South Yorkshire bus passenger numbers fell to 10 per cent at height of lockdown

South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) executive director Stephen Edwards gave an update on public transport response and recovery to a recent meeting of the Sheffield City region transport board.

He said that numbers had gone back up to around 30 per cent of what they were prior to the country-wide lockdown in March but the service is still reliant on Government intervention to keep services running.

The meeting heard the change to one metre plus social distancing rule and the mandatory wearing of face coverings on public transport meant there was the ability to increase capacity although the operators were ‘not considering this at the moment’.

A major challenge would be when ‘schools and colleges returned in September’ which would ‘lead to a gap in capacity’.

Concession fares across the bus network was also discussed.

Members of the transport board will also consider if or when to increase the child and young persons notified fare, currently at 80p along with extended discounts for young people up to age 22 and concessions for care leavers.

The discussion also included the recommendations with regard to concessions from the SCR Bus Review.

These were an enhanced concession offer for apprentices, extending the scheme to allow passengers to use travel passes on all services after 9.30am and simplifying the fares offer for young people.

In published minutes, it said: “Unsurprisingly at the beginning of the lockdown passenger numbers had dropped dramatically and operators across all transport modes had been running reduced services.

“At the height of the lockdown, patronage had reduced by around 90 per cenr and even with the gradual ease of lockdown measures patronage was only back to around 20 per cent to 30 per cent of pre-Covid-19 numbers on bus and the national message remained to avoid public transport.

“The board also discussed the need to ensure that when the public transport network was reinstated that it was more environmentally sustainable.

“Members agreed that the role of discretionary concessions in supporting the return to work and restart of the economy was important, and how it supported sectors of society and the economy in returning to previous levels of economic output would be critical.

“Although there were already plans and measures in place to improve air quality and emissions from buses across the region, consideration should be given as to how the network was encouraged to use lower emission or zero emission vehicles.”