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Sheffield/Rotherham Tram-Train update

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Kite159

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I'm surprised the tram conductors don't have the ability for folk to pay with contactless cards (like you can on the West Midlands Trams).

Might make their jobs easier with less cash to carry round (and less of a security risk), especially since some of the Stagecoach buses I saw floating around have "Contactless payments accepted" posters on the bus.
 
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WaveyDavey

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Yes both Stagecoach and First Group have contactless card and Apple Pay facilities on all their buses in Sheffield /South Yorkshire now so strange why the tram doesn't.
 

skifans

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pdeaves

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Interesting, is the plan that they won't stop everywhere (Carbrook, Atercliff)? Or is it just simplifying the timetable. Also surprised considering the first services are before 6am the last ones are around 10pm. Personally would also have liked an earlier and later service on Sundays. Hopefully will prove popular anyway.
I think it's a simplified timetable. Tram-train services for 25 October onwards are not on RTT yet but up to 24 October they are (test moves, obviously). The schedules imply all calls between Cathedral and Parkgate (and vice versa).
 

Harpers Tate

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All stops by request, I believe, exactly as with other tram services - at least on the tram network. Can't speak for the only other intermediate stop - Rotherham Central. It's rather pointless trying to run "express" anyway - it would only catch up with the one in front - and would confuse passengers.
 

SC43090

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As it stands the first passenger services are expected to be the following

0939 dep from the Cathedral tram stop

1009 dep from Rotherham Parkgate

SC43090
 

pdeaves

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Does anyone know which organisation owns the physical structures that are Parkgate and Rotherham [low level platforms] stations? The railway is NR's but the stations may or may not be! I sent an enquiry to SYPTE but have had no response at all after a week.
 

johnnychips

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Any particular reason why the trams don’t run past the Cathedral? Is it the infrastructure or is it the possibility of delays as there is more on-street running north of there? (And so the chance of missing paths onto NR when you get near Rotherham).
 

Kite159

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Any particular reason why the trams don’t run past the Cathedral? Is it the infrastructure or is it the possibility of delays as there is more on-street running north of there? (And so the chance of missing paths onto NR when you get near Rotherham).

Beyond the cathedral it is pretty much all Street running apart for a short section where the trams go down the middle of a dual carriageway.
 

Skymonster

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Very odd service pattern with effectively 10, 20 and 30 minutes between successive departures.
 

TC60054

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Don't forget the timetable has to not only be worked around the uneven spread of NR services at Rotherham, but the 5/6 minute frequency of tram services in Sheffield city centre (especially with the reversal at Cathedral) and the 10/12 minute frequency of the yellow route of which it shares quite a significant portion of line.

There's some "minor" timetable changes to other tram services from Thursday 25th too which have been announced today - no firm details have been released yet though looks to be some minor tweaking to the yellow route timetables, and then relevant tweaks to the blue route, whilst the purple route will no longer run through to Meadowhall on Sundays.
 

button_boxer

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Beyond the cathedral it is pretty much all Street running apart for a short section where the trams go down the middle of a dual carriageway.

And conversely Cathedral to Tinsley is entirely segregated apart from a few traffic light controlled road crossings.
 

Skymonster

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One thing I noticed on the Sheffield system was that trams often seem to wait at traffic lights in the city centre - whereas in Nottingham (a city I am much more familiar with) more often than not the lights change as a tram approaches, usually allowing them to proceed without stopping. Is there a difference in the way the networks were designed, or just my imagination that the on street sections in Nottingham seems to work much better for the trams?
 

_toommm_

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One thing I noticed on the Sheffield system was that trams often seem to wait at traffic lights in the city centre - whereas in Nottingham (a city I am much more familiar with) more often than not the lights change as a tram approaches, usually allowing them to proceed without stopping. Is there a difference in the way the networks were designed, or just my imagination that the on street sections in Nottingham seems to work much better for the trams?

I believe trams do have priority, and are meant to change the signals sooner, but in practice, especially at Hillsborough corner, this can still take a while.
 

Skymonster

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Interesting. I particularly noticed it at Castle Square / Fitzalan Square in Sheffield where sometimes the trams seemed to have to wait for ages for the lights to change. Whereas at similarly busy junctions in Notingham such as Royal Centre they usually seem to sail through with barely a pause.
 

button_boxer

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Interesting. I particularly noticed it at Castle Square / Fitzalan Square in Sheffield where sometimes the trams seemed to have to wait for ages for the lights to change. Whereas at similarly busy junctions in Notingham such as Royal Centre they usually seem to sail through with barely a pause.

In many places the trams do get priority over general traffic, but in the city centre (and at Fitzalan Square specifically) the crossing traffic is almost all buses or taxis rather than private vehicles, thus they may have deliberately set the priorities more equally there so that one tram route doesn’t screw up a dozen or more bus routes.
 

button_boxer

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Thanks for the explanation

It’ll be interesting to see whether they rejig the traffic light priorities in town for the new tram train service given it’s much more critical for them to hit their path on time at Tinsley.
 

_toommm_

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It’ll be interesting to see whether they rejig the traffic light priorities in town for the new tram train service given it’s much more critical for them to hit their path on time at Tinsley.

I imagine there'll be pathing time as it goes onto the NR network, plus at the junction where the Holmes chord joins just before Rotherham.
 

TC60054

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There is no priority with traffic signals in the city centre - its all done on a continuous loop. If you stand at Castle Square you’ll notice the tram signals changing even when there’s no trams around.
 

Kite159

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I suspect the trams might be popular from Rotherham, the journey time might be a bit longer to reach Sheffield, but for those heading into the city centre it is more ideal than Sheffield station.
 

DanNCL

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There appears to be a good turnout on the tram-train service today. 201, 203 are both operating tram-train services currently.

If anyone is interested, there are automated announcements at Parkgate voiced by Celia Drummond. Every stop is announced, and services are announced as being operated by "Stagecoach Supertram"
 
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