Evening buses in Thurnscoe

29 Sep 2023

Matt Kitchin, Managing Director, Stagecoach Yorkshire said:

“For several years now, we have been working in partnership with South Yorkshire Police, SYMCA and local authorities to try to resolve the challenge of repeated anti-social behaviour and vandalism in Thurnscoe.

Buses have been repeatedly targeted over a sustained period of time and the safety of our customers and colleagues has been unacceptably compromised.

Following repeated incidents we took the decision to withdraw evening bus services initially in October 2022. Services were reinstated in April 2023 following assurances from partners that anti social behaviour in the area had reduced. Unfortunately, further attacks then followed in which drivers and customers were targeted and so we have reluctantly had to withdraw evening services again.

The sustained targeting of drivers and customers on buses in Thurnscoe for several years has left us with no option but to withdraw services until anti social behaviour is not a regular occurrence in this community.

The impact of anti social behaviour extends well beyond the community it occurs in, a targeted bus leads to journey cancellations for customers along the whole route, trauma for the driver and customers caught up in it and the bus not being available to serve the wider community as damage is repaired.

We have never faced such a prolonged campaign of anti social behaviour against our drivers and customers as we have experienced in Thurnscoe.

We have invited partners to spend time with drivers at our depots to hear first hand the impact on drivers and customers and to share their plans to reduce ASB to a point where we are all confident that we will no longer experience a sustained campaign against buses.

Withdrawing bus services from communities is only ever done as a very last resort when the safety of our customers and colleagues is continually compromised and we will no longer put our drivers or customers at risk.

We must now take this action to put the safety of our drivers and customers first.”