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Sheffield/Rotherham Tram-Train update

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unlevel42

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Will the tram trains now be re-branded as Stadler Rail AG of Switzerland?
Vossloh have sold the rail vehicles business unit in Spain to them.
 
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WillPS

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Will the tram trains now be re-branded as Stadler Rail AG of Switzerland?
Vossloh have sold the rail vehicles business unit in Spain to them.

No, just as Leyland Olympians are not Volvo Olympians, and East Lancs bodied buses aren't Optares.
 

notadriver

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Regarding operating costs - tram drivers (and presumably tram-trains would be the same) are paid roughly half of what a heavy rail driver would get and works more hours (5 day weeks).
 

Greybeard33

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Regarding operating costs - tram drivers (and presumably tram-trains would be the same) are paid roughly half of what a heavy rail driver would get and works more hours (5 day weeks).
Why would a tram-train driver be paid the same as a tram driver? The tram-train driver will have to have the knowledge and skill sets of both a heavy rail driver and a tram driver, and be capable of making a safe transition between the two radically different operating environments on every journey.
 

D6975

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The nearest equivalent job is driving on the Tyne and Wear Metro - drivers there get 35-40k.

Even that's not quite the same - no street running
 

WatcherZero

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Remember hearing a couple of years ago that during a cost review the orginal plan of training Northern drivers to drive on the tramway was axed in favour of training tramway drivers to drive on the rail section because it was much cheaper.
 

snowball

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The Secretary of State for Transport gives notice under section 14(1)(b) and (2A) of the Transport and Works Act 1992 (“the Act”) that he has determined under section 13(1) of the Act to make with modifications the Network Rail (Tinsley Chord) Order.

The Order was applied for by Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, 1 Eversholt Street, London NW1 2DN. It will authorise, the construction and operation of a 170 metre length of track at Tinsley, South Yorkshire connecting the Sheffield Supertram system with Network Rail’s Sheffield to Rotherham railway.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2433753
 

unlevel42

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Railway Gazette reports:
"First tram-train heads for Sheffield
The first of seven Citylink vehicles for the Sheffield – Rotherham tram-train pilot project left Vossloh España’s factory near Valencia on November 18. Expected to leave the port of Santander on November 23, it is due to arrive in Southampton on November 28 before making the final leg of its journey by road, to arrive in Sheffield on December 1. "
 

WillPS

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Excellent! Will it be delivered on a massive low loader, like the original Siemens trams were?
 

tramdan

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Class 399 201 was delivered to Nunnery Depot in Sheffield at 2140 on 30/11/15. The Facebook page British Tramway News will be posting a number of photos tomorrow of the delivery process.
 

bradders1983

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Class 399 201 was delivered to Nunnery Depot in Sheffield at 2140 on 30/11/15...

..after getting stuck in Darnall:

12341088_1190561504306056_1618054377298719087_n.jpg
 

snowball

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Last time I read anything detailed about the Sheffield tram-train project, I got the impression that

1. The vehicles will be compatible with both 750V DC and 25kV AC.

2. The OHLE on the Network Rail section will have clearances compatible with 25kV AC.

3. The juice, at least for now, will be 750V DC throughout.

However the feature in the current issue of Rail magazine (no. 788, pp. 64-67) seems to say that the juice will be 25kV AC on the Network Rail section of the route, so the vehicles' dual voltage ability will be used as soon as the route is commissioned.
 
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edwin_m

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Last time I read anything detailed about the Sheffield tram-train project, I got the impression that

1. The vehicles will be compatible with both 750V DC and 25kV AC.

2. The OHLE on the Network Rail section will have clearances compatible with 25kV AC.

3. The juice, at least for now, will be 750V DC throughout.

However the feature in the current issue of Rail magazine (no. 788, pp. 64-67) seems to say that the juice will be 25kV AC on the Network Rail section of the route, so the vehicles' dual voltage ability will be used as soon as the route is commissioned.

I believe 1, 2 and 3 still to apply and I've not heard anything about using 25kV except that I think there will be a low-power 25kV supply for testing in the depot. To use 25kV in Rotherham would require a very costly 25kV feeder station and grid supply which would be able to cope with tens of km of route, just powering this very short section. Instead there will be a 750V substation in a portable building. If the route needs to be converted to 25kV as part of a wider scheme the substation can be re-used on a 750V route somewhere else, and the supply will be from wherever the feeders are put as part of the wider scheme.

The above was explained to me several years ago so it's just possible it has changed in the meantime.
 

tramdan

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edwin_m that is precisely what is to happen, however the 25kV testing equipment in the depot has now been dropped from the plans.
 

WatcherZero

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It was a bit pointless having a static rig for testing, no real advantage over taking it somewhere it could run under real wires which would give much more valuable dynamic testing results and lower costs.
 

edwin_m

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It was a bit pointless having a static rig for testing, no real advantage over taking it somewhere it could run under real wires which would give much more valuable dynamic testing results and lower costs.

But can it run anywhere under 25kV wires, considering I believe it needs check rails modifying on any switch and crossing work it passes over?
 

tramdan

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But can it run anywhere under 25kV wires, considering I believe it needs check rails modifying on any switch and crossing work it passes over?


As far as I'm aware the only trackwork modifications that have been necessary are those to SYSL infrastructure that have been carried out as part of recent rail replacement works. This allows a Tram-Train profiled vehicle to travel over the whole of the Meadowhall line, and as far as Shalesmoor in the city direction, including using Shalesmoor and Cathedral crossovers. It will use Cathedral in service regularly, however it will be able to go to Shalesmoor to cover for any unavailability of Cathedral crossover.
 

Harpers Tate

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Given that :
- there are 7 new vehicles in total,
- 3 are required to operate the Tram Train service every 20 minutes,
- 1 will be a maintenance spare.
- and (importantly) 3 are to provide additional capacity on the tramway,
- all 7 are practically identical
then it seems likely that in fact the new vehicles will be able to operate the entire network, not merely Meadowhall - Cathedral - Shalesmoor. Presumably, the works were what was necessary to allow this.

It does seem that the steel pile-driven foundations for the catenary have started to appear in the Parkgate area.
 

tramdan

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Given that :
- there are 7 new vehicles in total,
- 3 are required to operate the Tram Train service every 20 minutes,
- 1 will be a maintenance spare.
- and (importantly) 3 are to provide additional capacity on the tramway,
- all 7 are practically identical
then it seems likely that in fact the new vehicles will be able to operate the entire network, not merely Meadowhall - Cathedral - Shalesmoor. Presumably, the works were what was necessary to allow this.

It does seem that the steel pile-driven foundations for the catenary have started to appear in the Parkgate area.


All 7 are practically identical, though not entirely. The 3+1 spare for tram train operations will be dedicated to that and confined to the route I specified as they have a special hybrid tram/train wheel profile. The other 3, which you correctly stated are to provide additional capacity on the existing network, will have a tram only wheel profile and will therefore be 'go anywhere' on SYSL infrastructure only.
 

edwin_m

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As far as I'm aware the only trackwork modifications that have been necessary are those to SYSL infrastructure that have been carried out as part of recent rail replacement works. This allows a Tram-Train profiled vehicle to travel over the whole of the Meadowhall line, and as far as Shalesmoor in the city direction, including using Shalesmoor and Cathedral crossovers. It will use Cathedral in service regularly, however it will be able to go to Shalesmoor to cover for any unavailability of Cathedral crossover.

Metrolink off-street sections have the raised checkrails and they were considered necessary during several tram-train studies for the UK, but I don't know what has been defined for this one. They are provided as standard on the Continent.
 

bradders1983

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Does anyone have any inkling on what the timetable changes are going to be in summer once these 3 new trams come in? Will these 3 extra trams only be wheeled out as peak time extras or will be see a strengthening to the timetable all day? The Yellow route could easily have extra trams on in the evening when it goes down to 3tph, maybe the purple route running all day long Halfway-City-Meadowhall could happen?
 

tbtc

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Does anyone have any inkling on what the timetable changes are going to be in summer once these 3 new trams come in? Will these 3 extra trams only be wheeled out as peak time extras or will be see a strengthening to the timetable all day? The Yellow route could easily have extra trams on in the evening when it goes down to 3tph, maybe the purple route running all day long Halfway-City-Meadowhall could happen?

I've asked this elsewhere and never got a proper answer.

The recent changes saw a peak "ex Halfway" service withdrawn and replaced by an additional "ex Middlewood" service, which may be an indication of where Supertram think the biggest market is.

The bus changes last month had quite an impact along Langsett Road (with the service from Hillsborough into the city centre reduced), so I'd prioritise the Hillsborough side. Shame that the layout at the Hillsborough stop doesn't lend itself to the kind of regular turnbacks you get at the Cathedral though.

Mind you, at the moment, the Purple services aren't running to Meadowhall in the daytime - the collision at Shalesmoor a few weeks ago means one fewer tram in service, which has been found by restricting the daytime Purples to the route between Herdings Park and the Cathedral only.

The question is, how to balance the different branches - would three trams be enough to increase the blues and purples to eight an hour? But then that'd mean little room for Purple reversals... dunno!
 

ALEMASTER

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The reason no-one has had a straight answer is the timetable is still being worked on.

Don't expect a major revolution though, it will be more about modifying the existing service to reflect current demands, traffic etc.

There are four objectives in the new timetable development
- Improve punctuality by reviewing journey times and layover times
- Increase capacity at the locations and times where demand is high
- Reduce capacity at the locations and times where demand is very low
- Prepare the service pattern on the Meadowhall line for the introduction of tram-train.
 

bradders1983

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They have now cancelled ALL Purple route trams up to 8pm at night (one early morning run excepted) until further notice, citing tram shortages. What has changed from last week?
 

tramdan

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They have now cancelled ALL Purple route trams up to 8pm at night (one early morning run excepted) until further notice, citing tram shortages. What has changed from last week?


Not sure, but when I went past the depot yesterday evening at about 1900, there were no spare trams in the yard whatsoever. Even with the full complement of 25 trams, they were always tight with the maintenance requirement so my guess is that they found themselves even more constrained than they previously expected.
 

WatcherZero

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Didn't they have to renew the embedded track in the city because it was failing anyway and decided they would make it compatible at the same time and so do the lot.
 

bradders1983

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Not sure, but when I went past the depot yesterday evening at about 1900, there were no spare trams in the yard whatsoever. Even with the full complement of 25 trams, they were always tight with the maintenance requirement so my guess is that they found themselves even more constrained than they previously expected.

True but they were managing alright last week...

Although some thought from elsewhere as to what has changed this week:

"Other trams in the fleet are now hitting the maximum mileage they can operate before being taken out for a service/exam and associated routine maintenance. That will mean 22 trams available for a 23 tram service (assuming nothing breaks down).

The other issue is at this time of year in an afternoon there are significant delays in the Hillsborough area due to traffic congestion which can leave trams running up to 20-30 minutes late. What Supertram normally do to alleviate that is to inject a spare unscheduled tram into the system temporarily to plug any gaps in the frequency that have opened up. There is currently no spare tram to to this with, hence some long waits and unhappy passengers on the Halfway and Meadowhall lines.

Therefore something had to be done to reduce the scheduled tram requirement by two trams. The obvious way to achieve this in a way that impacts on the fewest people is to pull the Purple route, which only accounts for 6% of the daily passenger numbers across the network and only exclusively serves 2 tram stops, both of which are lightly used. "
 

ivanhoe

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I can't wait for the actual tram train to be fully operational to Rotherham. The success of the scheme could influence future public transport investment, not only in cities that have current tram operations but also in other cities where trams could operate in suburbs before joining national rail networks.
 
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