A comment on Monday's post got me thinking about life in the pre-deregulation People’s Republic of South Yorkshire. Could we see a repeat come quality contract-inspired franchising?
The People’s Republic was a nickname applied to South Yorkshire and also Sheffield City Council during the mid-late 1970s and early 1980s. The left-wing Sheffield council in particular was at considerable odds with the Thatcher Conservative government of the time. Sheffield declared itself a nuclear free zone, flew the red flag from the town hall on May Day and twinned with a city in the Ukraine. But it’s best remembered for cheap bus fares.
SYPTE was unique in its approach to local transport. Depending upon the stance you took, its fares policy was either stupid or shrewd. 2p to travel by bus anywhere in South Yorkshire? That’ll be SYPTE of the time.
But there was more to it than that.
- It wasn’t just about low bus fares. SYPTE had an ambitious bus development policy, as well. Between 1975 and 1979, for example, it introduced 60 additional peak buses and improved services on no fewer than 143 routes.
- It wasn’t just about buses. SYPTE pursued a strategy of rail development, too. Growth on rail was faster than on the buses, admittedly from a low base.
- It wasn’t just about bus and rail. SYPTE was supporting the county council’s employment and economic regeneration polices, during a period of significant economic change, when Steel City was becoming more like that depicted in The Full Monty.
And was SYPTE successful? To a degree. Between 1975 and 1979, there was a six per cent increase in passenger numbers. That doesn’t sound much until you compare it with neighbouring West Yorkshire, where passengers had fallen by 13 per cent over the same period.
But there was a cost. Over the same period, revenue support rose from £6.1mil to £20.6mil. As SYPTE was at odds with central government, the additional funding was raised through rates.
Can we look forward to this in the future? The fact of the matter is that if local people feel their buses are not operating correctly, if they feel their fares are too high (as some do in Sheffield), then local democracy could react accordingly. If local politicians feel it is sufficiently important enough. It’s as well, then, that Putting People First looks set to mould any potential legislation to build in safeguards about local government accountability and against profligacy. It’s striking the balance that’s important. But it's also about local control, local policies and local destiny.
2 comments:
eevan accounting for inflation (which I think was high at the time) can anyone justify an increase of £14,000,000 for a 6% increase in passengers?
Other than fares and more buses there was huge investment in infrastructure as well, depots, bus stations, bus shelters etc.
What it translated into was that in the main conurbations the average route had modern shelters with up to date timetables and was served by a relatively high frequency service using modern, warm, comfortable vehicles.
When you had double deckers being duplicated by double deckers on the last buses on some routes out of Rotherham and Doncaster on Friday and Saturday nights there must have been something being done to the publics satisfaction, albeit at a cost.
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