South Yorkshire is ‘making history’ as mayor approves bus franchising
From 2027 local authorities will have control over routes, fares and timetables - as opposed the private companies.
South Yorkshire’s mayor has taken the decision to bring buses back under public control.
At South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s (SYMCA) board meeting today (March 18), Oliver Coppard has decided to accept the officers’ recommendation and go ahead with bus franchising.
When introducing the report, he told members of the public, the media and board members that he was “delighted” to make a decision today as public transport matters to local communities and the whole of the region.
Mr Coppard said: “Without a reliable bus service, communities can’t access jobs, opportunities or anything else.
“Car ownership isn’t an option for all too many people across South Yorkshire.”
He added an effective public transport system contributes to town and city centres and results in business growth, among many other benefits.
Mr Coppard said: “Today, we’re making history; turning back the tide on the failed experiment of the privatisation of our bus network that was started in the 1980s, putting the public back into public transport.
“When I was elected as South Yorkshire’s Mayor in 2022, I promised to take back control of our buses. Today I’m proud to say that is a promise being kept.”
By implementing the scheme, starting in 2027, South Yorkshire will have the opportunity to decide the routes, the fares and timetables across the region.
“So we decide when a bus is run; when and where”, Mr Coppard added.
Mayor Ross Jones from Doncaster told the board members that she was “delighted” to see how many people had taken part in the public consultation but she added she wanted to see rapid improvement in Doncaster as there are issues of reliability, frequency, lack of direct services, just to name a few.
Cllr Tom Hunt, the leader of Sheffield City Council, said the region’s communities for too long had had to put up with “substandard” bus services.
He said bus franchising was an opportunity to change the situation – it’s an opportunity to have a public transport system that works for the interests of the public.
The leader of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Cllr Steve Houghton said people of South Yorkshire, who didn’t want privatisation to go ahead, were proven right and he also praised the government for supporting this scheme.
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), over the past decade, bus mileage in South Yorkshire has declined by 42 per cent while in 2012/13, 13 per cent of bus network mileage in South Yorkshire was supported by public funding, in 2023/24, this had grown to 24 per cent.
To address this, SYMCA undertook a bus reform assessment – and one of the options was (is) to introduce franchising in the region. The said assessment concluded that franchising, in fact, would be the best way forward.
During the process, a public consultation was conducted and the results are now in.
According to a document, almost 8,000 people took part and there is “an overwhelming” support (75 per cent strongly supported with 11 per cent in favour of the scheme) for bus franchising.
The report also said that while First Bus “strongly supported” the scheme, Stagecoach had a neutral (neither support nor object) approach to this.