Mayor of South Yorkshire Oliver Coppard speaks to Local Democracy Reporter Julia Armstrong on the decision today (March 18) by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority to take buses back under public control
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00:00So, Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard. Quite the day today, we're on board a vintage Sheffield bus. Why would that be?
00:10Because we're going back to the future. We used to have a world-class public transport system in South Yorkshire when I was growing up here.
00:15We used to have 2P bus fares, buses all over the place, connecting up our communities.
00:20And then, as a result of privatisation over the last 40 years, we've lost that.
00:24And we're now in a place where our bus network simply isn't good enough.
00:27So, today, we've taken the decision to bring our buses back under public control from 2027, so we can be back in charge of routes and fares and timetables.
00:35Fantastic. So, when can people expect to start seeing the results of that?
00:39So, 2027 is when the whole change will start happening. It then takes three years for that to come into full effect right across the whole of South Yorkshire.
00:46But we're already making moves in that direction, aren't we?
00:48Because we've brought the tram back under public control and investing, frankly, tens of millions of pounds in the tram network.
00:54It's not had that investment for years. I know it's not good enough yet, but we're getting there because we're investing so much money in it.
00:59The buses will be next in 2027, and at that point, you can start creating an integrated transport network where those services work together in tandem.
01:06Can we have the 2P bus fares back?
01:08I'd love to bring the 2P bus fares back, just for my own nostalgia, frankly.
01:12Look, we've just introduced a free travel pilot for under-18s in Barnsley.
01:16So, from later this year, every young person in Barnsley will travel for free on the buses, and that's really good news.
01:22And that's a pilot, something else I promised last time I ran for election.
01:25So, we'll learn from that pilot in advance of 2027, because that's the sort of thing I want to be able to do across the whole of South Yorkshire.