Better bus service? I won't hold my breath

Well I can tell you one service that isn’t and that is service 85. This service has supposedly been changed, but the only change I can see is the timetable has been altered by about four minutes and it took them 10 days to change the timetables at the bus stops. I don’t see how this change can improve the service.

What would improve the service would be to give us back three buses to the hour. They want to take one bus an hour off the services 1a and 1 that run from High Green to Chapeltown and give them to services 85 and 86 giving these routes three buses to the hour. Losing one bus an hour off services 1a and 1 wouldn’t make that much difference to them as there seems to be an abundance of these services.

This morning I went out for the 9.27am 85 from Hollowgate – it arrived at 9.42am. This is totally unacceptable for a service that only has two buses to the hour.

That wasn’t the end of it though. When we got to Snig Hill we were all waiting for the bus to continue its journey but after a wait of about five minutes we were told to get on the bus behind. It would appear that there wasn’t a replacement driver.

This service is never going to get any better while buses are running from the north of Sheffield to the south. It wants a service to terminate in the city and then turn round for the return journey.

Services 85 and 86 run practically at the same time. This obviously isn’t for the benefit of the passengers that could catch either bus.

For two services that both only have two buses to the hour you’d think that they would time them so that they’d be 15 minutes apart at the stops that use both services.

I’m not holding my breath for any improvement to the service but I can honestly say that I will think twice before going into Sheffield. For the past 12 weeks I have been taking part in a research project at Sheffield Hallam and it required me to go three times a week. I can honestly say I really enjoyed taking part in the project but the downfall was the journey to and from Collegiate Crescent. I had to leave 1 1/2 hours before my appointment and a lot of the time it took me two hours to get home. It is no joy waiting for buses or sitting on them for lengthy journeys, especially when you know you are only really half an hour from the city centre.

Linda Cavanagh

Livingstone Road, S35 2UG