What changes are being made to bus, tram, tram train, and train services in South Yorkshire?
Due to the current situation, operators have proposed a reduced service in response to falling passenger numbers and staff shortages due to Covid-19. Through collaboration with partners, it is hoped these further changes will help to stabilise the network and ensure that customers are kept up to date with accurate information.
A summary of changes for each mode of transport is provided below:
Bus
School bus services
Most dedicated school services across the county have been withdrawn as there was little or no demand. SYPTE has worked with schools and local authority partners to maintain those services that are necessary and amend transport provision to taxis where this is more appropriate.
Local bus services
From the weekend of Saturday 28 March 2020, the following service levels will be provided. This means that most services will operate a reduced frequency, but some extra journeys will be provided in the early mornings to allow key workers to travel as they need to and reduce overcrowding on the earliest services.
All timetables will be available at https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/ from 18:00 on Friday 27 March.
Please find attached a high level summary of all services, detailing service provision effective from this weekend.
First South Yorkshire services
With effect from the start of service on Saturday 28 March 2020, most services will operate hourly along the key corridors with additional early morning journeys.
Stagecoach Yorkshire services (including Chesterfield)
With effect from the start of service on Monday 30 March 2020, most services will operate a Sunday service with additional early morning journeys.
Most services that normally do not run on a Sunday will still operate.
Stagecoach East Midlands
With effect from the start of service on Sunday 29 March 2020, the main services will operate hourly with some routes having special timetables.
Other operators
From Saturday 28 March, most services will be running but with some variations. Please check timetables for details.
Supertram
Tram services – Monday to Saturday - from 23 March
Supertram will continue to run a revised service to ensure the critical routes are maintained where possible. Services will start at 06:00 and trams will run every 20 minutes on the Blue and Yellow routes and every 30 minutes on the Purple route until 21:00.
After 21:00, only a very limited tram service will operate every day on the Yellow route between Meadowhall and Middlewood and on the Blue route between Halfway and Cathedral until around midnight.
Tram Train services – Monday to Saturday – from Monday 23 March
Tram Train services will run up to every 30 minutes between 06:00 and 20:00.
Tram services – Sundays - from Sunday 29 March
Supertram will run a revised service to ensure the critical routes are maintained where possible. Services will start at 08:00 and trams will run every 30 minutes on the Blue, Yellow and Purple routes until 21:00.
Tram Train services – Sundays - from Sunday 29 March
Tram Train services will run up to every 30 minutes between 08:30 and 18:30.
Timetables are available on the Supertram website at https://www.stagecoachbus.com/supertram
Train
Northern and TransPennine Express have advised that they will be cancelling a number of services due to staff shortages and reduced customer demand. Both operators have stated that the number of cancellations is likely to increase as the situation progresses.
Cancellations will be decided on a daily basis.
Further information and revised timetables can be found on the following websites:
Payment methods
For the safety of both customer and staff all operators are encouraging customers to use contactless payment methods to purchase any tickets.
Senior ENCTS Pass holders
Senior English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) pass holders will still be able to travel free before 09.30, until further notice, to allow them to access shops and services as they open early to accommodate them.
How can you help?
It would be appreciated if you could please help by advising those who still need to travel by public transport to plan their journey ahead using the up to date timetables on the operators’ websites.
How is this being communicated to customers?
Operators are keeping customers up to date via their websites and social media channels.
In these unprecedented times we want to keep our customers updated on any changes to public transport to ensure key workers can travel to and from work. The following channels are updated regularly:
Details regarding how and where public transport services are operating in South Yorkshire can be found at https://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/servicechanges/ and customers can follow us on twitter at https://twitter.com/TSYalerts.
The latest information about what South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive and Operators are doing to keep customers and staff safe can be found at https://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/coronavirus/
The latest travel disruption information can be found at https://www.travelsouthyorkshire.com/disruptions
Our Traveline team is also available between 8am and 6pm seven days week on 01709 515151 to answer customer queries.