Quicker, Smarter, Smoother buses for South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) has been
awarded millions of pounds to make buses quicker, smarter and
smoother.

The Government has announced that it is to award SYPTE £4.91
million from the Better Bus Area Fund to make buses quicker
through new bus priority measures, smarter through multioperator
smartcards and smoother due to improved traffic flows.

The funding will be targeted on the main employment areas in
South Yorkshire and aims to significantly improve access to jobs
and services. It should also allow for 1,225,000 more bus
passenger trips a year and save 756 tonnnes of carbon as a
result of reduced boarding times for all bus users in South
Yorkshire. As well as £4.91m from the Department for Transport
the bid will pull in another £7.3m in local contributions.
The scheme has been developed in partnership with bus
operators to provide a network that enables existing and new
passengers to benefit from the employment opportunities of the
Sheffield City Region (SCR).

Research has shown that without investment traffic in South
Yorkshire will see significant delays in the years to come.
Investment will be targeted towards smart, multi-operator
tickets. These will provide more cost effective travel for young
people looking to access work or training. Bus journeys on the
most important arterial and business routes will be faster and
more reliable through infrastructure improvements. These will
help improve the efficiency of the network and increase
economic productivity. And the network will be managed and
enforced to improve journey speeds and efficiency at traffic
bottlenecks.

Also SYPTE, in partnership with Jobcentre Plus, will directly help
2,250 young people into work and training by providing a public
transport smartcard allowing free travel for up to three months.
After that the smartcard would allow the holder to pay for their
tickets to access work by bus in the long term.

Amongst the works planned are highway improvements along
Ecclesall Road in Sheffield to speed up bus journeys by relieving
bottlenecks at Moore Street Roundabout, Hunters Bar and Bents
Green to reduce bus delays by introducing bus pre-signals to
junctions and preventing vehicles queuing onto a key roundabout.
Smart management technology will be used to control traffic
signals and give priority to buses to minimise the delays experienced
along the route. And there will be bus stop clearways,
raised kerbs and tactile paving at 30 stops along the corridor
including 10 new bus shelters with Real Time Information displays
at key stops.

Further improvements will be made along the Sheffield to
Halfway (Optio Orange route). This will see bus lanes at three
pinch points at Granville Road, Mansfield Road/Manor Top and
City Road/Spring lane to reduce bus delays.
Work will also be carried out on Rotherham Thrybergh,
Woodfield Way, Barnsley Town Centre, and Sheffield key commuter
routes.

David Brown, SYPTE Director General, said: “We are delighted
that our bid has been successful. The Better Bus Area Fund will
help to get public transport moving more efficiently on key corridors which support employment. That will help employees,
employers and improve air quality for everyone. “It will also
allow us to directly help young people with their transport costs
to make sure those costs aren’t a barrier to them getting into
work or training.”

Facts about public transport in South Yorkshire

• South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) is the
  driving force behind the development of public transport
  networks in South Yorkshire.
• SYPTE implements the decisions of South Yorkshire Integrated
  Transport Authority (SYITA), which is made up of 12 elected
  councillors from Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and
  Sheffield.

SYITA and SYPTE are members of the Travel South Yorkshire
partnership. The aim of the partnership is to bring public transport
together, encourage more people to use it, make it easier to
understand and deliver new, innovative public transport products
and services. All the transport operators in the county are also
members of the Travel South Yorkshire partnership.

For more information: Tony Belshaw, Senior PR Officer and www.travelsouthyorkshire.com website