Story and photos: Graham Jones
Public transport is vital in Burngreave where over 50% of households have no access to a car, compared with 30% across the whole city. Even car owners take the bus to town or the Northern General Hospital because of prohibitive parking charges.
Funding for transport – which comes from the four councils in South Yorkshire – is being cut by £8.3 million this year. Part of the cuts will affect bus passes for disabled people and over 60s.
Passholders will no longer be able to travel for free on buses or trams before 0930 or after 2300 on weekdays. They will also lose free rail travel in South Yorkshire.
The FreeBee bus will be withdrawn on Sunday 27 April 2014.
A 50p fare increase will be put in place on all community transport services from Monday 31 March 2014. This includes the Door 2 Door, Dial-a-Ride and Shopper Bus services. It will be the first fare increase in four years.
Child fares will remain unchanged at 70p a trip.
Some fightbacks
At the budget meeting on 7 March 2014, Sheffield councillors promised £12,000 to help disabled children travelling to school in Sheffield.
The announcement is a big success for all the parents who campaigned against the restrictions. They told councillors the cuts were not just unfair, but a false economy because they would make it harder for young people with disabilities to become independent travellers. It would result in increased demand for special needs transport.
The parents also hope it will apply to passes for carers to escort a disabled child or young person to school or college – but this has yet to be confirmed.
At the other end of the age spectrum, around two hundred protestors gathered in Barnsley where councillors from across South Yorkshire had voted to cut bus pass use. Plans for further protests include a mass of elderly and disabled concessionary pass users boarding a train on 31st March, the first day of the cuts, and refusing to pay the fare.
Members of Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind (SRSB) held a protest and lobbied Sheffield City Council on 7th March. Blind people are concerned at the difficulties of handling change and checking tickets.
Deaf people in Rotherham have condemned the changes too.
A legal challenge against the changes has been presented by Sheffield Law Centre due to alleged breaches of the Equality Act. The Law Centre has asked the South Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority to reconsider and postpone the changes.
… but even more bad news
First Buses will increase bus fares by up to 13% from Sunday 30th March. Ben Gilligan, Managing Director for First, said:
“We have worked hard to keep any increases to a minimum. We appreciate nobody likes any increase to fares but it has been necessary to review some of our prices to meet the ongoing challenge of rising costs to our business. However we have frozen a number of our fares, including all of our South Yorkshire-wide tickets and all our month and annual tickets.”
First plans to invest £10m in new buses in 2014, following last year's investment in 41 new buses.
New prices from 30th March
NEW! Child Week Ticket introduced at £5
NEW! Child Day Ticket introduced at £2
Sheffield £1.30 – £1.90 fares increase by 10p
Sheffield £1.50 – £2 fares increase by 20p
First Day Sheffield increases by 20p to £3.80
First Week Sheffield increases by 50p to £12
Student single fare increases from 80p to £1