£171K plan to tackle poor public transport disruption alerts in South Yorkshire

A decision published by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) on May 2 confirms that a new Integrated Transport Disruptions Centre will be created to handle information about bus, tram and road delays, replacing a system currently scattered across seven different teams in six departments.

Currently, updates about road closures, tram delays and other travel disruptions come from multiple teams, leading to a slow, inconsistent process that leaves many passengers in the dark.

Officers say this disjointed approach is a legacy of austerity cuts and internal restructuring, and has resulted in a “poor customer experience.”

The funding will pay for a new team that will work from 5am to midnight every day, significantly expanding the current hours of 7am–7pm on weekdays and 8am–7pm on weekends. This schedule will better match public transport timetables.

To keep costs down, the new system will reduce call centre performance slightly, from answering 93 per cent of calls within 77 seconds, to 80 per cent of calls within 110 seconds. A report to the SYMCA says this drop is acceptable in exchange for a more reliable and efficient disruption service. For comparison, Transport for London answered 88 per cent of calls last year.

While the plan has been approved, no official start date has been confirmed, as the funding is still subject to approval in the upcoming 2025/26 business planning process.