Number of bus passengers ‘death spin’ drop by more than 75 per cent in South Yorkshire

Better Buses for South Yorkshire – which campaigns to bring services back under public control – said, by comparison, areas that remained under public ownership maintained or grew their network.

Matthew Topham, of Better Buses for South Yorkshire, said: “South Yorkshire’s buses were once the envy of the world. Ever since control of our services was handed over to private operators they have been in a death spin.

“Every bus journey lost is more car traffic, more pollution, and more respiratory illness in our cities, towns, and villages. It’s a weaker economy as workers stuck in congestion are late for their shifts. It’s a threat to our climate.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. Where UK buses have escaped privatisation they have bucked the trend and stabilised or grown their passenger numbers.

“South Yorkshire has the power to get there too. We need the mayor to turbo-charge his plans for public control and the council leaders to put their shoulders to the wheel.”

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined (SYMCA) authority, in response to the FOI request, released data showing more than 340 million journeys were made on the region’s buses in the year before deregulation in 1986.

They then fell by more than a fifth a year later and halved less than a decade after.

The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive stated there were just 53.8 million passengers in the 2021/22 financial year.

SYMCA is currently considering whether a bus franchising scheme in the county – which would bring regulation of routes, frequencies, fares and tickets under local control – would improve transport.

Accountability for bus services would transfer from private operators to SYMCA under a franchising scheme.

Better Buses for South Yorkshire said publicly owned transport in Northern Ireland remained steady for at least the last two decades despite receiving less investment per head than South Yorkshire.

In Reading, the Borough Council owns local buses and saw an almost 40 per cent increase over six years before Covid-19 and now has the highest bus use in England outside London, according to the Department for Transport.