Passengers will be able to travel between Sheffield City Centre and Rotherham in under 30 minutes when the new Tram-Train service launches on Thursday 25th October. Three services an hour will run between 0527 and 2127 each weekday, although as previously reported these will not be evenly spaced because of constraints on the railway with Northern services having to also be fitted in.
On Thursday 25th October the first service won’t actually depart Cathedral until 0939 arriving at Rotherham Parkgate at 1009 (usually this service will arrive at 1006 but presumably on launch day there will be press stops on the way). The usual timetable will then commence which will see depatures from Cathedral at 01, 27 and 39 minutes past the hour arriving at Rotherham Central at 24, 51 and 03 respectively and Parkgate three minutes later. Services return from Parkgate at 09, 31 and 59 minutes past the hour.
The standard weekday timetable will see the first service leave Cathedral at 0527 with the first four hours seeing departures at slightly different times than that seen later in the day (but only by the odd minute). There are also slight differences in the evening. The final departure from Cathedral to Parkgate is at 2200 with a few other late departures only running to Cricket Inn Road.
Services from Parkgate commence at 0559 and run three times an hour all the way until 2159. The final service from Parkgate to Cathedral is at 2231.
Saturdays see a nearly identical service with Sundays seeing the service not commencing until 0827 with the last through tram from Cathedral at 1800 and returning at 1831.
As for fares, the service will be treated as a tram with concessionary passes accepted and Railcards not. As a launch promotion standard Supertram day tickets will be valid on the service (no mention of how long this promotion will last). Two single fares are valid on the service: £1.80 for journeys between Parkgate and Arena (£3 for a return) and £2.50 for all other single journeys. The tram only dayrider – £4 – is valid to start with, meaning this is likely to be the best value ticket for anyone wishing to sample the new service to start with. No mention is given as to what the fares may be once this promotional period is over.
The new service is being shown as black on the Supertram map but it hasn’t been announced whether this colour will be transferred to the destination screens or if that section will remain blank.
With under a week to go until the service is launched the anticipation is building and it should be all systems go on Thursday 25th October for the start of this pilot which will hopefully lead to the application of more Tram-Trains in the UK.
* The full timetable and fares guide is available on the Stagecoach Supertram website along with a guide.