Thurgoland Parish Council Public Transport Working Group
Our community bus service 26 is now a daily Monday to Friday service!
...and brings with it a new 26A Saturday service to Holmfirth!
Commencing Tuesday 4th May 2021
Following our trial of a new community bus route for Thurgoland parish launched on Saturday 5th September 2020, we are delighted to announce that this service will now be extended to Mondays to Fridays from Tuesday 4th May.
This venture is an initiative of Thurgoland Parish Council’s Public Transport Working Group alongside our two co-opted members - Miriam Cates, MP for Stocksbridge and Penistone and Kevin Carr, Director of South Pennine Community Transport (SPCT).
With their much valued support and expertise, we were able to draw up plans for our new bus service and develop a business plan to seek initial start-up funding.
Kevin generously agreed for SPCT to run the initial Saturdays only trial. He and Miriam then held meetings with and presented proposals for a full weekly service to South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE).
We are delighted that SYPTE has now agreed to fund this extended community bus service with an initial commitment of 2 years, commencing from Tuesday 4th May 2021.
This enhanced service will also incorporate a new stop at Tesco, Penistone on its circular route beginning at Roper Lane, Thurgoland and travelling via Crane Moor, Wortley, Fox Valley, Stocksbridge, Cubley, Penistone, then returning back via Cubley, Stocksbridge, Fox Valley, Deepcar and Huthwaite before ending at Roper Lane, Thurgoland.
Green Moor can also be served on demand by calling SPCT on 0759 385 2259 or asking the bus driver.
Service 26 Mondays to Fridays. Buses will leave Roper Lane at 07.38 then 8.45 and then hourly until 15.45, this last bus returning to Roper Lane at 16.44.
Service 26A Saturdays. SPCT has kindly agreed to continue a Saturday service, as follows:
Roper Lane, Thurgoland to Holmfirth Bus Station via Crane Moor, Wortley, Fox Valley, Midhopestones, Langsett, Flouch, Crow Edge and Hade Edge, departing Roper Lane at 09.35, 11.35 and 13.35.
Concessionary bus passes are welcome on these routes and fares can be paid in cash or by contactless card.
Full timetables are being distributed to homes in the parish and will be made available to view online at www.southpenninect.com or https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/
This community bus is being provided for our parish community that requested it!
This project was driven initially by a survey about local bus services distributed in 2017 by the parish council to all residents in the parish - resulting in the formation of our public transport group - and then at a public meeting we held in the Village Hall in January 2019. This meeting requested us to consider offering a community bus service to include destinations that are listed in the routes shown above.....
....So, here it is! Please support it! Please use it! Please spread the news about it!
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New Community Bus Service 26 Commencing Saturday 5th September 2020
The trial of a new community bus route for Thurgoland parish will be launched on Saturday 5th September 2020, connecting residents to facilities in Penistone, Stocksbridge and Fox Valley. It will be operated by local company South Pennine Community Transport.
This venture is an initiative of Thurgoland Parish Council’s Public Transport Working Group, which was formed by the Parish Council in November 2017 in collaboration with Holy Trinity Church Community Action Group (CAG) in Thurgoland. This followed cuts to local bus services and a survey of residents to discover which bus routes people needed most and the destinations they would like to be able to get to by public transport.
After a year of campaigning for improved services we called a well attended public meeting in Thurgoland Village Hall, to share what we had been doing and to receive information, comments and suggestions from the people present.
We announced that we were investigating the possibility of introducing a new community bus route to serve our parish, increasing access to Stocksbridge, Fox Valley and the Supertram link, in response to what people had asked for. We also said we were considering aspects of Penistone No 25 bus as a model and consulting with the operator, South Pennine Community Transport, to see how this could be achieved.
Miriam Cates (now the Member of Parliament for Penistone and Stocksbridge) also attended that meeting and afterwards offered to help us in our endeavours. Kevin Carr, Director of South Pennine Community Transport, was also co-opted on to our working group.
With Miriam’s and Kevin’s much valued support and expertise, we were able to draw up plans for our new bus service and develop a business plan to seek initial start-up funding. Miriam and Kevin recently presented this plan to South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, who are currently considering the proposals.
In the meantime, Kevin has generously agreed to run a trial service of this new bus route on Saturdays only, starting on 5th September.
This will be a circular service starting at 9.30am from Thurgoland, stopping at Crane Moor, Wortley and Fox Valley then arriving at Penistone at 10am, returning to Thurgoland at 10.30am. It will run hourly until 1:30pm.
The Number 26 service is fully registered and concessionary bus passes are accepted.
The full timetable can be viewed here (below) or online at www.southpenninect.com http://www.southpenninect.co.uk/busservices.html
This community bus is being launched for our parish community that requested it!
Please support it! Please use it! Please spread the news about it!