Sheffield to Castleton bus nonsense

This post is about various idiosyncrasies in the operation of the bus services from Sheffield, South Yorkshire to Castleton, Derbyshire. For most of the day, there is an hourly service that leaves Sheffield along Ecclesall Road, then heads to Castleton via the villages of Hathersage, Bamford and Hope (and a corresponding service in the opposite direction).

The service is split between two operating companies, First South Yorkshire and Hulley’s of Baslow. This is already a red flag - I am yet to encounter such a split service anywhere that runs as effectively as it would if one organisation were responsible for the whole thing.

Broadly speaking, each company runs a service every two hours, and they combine to provide the overall one-hour headway. Exceptions to this - because nothing in the deregulated bus industry can ever work in a way that risks being perceived by passengers as intuitive - are that the 10:36 and 11:36 departures from Sheffield and the 11:48 and 12:48 departures from Castleton on Monday to Saturday are both operated by Hulley’s and that all services on Sunday are operated by First.

Route numbers won’t help you here

Between Bamford and Hope, some services take a detour into Bradwell, another village that lies about a mile off the main route. And on Monday to Saturday, two services, both operated by Hulley’s, serve the Royal Hallamshire Hospital - a Castleton to Sheffield one at 08:22 and a Sheffield to Castleton one at 15:55. Neither of these serves Bradwell, so that effectively leaves three routing options:

• “normal” route (not via Hallamshire Hospital, not via Bradwell)
• route via Hallamshire Hospital
• route via Bradwell

Buses on the “normal” route have route number 272, so I would expect related numbers for the detours. Perhaps “272a” and “272b”. If done in that order, the “B” for “Bradwell” even acts as a neat little mnemonic. (You could even have “272b” and “272h” if you wanted).

But this isn’t what they’ve done. Instead, services via Hallamshire Hospital have the number 271 (that doesn’t make it obviously a variation of the same route, but it’ll do). And services via Bradwell have the number 272 - exactly the same as as the ones that bypass Bradwell. What on earth…?

The question I have here is twofold. Firstly, why is it considered acceptable for Bradwell services not to be distinguishable by their number? And secondly, if that is acceptable, then why do Hallamshire Hospital services get their own number?

Perhaps there is a very good reason that someone somewhere knows. But I think it’s more likely that the half-hour it took me to write this blog entry is the longest any individual has ever spent considering this.

To Bradwell or not to Bradwell

The route numbering isn’t even the most ridiculous thing about Sheffield to Castleton buses. Let’s have a closer look at which buses in particular take the detour into Bradwell.

On Mondays to Fridays, the way they have chosen to do this is so utterly insane that when I first saw it, I thought I had misread the timetable. Bradwell is served predominantly by First buses in the westbound direction and Hulley’s buses in the eastbound direction. (I say “predominantly” because there are one early morning westbound Hulley’s service and two late evening eastbound First services that serve Bradwell). This arrangement is surely the least passenger-friendly one, as it all but guarantees that passengers making a return journey to or from Bradwell will need two separate tickets, one for each operator.

But that’s not even the end of the story. Consider the following question: is there an 18:37 departure from Bradwell to Castleton? Travel South Yorkshire’s timetable says there isn’t; Hulleys’ says there is!

Is it any wonder that rural bus services are struggling if the organisations responsible for them are so incompetent that they can’t even agree on what the timetable is?