New bus operator, poorer services

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 18th Apr 2006

Stagecoach will move into direct competition with FirstBus

South Yorkshire's new bus operator is not helping to deliver a better bus service in the city Sheffield's Liberal Democrats can reveal. Lib Dems are renewing their calls for the re-regulation of bus services to allow local control over routes, timetables and fares.

One of the UK's five national bus operators, Stagecoach, recently took over Yorkshire Terrier, South Yorkshire's second largest operator. It was hoped that the move would lead to better integration with Sheffield's major bus operator, First Group, resulting in extra services and more competitive fare pricing.

However, Stagecoach's first move has been to cut services in some areas and move into direct competition with First on some of the most popular routes in the city. The cuts are particularly severe in the north of Sheffield where many users will be left with a much poorer service.

A list of recently released service changes reveals that Stagecoach will drop services such as the 74 and 74A whilst new services, such as the 88 and 88A, will be introduced on some main routes in direct competition with First. These changes will lead to a concentration of bus services that will compete for existing passengers but fail to attract new passengers.

Councillor Sylvia Dunkley, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for Transport, said: -

"Any hopes that Stagecoach would deliver a more integrated bus service in Sheffield seem to have been dashed with the latest announcement of changes to services."

"Stagecoach's move to cut some services whilst targeting the more profitable routes is bad news for bus provision in Sheffield. These latest cuts will leave many users in the north of the city with a significantly poorer service"

"We need bus operators that aim to attract new customers, but instead it appears they are competing over existing users. No wonder bus passenger numbers are falling in our region."

"I believe that bus provision should be re-regulated to allow local control over routes, timetables and fares. We will continue to campaign against this Labour Government's bus policy and in favour of re-regulation. But In the meantime the Council should be doing all it can to work with bus operators to prevent further cuts"