FOCUS ON YORKSHIRE
DAVID JENKINS turns his attention to the Sheffield City Region, where mayor Dan Jarvis has commissioned a searching review of the future role of the bus in an area where trams and buses are both carrying fewer passengers and the focus of retailing has moved away from the city centre
It is becoming a common theme for elected mayors to seek a review of bus services. And the mayor of Sheffield City Region — the area covered by South Yorkshire PTE, which is now part of the region’s combined authority — is no exception.
Launching his review in February, mayor Dan Jarvis — he also is Labour MP for Barnsley — declared: ‘I know buses are a lifeline for communities across South Yorkshire. Bus services is one of the main topics of conversation that people raise with me as mayor.’
Citing an 18% decline in passenger numbers in 10 years, Jarvis has appointed Sheffield MP Clive Betts (a former leader of Sheffield City Council) to head a panel that will ‘conduct an independent review into the current bus network across South Yorkshire and make recommendations as to how it could be improved’.
The panel’s remit apparently excludes tram services, even though the Stagecoach-operated Supertram has also l…
