https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/give-us-better-buses-for-englandI felt this one particularly keenly yesterday, after I missed a dentist's appointment because the bus got cancelled with no warning, there was no other one I could catch to get there in time because the next one wasn't due for an hour and a half, and I have no other means of transport (can't drive a car or ride a bike on a road for reasons of dyspraxia; people would die, including me).
To be fair, this is also the bus that nearly made me miss a GP's appointment when it got cancelled with no warning (I only didn't because I was able to beg a neighbour for an emergency lift), not to mention the bus that has left me stranded for nearly two hours on multiple occasions, so arguably at this point it's my fault expecting the service to run at all.
And for, you know, trying to go to places even though I live slightly outside Sheffield.
Bus services are being deliberately allowed to collapse.
They weren't great around here, but they've got markedly worse in the last few months, going from "very widely spaced and usually late" to "frequently just not showing up at all."
Excuse the personal rambling, but I wanted to try to convey the impact which the profoundly un-sexy subject of regional bus services has on people's actual lives.
Context:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/28/bus-services-cut-by-more-than-80-perent-in-parts-of-england-and-wales-since-2008-finds-studyhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/06/bus-neglect-national-failure-public-policy-motoristshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-66522689
