Reduced funding and increased costs continue to put pressure on South Yorkshire's bus network. Although a vast majority of services are unchanged, approximately a quarter of all South Yorkshire bus services will see frequency, route or timetable revisions, including changes to improve reliability. The majority of school bus services remain unchanged.
Some of the changes are being made by bus companies for commercial reasons. Others are as a result of a reduction in the funding available for SYPTE to spend on subsidising local buses, where alternative public transport links do not exist. This, combined with the increased operating costs since tenders were last issued three years ago, has placed greater pressure on the funding received.
SYPTE takes every measure to protect the level of funding it receives for bus services. However, funding has been cut by £3.6m in the last ten years, from £10.2m in 2009/10 to £6.6m in 2019/20. Despite this, the proportion of SYPTE's overall budget allocated to bus services has increased.
WHAT IS CHANGING IN BARNSLEY?
A summary of the notable changes in Barnsley is listed below:
* SERVICES 1 AND 11 are both reduced from every 10/12 minutes to every 15 minutes but will be coordinated on the common section of route to provide a bus every 7/8 minutes.
* SERVICES 27, 27A, 27B, AND 28 along Pontefract Road are amended with less journeys per hour. Services 28c and 32 are unchanged and combined frequencies will be up to every 12 minutes..
* SERVICES 219 AND 219A are amended with a half hourly service continuing between Barnsley and Goldthorpe. Only service 219 will continue to Doncaster.
In Great Houghton service 219 will not serve High Street and Lister Row but service 219a will continue to do so.
* SCHOOL SERVICE 449 to Netherwood will serve Little Houghton and the times are amended to better meet the needs of the school.
* SCHOOL SERVICE 406 from Dearne ALC to Thurnscoe will no longer operate. There is currently no morning bus provided.
The attached spreadsheet contains a full list of service changes for South Yorkshire, based on service registrations for your information.
Also attached is a copy of the Barnsley Network Map and Frequency Guide for your reference.
Using the map and the summary spreadsheet you will be able to see the new routes for local buses along with a description of the changes in your area.
HOW IS THIS BEING COMMUNICATED TO CUSTOMERS?
A summary of the changes will be available on our website at http://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/Servicechanges/ and new timetables will be available on the website approximately three weeks before the changes come into effect. Timetable information will also be displayed on all affected bus stops ahead of the changes.
for further details see the attached files.