South Yorkshire needs Better Buses

If politicians are ever going to reverse the trend of more and more cars on our roads, causing road deaths and injuries, pollution from both tyres and exhaust, congestion, pavement parking and global heating, they urgently need to improve our bus service. So I was pleased to join a wide range of groups last Saturday to campaign for Better Buses for South Yorkshire (BBSY). 

Top of the bill were Act Now who became Abba for the day with a new rendition of Money, Money Money. It’s become an earworm I have been trying to get rid of all week! 

I wait all night I wait all-day

To catch the bus to work and play

Ain’t it sad

But still there never seems to be 

A single one that comes for me

That’s too bad

In my dreams, I have a plan

Money’s there for buses, man

I wouldn’t have to wait at all

I’d fool around and have a ball

Money money money

It would be yummy

If the buses ran

Money money money

It’s not that funny

With no funding plan

Aha, aha

All the things I could do

If the buses had some money

With a funding plan

We heard many speeches at Fitzalan Square. Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire, told us he recognises the system is broken because of deregulation. He is pleading for the Government to provide £205 million to invest in the bus service. He got a cheer when he said the Trams are being brought back into public control from March next year, working towards a much more integrated public transport system. He is working to franchise our buses as Andy Burnham has done in Manchester.  

The way South Yorkshire is discriminated against by the Government in bus funding is shocking.  Greater Manchester gets £33 per head, West Yorkshire £34, West Midlands £30 but South Yorkshire gets a paltry £4.50. No wonder services have been slashed and buses are so unreliable.  

Kim Perry, Sheffield Green Party’s Co-Campaigns Coordinator, warned us about further expected cuts to our services. He called for nationalisation of the buses so we can have a service to be proud of, owned by us, for us. He explained how Green Councillors have been working for better bus lanes and active travel measures and how Greens would fund better services as they do in Nottingham with a Work Place Parking Levy. He emphasised how 30% of us don’t have a car, so are totally reliant on public transport to get us where we need to go. 

Janice Brown spoke for Extinction Rebellion, saying the bus service in Sheffield is appalling and getting worse. This has to change. We are facing a climate emergency of unprecedented proportions and only those with power can make the necessary changes.  

Martin Mayer from the Trades Council explained how he started his career as a conductor on the buses back in 1981 when we had a world-class bus system. We had cheap fares and high-frequency reliable services. There were buses every 2 minutes to Totley and businessmen would leave their Mercedes on the drive and get on the bus! This of course was wrecked by Margaret Thatcher’s Government’s privatisation. He explained Olive Grove bus station no longer has additional buses in case one breaks down. So whenever there is a problem, a bus won’t turn up. If a driver is off sick it is very unlikely that another driver will be available to replace them so again the service does not run. 

The Five Rivers Rising Samba Band led a march through the city to a second rally on The Moor. Going past lots of busy bus stops, waiting passengers were grabbing the leaflets about the campaign out of demonstrators’ hands. Many passing buses tooted their horns in support.

 At the end of the rally, our hearts went out to a passing schoolboy, who asked if he could speak. Confidently grabbing the mic he explained how yesterday he had been completely let down by the buses and was twice forced to get a taxi. 

Fran Postlethwaite, convenor for BBSY said, “We were delighted with the numbers that turned up. We had a thousand leaflets about our campaign which were all taken by the public we passed by. I’m from Barnsley and I was pleased that a number of people from my town came through to join the large numbers from Sheffield.“We all know that our buses are not fit for purpose. 40% of our routes have been lost in the last 10 years, and what remains are unreliable and expensive. We’re about to see services suffer more at the end of this month. BBSY supports Oliver Coppard’s demand that the government provide more funds for our buses in South Yorkshire. We also welcome his move towards franchising our buses. This has to be the first step towards taking buses back into public ownership so we do not let private bus operators continue to run our services down. If anyone wants to join our campaign they can contact us at betterbusesforsy@gmail.com.” Please sign the petition at www.megaphone.org.uk/p/RestoreAndTransform

Videos from the rally can be seen in this previous post