South Yorkshire bus passengers face widespread cuts to services

Bus services have been cut and fares for children and young people are to increase

Bus passengers in South Yorkshire will face widespread cuts to services and a rise in child fares from this week.

Weekend and evening services will be hit hardest, while child fares will increase from 80p to £1 from Wednesday.

The cuts have been widely criticised, with Sheffield councillor Ian Horner saying the changes mean some areas will now only have one bus every two hours.

Operator First South Yorkshire said timings had been adjusted to "improve punctuality and reliability".

A spokesperson said: "In the evenings, some of [the] tendered services that we operate have been changed in line with when and where people are travelling to and from, some frequencies have been reduced from hourly to every two hours contractually, but we have tried to maintain higher frequencies where demand is needed."

The government's Bus Service Improvement Plan recently gave funding across Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire but South Yorkshire received nothing.

The Department for Transport said over five years, South Yorkshire had been allocated more than half a billion pounds for local transport.

The cuts have been criticised by South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, who has called for an urgent meeting with the transport secretary.

He said: "The government promised us in 2019 that levelling up would mean a London-style transport system everywhere outside the capital, and this doesn't bring us anywhere close."

Liberal Democrat councillor Mr Horner said: "In the last bidding round, South Yorkshire got no money whatsoever. If you look at West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, you're going to see expansions of bus services.

"We're seeing a contraction."

'Totally unreliable'

Bus users such as Michael Broomhead, 73, said it could stop people from going out.

He said: "I've got arthritis so I struggle quite a bit and my wife has rheumatoid arthritis but the bus service is totally unreliable.

"One bus frequently doesn't turn up so then you are reliant on another bus but that service is being cut so it will make matters a lot worse for us.

"If you don't start getting out in society, it can affect your mental health. I go to the gym, which helps with my arthritis, but I catch two buses so that's going to have a detrimental effect for me.

"If I have to get a taxi to my nearest shop it's £10 for a round trip which is a lot of money for a pensioner. This is going to make us feel isolated."

His neighbour Carol Urpeth, 81, added: "One bus doesn't turn up, you can miss three buses in a row, and the other bus service is not going to come anywhere near the village anymore.

"I've had two knee replacements and I have asthma so I'm having to get a taxi to and from the shops which costs at least £15."