Passengers angered by further cuts to region’s public transport

The latest round of savings measures imposed by the transport executive which oversees services in Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster has put 50 jobs under threat – sending staffing levels plummeting to almost half of what they were four years ago.

Cleaning of bus shelters will be reduced to once every three months from once a month under the plans, which will be introduced by the South Yorkshire Public Transport Executive (SYPTE) in April.

Council leaders and transport companies which make up the combined authority blamed the Government’s reduction to local budgets for the need to make £7.6m of savings.

Chairman Coun Steve Houghton said: “It is with regret that the 10 per cent reduction to South Yorkshire’s public transport budget means there must be changes to other front line services.

“We realise that this means some customers may need to change the way they find information about bus, tram and train times, and how they buy tickets and apply for passes, and equality impact assessments have been carefully worked through as part of these plans.”

“Nobody wants to do this, but we have to put forward a balanced budget,” added Coun Ros Jones, the Mayor of Doncaster.

The removal of paper timetables will save £118,000, while the Arundel Gate Travel Information Centre in the heart of Sheffield will operate as a bus interchange only.

SYPTE maintained the cuts have allowed operators to retain discretionary concessions for older and disabled people, 70p child fares and other subsidised routes. But several schemes have already been scaled back dramatically.

Last April, a decision to limit concessionary travel across South Yorkshire so that free weekday travel on buses and trams for the elderly and disabled was only available between 9.30am and 11pm, and remove locally-funded concessionary rail passes was met with a wave of protests.

Tony Nuttall, of Barnsley Retirees’ Action Group, led the ‘freedom rides’ which saw campaigners refusing to pay for public transport and staging rallies at train stations.

He said: “The cumulative effect of all these cuts is as worrying as anything. The combined effect must be to discourage older and poorer people not to use public transport and to stay at home, with terrible knock-on consequences for their health and well-being, and further costs to society. It is a downward spiral.”

Retiree Alan Turner has been campaigning for the reinstatement of bus services for Todwick, near Rotherham, after his village was hit by the last round of cuts at the hands of SYPTE.

He said: “Most people have computers these days but there are a lot of older people who don’t have that access. There have been a lot of changes to timetables so it is bound to cause confusion.

“I don’t agree with it but I suppose when you have cut and cut there’s nothing left.

“They’ve reduced services back so much that they’re having to find money from other places.”