South Yorkshire Mayor sets up bus task force as services are slashed

It comes as services across the region were either cancelled and reduced on October 3.

In Doncaster, Arriva services 405, 408, 409, 406 and 407 and FirstBus services 19, 41a, 51, 51a, 87b, 409 and 412 were all cancelled.

Students at Selby College were left without a bus connection as they relied on the 405 service.

The reduction of the FirstBus 84 service has also left students of Hungerhill School, Hall Cross Academy, Doncaster UTC and New College Auckley unable to get to school on time.

The Mayor’s new task force, led by Dawn Badminton-Capps of Bus Users UK, will work to create legally binding promises and performance checks that hold bus companies and government to account.

It will report to the South Yorkshire’s legislative Enhanced Bus Partnership Board, to create a service based on local need.

Mayor Coppard said: “When I took office as South Yorkshire’s Mayor I made fixing our buses a priority, not just for me but the thousands of people let down every day by our broken bus system. Because for far too long our buses have been unaffordable, unreliable, and now – in the face of sweeping service cuts – inaccessible for far too many across our region.

“I am doing everything I can with the limited powers and money that I have available to protect our services, on behalf of our communities – but it is not enough and I find that hugely frustrating. It is clear we need a fundamental change to how the whole system works; because our buses are no longer working for South Yorkshire.

“That’s why I have brought in a bus champion and task force of bus users, business representatives and interest groups with the common goal of putting passengers at the heart of building a better future for the services we use and that so many of us rely on.

"This group will play a fundamental role in representing our communities and helping to create a formal customer promise, set in legislation, that will set out what we want and deserve from our network.

"We will stand together and hold bus companies and government to account because we all agree that we cannot carry on with an unreliable, expensive, and polluting system that puts people off choosing travel choices that reduce traffic on our roads.

“I’m under no illusion, fixing our bus system will not be easy; it will take time, and we’ll need the government to deliver on their promise for significant funding to make it happen.

"But together we will take action to re-build a service from the bottom up and campaign for a joined up public transport network that is more like the one enjoyed by London; one that truly meets our regions’ needs, that is fit for purpose and delivers faster, smarter, greener bus journeys that South Yorkshire can be proud of.”

Parents of students affected by the 405 cancellation and 84 reductions have started petitions:

https://www.change.org/p/save-arriva-405-bus-service?recruiter=334469667&recruited_by_id=5f0346f0-20c3-11e5-8cf1-11855d37e73e&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=facebook

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