'Covid-19 will not hamper efforts to improve bus services', say Sheffield City Region bosses

Sheffield City Region bosses have said the coronavirus pandemic will not hold the authority back in its mission to overhaul bus services in South Yorkshire.
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Chief executive Dave Smith said the SCR was committed to improving services to make them work for the residents of the county.

Mr Smith was responding to questions from councillors on the economic uncertainty in the region from the Covid-19 crisis.

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Metro mayor Dan Jarvis asked Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts to chair a panel and produce a report on the present state of services and what can be done to improve the services.

Dan JarvisDan Jarvis
Dan Jarvis

The report is ready to be published but is currently on hold due to the coronavirus restrictions.

Councillors have heard the report highlighted four key challenges for the bus system that had emerged from the evidence gathered:

*The network faced 'significant bus reliability and frequency challenges'.

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*There was 'inadequate connectivity' between bus routes and with other

modes of transport.

*The system was 'overly complicated' and difficult to navigate.

*There was an 'inconsistent quality' of the network.

In a recent city region scrutiny meeting, Sheffield councillor Penny Baker asked chief executive Dave Smith if the city region would ‘finally give us a transport system that actually works’.

Coun Baker said: “One ongoing issue through this scrutiny board for some time is the issue of buses in the area.

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“I’m happy that active travel is being mentioned but this is an opportunity we hopefully we’re not going to miss, working with partners and others to finally give us a transport system that actually works.

“The board would be reassured that the work with active travel and the bus companies to look broader than it has in the past.”

Mr Smith responded: “I agree with the comment on our public transport system and the importance of it in terms of the quality, the accessibility, reliability and frequency of services.

“We all recognise that there’s substantial investment required in our transport services to achieve those goals as well as the need to reexamine the governance of them and how we work as a partnership to get the best we can with the resources we have.

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“We aim to achieve change in our public transport services that will encourage people to use them because it meets people’s needs better than it currently does.

“We’re not lessening our commitment to those things. It remains front and centre for the mayor and the combined authority about how we get to a public transport system.”

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