Travellers shun buses as trams and trains pull extra business

Figures published by the South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority (SYITA) reveal that, at the end of the last financial year, the number of passengers travelling on buses, trams and trains in South Yorkshire reached a total of just over 133 million.

However, while the number of bus journeys made is down by 3.5 per cent – or four million – the number of train journeys is up by 3.1 million, which equates to more than 52 per cent.

The number of journeys made on Sheffield’s Supertram system also rose over the same time period, with 2010-11 figures being up by 1.9 million on 2009-10.

Targets set by SYITA for the number of bus journeys made are therefore not being met and, in a report set to go before a meeting of the authority next week, all results for “bus patronage” are graded red, or “off-track.”

The report set to go before that meeting says: “Over the period 2005-06 to 2010-11 bus passenger numbers declined to 109 million while those for tram and train both rose, to 15 million and 9.1 million respectively.

“This was a continuation of the mode shift between public transport services that has been going on for the last few years.

“The share of total journeys taken by bus has fallen from 86 per cent to 82 per cent, while tram has grown from 10 per cent to 11 per cent and train has risen from four per cent to seven per cent.”

The report goes on to say that a huge number of improvements have been made to “increase the attractiveness of the bus service across South Yorkshire.”

This has included introducing new low-floor buses, supporting environmentally-friendly measures and implementing “congestion relief measures.”

However, bus patronage was still “off-track” for all 12 months of 2010-11.

The report says: “The loss is accounted for by three main factors.

“Firstly, the decline in the number of full fare paying passengers. Secondly, a reduction in total passenger numbers in all districts, with the exception of Barnsley, and thirdly, the effect on the number of potential and actual journeys due to the severe weather in quarter three.”

New services are being added to try and increase bus usage, such as a night service in Barnsley and a route to serve the new ASOS warehouse in Park Spring Road.

The SYITA report adds: “Overall, patronage numbers continue to be challenging, but the gap between this year and last year narrowed in the final quarter.

“In the short term though, the additional bank holiday in April and the late Easter will have a larger than usual effect on patronage numbers.”

A spokesman for bus company First admitted that the last year had been “challenging.”

The spokesman said: “The last 12 months have been challenging for us in light of the continuing economic recession as well as the exceptionally bad weather that South Yorkshire has suffered.

“However, we are very positive that we can grow the number of people using our buses over the next few months.

“We have frozen the fares on our buses since December and have recently started some new routes that serve Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster. We also have a number of promotions and initiatives in the pipeline.”

Rupert Cox, commercial director of Stagecoach Yorkshire, said the bus company was “ bucking the regional trend.”

He said: “In the last 12 months we carried almost 37 million passengers in South Yorkshire, which is an increase of 5.4 per cent, or almost two million journeys, compared to the previous year.

“This growth would have been even greater had the winter weather not severely impacted on our operations. Snow and ice on the roads caused us to carry about a quarter of a million less passengers.”