Every 10 Minutes, Seven Days A Week (3)

 Mutterings About The Map!

The Sheffield Connect minibus, running every ten minutes SEVEN days a week starts from stand B1 at the bus station (sorry, Sheffield Interchange - although less and less services call there to interchange) as photographed here being seen off by a couple of Councillors.

It isn't a Free Bee although no one seems very keen to tell potential passengers who will actually pay a fare! But the Green Party seems to have hi-jacked the "launch" publicity.

Or lack of it!

Well done Doug. Were there any real genuine passengers?

Of course not, because real genuine passengers know nothing about the service thanks to a dearth of meaningful publicity.

If you know a bit about Sheffield, either today or in the past, you would expect a Shoppers Shuttle to serve the main shopping areas ...

... by running up High Street where be loadsa shops, and on past the Cathedral.

Except it doesn't. 

It stops on Arundel Gate and a near lethal road crossing away from the High Street, then skulks round the back via Norfolk Street. Much is made of the stop serving the Theatres (Crucible left, Lyceum ahead) ...

... which are, except for special events, resolutely closed when the bus is running! Note the timetable NOT in the frame! (Bus and stop pictures below from Roy, many thanks.)

But it is about misplaced political dogma. The Councillors, most of whom do not travel by bus (heaven forfend that they should ever sink so low!) were so keen to close Pinstone Street (left at the clutter) ...

... that the route away from the shops was chosen as the only way to get a bus stop to the very end of the closed street. See, there a pole, flag and sign telling you it is a bus stop, all set in a huge concrete block.

The only way to get from there to the rest of the city's shops on the Moor is then by a circuitous ramble round less than pleasant back streets almost totally lacking in any retail opportunity..

The stop on Pinfold street is currently papered over ...

... and the lavishly appointed stops on Carver Street ...

... (note the "Alighting Only" label) and Rockingham Street ...

... were still Sheffield Connect anonymous from day 1.

Whatever happened to the promised Rockingham Street bus "hub" and it's associated bijou urban park?

The whole thing is a bit of a botched job!

The stop on Rockingham Street is too far from the shops ...

... and there should be a stop on Charter Row.

Of course, a genius like fbb could solve ALL these problems "at a stroke", with no desire for a lavish consultation fee.

Just turn left rather than right at the Town Hall ...

... and run the service via Pinstone Street (GREEN)

But no; stubborn political dogma rules OK and the Council is NOT having nasty buses along Pinstone street ever again.

Even if it offends Council bigotry, putting the service that way is what the passengers want, it is what the bus company wants and it is what the Pinstone Street traders want. But then this is democracy, innit?

Even better, put all the buses back and you don't have to waste resources on the expensive-to-run Sheffield Connect!

And while you are at it, Councillors, take a look at the timetable.

No, look more closely.

Does any one really think you can get a busy bus from the Surrey Street Town Hall stop to Moor Market, all round those wiggly back streets ...

... crossing the busy tram route TWICE and waiting for innumerable sets of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, in just FOUR MINUTES?

What planet are the schedulers on?

It would be a challenge to keep to time if the roads were empty, if there were no other buses waiting to get on the stops and no passengers wanted to board or alight; but otherwise fbb reckons EIGHT minutes would be a wise running time.

Four minutes might just be workable (on a quiet day) if the bus ran via Pinstone Street???

No problem; the buses are far from busy!

And Finally ...

The above email was received in the fbb office and read post apple crumble (super delicious from Mrs fbb) at about 1800 yesterday. It is from John, another Sheffield correspondent. 

STI = "Sheffield Transport Interchange" - i.e. the bus station.

Presumably the temporary bus stops do not have departure lists in the frames because they do not exist on the "confuser", so the PTE's contractors are unable to update them!

John does, however, confirm that there is very little likelihood of anyone paying the £1 fare. Maybe a Tesco receipt or a car park ticket would do if your bus ticket has blown away in a Sheffield breeze.

Or perhaps print your own?

P.S. Apologies for delayed posting yesterday morning. fbb forgot to press the "go, go, go" button before beddybyes the previous evening.

 Next Village blog : Thursday 4th August 

Every 10 Minutes, Seven Days A Week (2)

 But Who Knows?

Publicity for the new Sheffield city centre service was flooding on to the streets of Sheffield over the weekend NOT. Excited readers could also enjoy an advert on the home page of the Travel South Yorkshire web site (see above) if they spotted it scrolling past.

Sheffield correspondent Roy snapped the information at Stand B1, Sheffield Interchange on Sunday.

There was a non timetable ...

... relatively illegible. Maybe Sheffield folk could just cope with the complex maths of the phrase "and every 10 minutes" but in bigger print. fbb does accept that a "proper" timetable is probably a waste of time as the chances of the buses keeping to their advertised schedule are minimal. (more to follow)

There is a "Customer Notice" ...

... although most customers might spot that it is a "notice" without being told. Better would be a large ...

... big enough to catch the "customer's" eye!

And there is a map, which fbb will explore later.

Out on the streets, again on Sunday, bus stops have started to appear, like this one outside the Crucible Theatre on Norfolk Street.

As well as the "flag" there is a sign telling you that it really is a bus stop. In case you hadn't noticed.

The flag itself, obviously designed at great expense by an internationally renowned firm of public transport consultants, is in a fetching but weak purple colour with white lettering, far too small to read easily ...

... especially when the flag is pitched high on the pole. The stops list should be at eye level e.g. as part of the timetable frame, not high up a pole. 

In the absence of detailed information, at least the flag will give the optically gifted some idea where the bus might go!

Readers will have noted that there was no advance timetable information in the frames on Sunday, last. No rush to tell people, SYT, in case they try to use it!!

Keen observers of the realm of modern traffic management and the associated abundance of street furniture may have spotted these as they ambled round the city centre.

The "buses only" signs and the bus stop with flag and notice telling you it is a bus stop are planted in large blocks of concrete, so are "transportable" if you've got a small crane. Does this imply that the route is "experimental"?

They are at the end of Surrey Street, next to the Town Hall (out of shot, left) on a bit of road that was blocked off as part of the Pinstone Street closure.

This view is looking west. Here is a street map extract but this time facing north as is the convention. Straight ahead is Barkers Pool ...

... and hitherto the roads to the left (Pinstone Street) and right (Leopold Street) have been closed to all traffic in the potty scheme to discourage passengers from travelling by bus into central Sheffield.

Here are a couple of pictures from Roy, taken on the first day ...

... the above at Moorfoot, Cumberland Street. outside the fascia of the relatively new Moor Market.

And the lads have managed to get the logo on to the monolith stop sign.

Spot the strong visible brand on the bus!

But it is all on line.

Well, it is if you know where to look. The service doesn't have a route number so it is listed under "SC", so easy to track down, NOT.

Although the timetable is identical Monday to Saturday, TSY insists on showing every journey in full on both days.

Saturday ditto!

And, ludicrously, it runs on Sundays. None of the earlier city shuttle buses have EVER run on Sundays.

Whoever's paying the bill must have money to waste!

More tomorrow.

Yellow Buses - Again

The "statement" from the receivers is given below (at least the bits that matter!) in a more legible form than on an earlier blog.

Yellow Buses has suffered from the challenges of the COVID period and the changes in lifestyle habits which have followed, with more people working remotely and some people still being reluctant to travel on public transport.  All of this has severely reduced passenger numbers on all routes. 

This loss of revenue has had a financial impact on the business and additional factors such as the recent increase in fuel prices and the general rise in inflation has only made that greater. 

The directors have, for some time, been looking for outside investment or a purchaser to take Yellow Buses onto the next stage of its life.  They felt that as a small independent business it was unable to handle the current challenges alone and hoped that by merging with a larger operator it would provide them with a broader platform from which to operate. 

Unfortunately, those negotiations take time, and during that time the business was coming under increasing financial pressure. Negotiations with one of those parties, a large national operator, have entered the final stages and we hope to be able to conclude within a matter of days.  

 Next 10 Minute Frequency blog : Wednesday 3rd Aug 

Every 10 Minutes, Seven Days A Week (1)

 It Was/Is All About The Money

Conceived by Sheffield Transport a brief while before the PTE happened, the city centre service was run by AEC two-door Swifts with a flat fare collected by a dayglo pink adorned cylindrical farebox. 

The PTE enthusiastically espoused the service, quickly making it free as part of their cheap fares policy.

Needless to say, it was hugely successful carrying huge crowds such that it needed a steady stream of articulated buses to cope!

But the cheap fares policy fell foul of national Tory philosophy and a fare-charging Clipper was less successful and the route closed.

Then in 2007 a "son of Clipper" appeared - again free - called FreeBee. It's launch was low key (just a blue ribbon, no goodies and no public to watch) ...

... but it followed a route similar to The Clipper from bus station, via the central shopping area to Moorfoot and back.

Of course, it was a "political" bus route, a desperate (and probably failed!) attempt to revitalise the city centre in the face of the out-of-town shopping biggie, Meadowhell.

For the likes of fbb, such places are "Hell" but it does have a bus station and train station (lower left in picture above) and is surrounded by free car parks.

FreeBee started in 2007 and lasted for just about seven years - when it was withdrawn.

fbb was scathing in this blog at the time!

The text in blue is added by fbb!

It was not clear at the time whether the money ran out, whether it was a failure or whether the politicians decided to spend the money on something more appropriate to their political views.

Historically, shopping in Sheffield was linear, running from Wicker in the north to the The Moor in the south and most city bus routes served all or part of the shopping area. 

When fbb arrived in the city in 1963, Wicker was already in decline but the Castle Market was the place to shop for what were then called "the workings classes". Posher folk would use Fargate, Pinstone Street and The Moor.

Many of the Moor's shops were rebuilt after drastic WW2 bombing but it took thirty years to tidy up the dilapidated southern end. And that was achieved not with shops but with an office block!

First Fargate was closed to all traffic. This was OK because the buses would stop at both ends.

Then The Moor was closed to all traffic (1970 ish) and buses were banished to parallel roads "round the back". Although a pedestrianised Moor was not a great success, the City Clipper helped in carrying passengers to both ends and round the back on the parallel roads, Charter Row and Eyre Street.

Then came the recent closure of Pinstone Street. This was announced as "temporary" to aid social distancing.

Tosh!

The pavements were the widest in the city and there was plenty of space to shop, saunter, be sociable and (if desired) be separated.

The effect of this closure was to remove buses from some of their most important stops and send them even further "round the bask" (Streetview before the new stops were installed) ...

... with no room at all for social distancing! Of course, the stops were now even further from the shops.

But the Councillors who wanted to make this closure permanent suggested that they would run a minibus to serve the embargoed areas. This was dated March 2022.

And yesterday it started amid not even a faint glimmer of publicity. 

If you happened to search the right bit of the internet, you might have picked up an advance notice (advance by a few days) but you would have been lucky.

Saying it is "Free" to existing pass holders is not much of a statement. Of course it will be free if you hold an Old Fogey's pass. 

Councillor Terry Fox ...

... seems to think it will be free if you already have a bus ticket in your eager hand. So, presumably, just pick one up off the pavement and save yourself £1.

Back in the days of the Clipper and/or Freebeer, folk would hop on or off as they wished and as they shopped; but this new service will cost non pass holders and, possibly, existing ticket holders £1 per journey.

It is not quite the same, is it? You could end up paying an extra £4 per city centre shopping trip if you "hopped", say, four times between shops!

On the other hand, it is not at all clear who will actually pay! fbb awaits a report.

And if too many travel the "minibus" will be full anyway.

Nevertheless, it starts today! 

fbb has his Sheffield correspondents on hand to report back!

We will have a look at this astounding bus service development tomorrow.

Lovely Livery 

Below is, possibly, oner of fbb's favourite liveries. It was for the post-privatised London and Country bus network (formerly London Country South West). The colours were vibrant but with a strong hint of the historic (but boring) all-over green.

It is shown off well on this beautifully preserved double decker.

This was the work of the Bearded Bus Beautifier from the Bush (a k a Ray Stenning) before he went all swirly and all jiggly.

So good to see the livery enhancing the body shape rather than obscuring it!

Pity it had to be spoiled by adverts!

From Good To Awful

How to block the view of most top deck passengers! (click to enlarge the horror!)

Well done Stagecoach!

STOP PRESS

Rumours are flying around that Yellow Buses has been in discussions with National Express. NEx sold Dundee Buses to McGills possibly as a prelude to merging with Stagecoach - a merger which didn't happen.

No further information is to hand.

 Next Every 10 Minutes blog : Tuesday 2nd August