Bus franchising: South Yorkshire Better Buses campaigners call for pledge of fast action

The campaigners held one of their regular stalls outside the former Debenhams store on The Moor, Sheffield on Thursday, March 24, asking people to sign a petition calling on all candidates in the election for the Mayor of South Yorkshire to sign up to a Better Buses pledge during their campaigns.

They are pleased that outgoing Mayor Dan Jarvis and the four local authorities that make up the combined authority run by the mayor have jointly agreed to an assessment of franchising local services, which would bring the regulation of routes, frequencies, fares, and tickets under local control. Renationalisation of buses is currently impossible legally.

However, Better Buses are frustrated at the length of time that the process may take – it’s taken Dan Jarvis four years to make good on his election pledge on the issue, they say. They are asking candidates to agree to complete an assessment of bus franchising within two years.

The campaign’s demand is for the process to be APT, which stands for Accountable, Prompt and Transparent.

They want a bus franchising progress manager appointed to deliver the assessment on time and in budget, clear action within the first two months of the new mayor taking office and transparency in the process so the public can see what is happening.

So far, the Greens and Lib Dems are on board but the feather in the campaign’s cap would be Labour candidate Oliver Coppard, given that outgoing mayor Dan Jarvis is Labour.

They have linked their campaign to wider issues as well. Posters behind the stall call for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to act to tackle fuel poverty, pointing out that companies like Shell are making huge profits while many will struggle to pay their gas and electricity bills.

Convenor of the group, Fran Postlethwaite, from Barnsley, says having cheap public transport could help to ease that burden.

‘It’s vital to get people using public transport instead of private cars’

“There must be lots of people who just manage to run a car, thinking ‘I can’t afford to fill my car up’. There are a lot of people who are quite poor who manage to run cars,” she said.

“It just adds to the argument. Our argument is that we’re really pleased that the combined authority is going to start the process of starting to investigate franchising.

“It could take six to eight years to implement. It shouldn’t have to be like that, it should be much, much quicker.”

Fran added: “I’m involved with Better Buses because I’m concerned we should have a decent bus service. It’s vital to get people using public transport instead of private cars.

“Because of the climate emergency, we need to keep a temperature rise down to 1.5 degrees but everything is against us. Covid was the final nail in the coffin for the bus service for a lot of people.”

She said that the unreliability and cost of using the bus puts many off – on top of that, far fewer bus passengers now travel wearing masks.

“The main thing that you get from many bus users is that they are unreliable. You can’t rely on the bus to turn up,” she added.

“People are standing at bus stops in isolated spots or paying for taxis.”

Join Better Buses at South Yorkshire Climate Summit

Concerns over climate change have attracted several people to become active in the campaign.

Fran said: “It's the way it fits in so naturally as it’s absolutely crucial that we tackle CO2 emissions.

“Transport is a major contributor – something like one third in South Yorkshire come from transport. The vast majority of that is private use. Buses only contribute about 3 per cent of that figure.”

Getting people out of their cars and back on to buses would be a major step forward on tackling climate change locally, the campaigners say.

Campaigner Jenny Carpenter, who lives in Banner Cross, Sheffield, said: “I spoke to somebody who lives in Chancet Wood. They have a bus once an hour. This person’s daughter has to get to work and the first bus is at 5.30am.

“It sometimes it doesn’t turn up and she has to get to Carterknowle. Sometimes she finds herself walking to Carterknowle. She’s got an understanding boss but you shouldn’t have to, should you?”

Also active in South Yorkshire Climate Alliance, Jenny wants to go much further than better buses – she wants huge improvements in train services as well, including looking at how solar power could be introduced to run them.

She says better, cheaper trains could help persuade people to take more holidays in this country, rather than flying abroad.

Better Buses took part in a South Yorkshire Climate Summit on Saturday, March 26, hosted by Sheffield/South Yorkshire Climate Campaign Umbrella Coalition.

The event was to discuss how to stop the climate emergency and create green jobs. The Better Buses campaign took part in a workshop on getting better transport and cutting traffic pollution.

To contact the Better Buses campaign, follow @BetterBusesSY on Facebook or Twitter or call 07837 996888.