Good News But Not Quite (1)

It was generally agreed by the bus industry that, when services were reduced "for the duration" the broad pattern would be for Sunday services to operate all week with extra journeys where needed to get people to work. In Sheffield, Stagecoach cooperatively did just that and these Sunday-type frequencies remain. But First was, some would say, over cautious and opted for an hourly frequency even when a normal Sunday used to offer buses at least every 30 minutes.

From yesterday, and on Mondays to Fridays only, most of First's services are being doubled in frequency, i.e. to that Sunday-based half hourly headway.

Hooray.

In particular, some areas that lost their main service completely got their buses back.

Hooray.

Lovely in Loxley

Loxley was a small hamlet on the north western edge of Sheffield ...

... reputedly the home of Robin Hood (a k a robin of Loxley). The housing provided residence for those working at the forges and grinding businesses in the valley of the village's eponymous river.

Until the 1960s its bus was route 16/116 to the Btadfields Low and High. 16s ran hourly, later reduced to two hourly and renumbered 61.

The route still runs and is back to hourly as circular service 61 and 62 ...

... seen here in the tendered hands of T M Travel in glorious Sheffield weather.

It is now run by Powells and retains its generous frequency despite the crisis ...

... and it is a gorgeous ride!

As housing extended along Ben Lane and Rodney Hill, Sheffield Transport added a revised service 14 to better serve the newer development.

That became a First Bus route ...

... to be replaced by Sheffield Community Transport (SCT) 31 running a more complex route and a less direct journey into town.

Then SCT withdrew from all bus services and First came back on the Loxley route by tagging the village onto the end of its 52a (see map above). When the 52a was slashed back to hourly, Loxley was abandoned.

From yesterday, the 52a returned.

Hooray!

Fantastic for Flanderwell

Flanderwell is a large 1960s (?) estate developed north of the A57 Bawtry Road that links Rotherham with the former mining village of Maltby.

There is a lot of it, but serving it with buses has never been a great commercial success. Its most recent manifestation has been to incorporate it into First's prestigious (?) Steellink X1 service between Sheffield, Meadowhell, Rotherham and Maltby - as route X10.

But come the coronavirus crisis cutbacks the X10 became ex; leaving a paltry but adequate hourly X1 passing by on the main road.

On the map above, the X7 has been withdrawn (before virus cuts), the 4 is not running and the 3 is reduced to a few Monday to Friday shopping trips.

This has left Flanderwell with no buses to Meadowhell or Sheffield and a minimalist service into Rotherham.

But the X10 is back.

Hooray!

Triumph for Todwick
Todwick was a very small village inconsiderately just off the A57 to the east of Sheffield.

Back in the day, Sheffield Joint Omnibus Committee route 15 ran every hour to Dinnington "via Todwick Village". Buses from Sheffield would turn right off the A57 along Goosecarr Lane (picture above top left).

Thanks to the dualling of the A57, that turn is now impossible which makes serving the village very messy.

But the X54 and and the occasional diverted X55 were expunged at the same time as the nearby X5 service was reduced to hourly. The 29 runs to Rotherham via a different route.

Poor sweet Todwick, but not poor on Sundays. Whilst First's commercial X54 had gone, T M Travel's tendered X54 still ran every hour on Sunday! Crackpot!

It has recently been reduced to approx every two hours.

So when the lads from First decided to put the X5 back to half hourly, the clever chaps (maybe chapesses as well) decided to run the extra journeys via Todders.

The "normal" X5s run via Wales (there's lovely boyo!), and along the B6059 to Anston and Dinnington. The extra X5s exit their normal route by turning off at Kiveton Park then unclassified to Todwick and A57 onwards; similar in the reverse direction. Clever eh?

Whilst current restrictions mean that the all night celebratory parties at Loxley, Flanderwell and Todwick cannot happen ...

... there may well be a quiet cheer or two now that officially essential bus travel is restored.

This happened on the day that Boris has encouraged us all back to work if we can do so safely and avoid using public transport. Now that is the same public transport that the government has encouraged operators - encouraged by slipping them substantial bags of pennies - to run for essential workers.

Confused.com!!!!

So that's the good news  ...

But ...

 Next extra buses blog : Wednesday 13th May