20.
Here the 81 and 82 and the two forks of the 97/98 are never more frequent that a paltry three buses an hour.
The map and its failings was featured in The Star, Sheffield's evening paper and improvements were promised as a consequence. None have appeared!
fbb offered to provide, free of charge, a correct map in a similar style. Offer firmly declined!
Of course, to save money and to discourage passenger usage, the PTE no longer produces paper timetables. This is left to the operators (of which more tomorrow).
Here is a non-leaflet for changes on 3rd March.
It included extra journeys on Saturdays introduced by Stagecoach in an effort to gain a bit of extra business when the lads at Norther were having their strike non-action.
The strike was officially suspended on February 6th.
RAIL UNION RMT said today that substantial progress in talks through the offices of ACAS has allowed the union’s executive to suspend the on-going programme of strike action on Northern Rail over the retention and the role of the guard on their trains.
There were certainly no "strike" buses from mid February.
But things were actually worse than that.
The 1715 from Chesterfield is ignored as is the shaded journey but, to be fair, that doesn't start until 8th April.
There is a similar extra in the other direction ...
... but the 2115 from Meadowhall (and its matching outward run from Barnsley) do not appear at all - and these were added to the timetable at the beginning of 2019 expressly for shift workers at Meadowhall.
As will be expected, it doesn't appear on Traveline either.
But the PTE has announced a timetable change from 6th April ...
... including past journeys omitted; but not the 1715 from Chesterfield to Matlock on college days.
fbb can let the PTE into the secret. It is actually an X18 continuing to Buxton ...
... so presumably does not get "captured" by the PTE's "sustainable" but unthinking computerised systems.
Of course anyone can make mistakes (fbb does so frequently) but, if we are to rely on journey planners and the "it's all on line" brigade, it is absolutely vital that information is both accurate and timely.
Which brings us nicely to another job for Holmes and Watson, perhaps; "The Case Of The Missing Leaflets".
But just one further thought for our keen readers. What is wrong with this timetable extract? (you can click on the timetable for an enlargement)
Tricky, eh?
There is a similar extra in the other direction ...
But the PTE has announced a timetable change from 6th April ...
fbb can let the PTE into the secret. It is actually an X18 continuing to Buxton ...
Of course anyone can make mistakes (fbb does so frequently) but, if we are to rely on journey planners and the "it's all on line" brigade, it is absolutely vital that information is both accurate and timely.
Which brings us nicely to another job for Holmes and Watson, perhaps; "The Case Of The Missing Leaflets".
But just one further thought for our keen readers. What is wrong with this timetable extract? (you can click on the timetable for an enlargement)
Next Time for a Re-Think blog : Friday 15th March
The lack of clear information provided by SYPTE is staggering. It has been difficult enough to find what you need to know from their bus stop displays since they insisted on showing only a list of departures rather than an actual timetable, but they have now reached a new nadir. First Bus have decided for reasons best know to themselves to no longer stick to the principle of a route number correlating with a destination. So the combined 81/82, which until the recent timetable change was divided between Dore (81) and Millhouses (82), now sometimes varies, at least on Sundays, so some 81's now go to Millhouses and some 82's to Dore. SYPTE gives no indication of this. The 81 and 82 departures are combined, with a tiny footnote (reading glasses required, and virtually invisible in low light) indicating which is 81 and which 82 - but this no longer tells you where the bus is going!
ReplyDeleteIt looks to me as if there's some mistake with the Sunday timetable and the use of the 81/82 service numbers. If that's the case I don't know whether First or SYPTE are to blame, but i agree - it's certainly confusing.
ReplyDelete