'Back to the future' - South Yorkshire buses back under public control

Speaking after a meeting of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority in Sheffield officially made the decision to go ahead following a major public consultation exercise, Mayor Coppard said the process should be complete by 2027.

Seated aboard a vintage Sheffield bus outside his offices, the mayor said: “We’re going back to the future. We used to have a world-class public transport system in South Yorkshire.

“When I was growing up here in Sheffield we used to have 2p bus fares, buses all over the place connecting up our communities, and then, as a result of privatisation over the last 40 years we’ve lost that and we’re now in a place where our bus network simply isn’t good enough.

“So today we’ve taken the decision to bring our buses back under public control in 2027 so we can be back in charge of routes and fares and timetables.” He said the entire process of transformation would take another three years to complete.

Mayor Coppard said that he would be investing £350m in bus services over the next decade. “I promised in 2022 when I was first elected that I would bring buses back under public control and today that’s a promise kept.

“From now we have to do a lot more work. We’ve taken that decision to invest in the future of the network.”

He said that the decision hadn’t been inevitable because it has required navigating a lengthy and difficult process put in place by the last government. Now the new government is willing to invest in South Yorkshire, he said.

The process involved “a huge and lengthy amount of public consultation, the hugest [response] per capita in the country,” said the mayor. That included more than 30 meetings where people were able to say what they want the service to look like, as well as paper and online consultation.

Mayor Coppard said that, as well as choosing a new brand for the public transport network, his team would be looking at issues such as where the bus depots should be and negotiating with bus companies. He said that profitable routes such as those running along Ecclesall Road, Sheffield and near the city hospitals would be able to subsidise others.

He said he would be able to tackle what are known as ‘transport deserts’, where there are currently no buses or little or no service in the evenings and at weekends.

Matthew Topham, lead campaigner at We Own It, welcomed today’s decision but said that the fight to go further will continue. He has been working alongside the campaign Better Buses South Yorkshire.

He said: “We’ve been robbed of world-leading services by privatisation. Bus franchising is a fundamental gear-change in local service quality.

“It’s a testament to the people of South Yorkshire that the Mayor is now delivering a reform that could over time boost reliability, integrate tickets and routes, and halt or reverse cuts.

“But it isn’t the end of the failed privatised model. In London, they’re taking steps to run the franchised network through a local publicly-owned operator.

“We will soon get the powers to do the same here. We once led the world for bus services. We can and must again.”

A rally outside today’s meeting brought together campaigners with trade unionists including Sheffield Trades Council and striking Unite union bin workers, Xtinction Rebellion and the Sheffield Samba Band.