Members of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) have voted in favour of proposals which will see the Supertram system come under full public control again from March 2024 when the current Stagecoach operating contract comes to an end.
As reported a week or so ago, the plans were part of the South Yorkshire Mayor, Oliver Coppard, plans to include Supertram as a full part of an integrated transport network with upgrades to be funded through a £100 million Government grant recently awarded to the region.
Stagecoach have been the operators of the tramway since 1997 with their contract due to expire in March 2024. Its been long rumoured that this would not be renewed with plans to bring it into full public control again – and these have now been voted in. For the first few years of the network the local PTE were also operators of the network (as well as owners of the network infrastructure) but with lower passenger numbers than expected the concession was let to Stagecoach who initially provided a boost to those travelling on board the trams. But with the ever-changing political environment, public operation has once again become popular and Supertram will fall under full South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority control in just less than 18 months time.
The Mayor, Oliver Coppard, said: “Our transport ambitions – for how our communities get to jobs or education, and how they visit family and friends – must work for the whole of our region and for a generation to come. Supertram has been part of South Yorkshire’s fabric for nearly thirty years. In the next thirty years, it will play a critical role in helping us reach our net zero goal. Now, I am pleased to be able to say that it will do so as a publicly owned, publicly operated venture. Full public control of Supertram is an exciting new chapter for our tram network. It will help us to develop a long-term, integrated approach that fits with our wider plans for buses, rail, walking and cycling across South Yorkshire.”
More details of what this change may mean will doubtless come over the next year or so but the distinctive Stagecoach livery will be disappearing from the trams in a couple of years time.