The first (of three) phase of summer rail replacement work (improvement works as the publicity tells us) on the South Yorkshire Supertram network got underway on Saturday 20th July. This part of the works is seeing track replaced on White Lane, Crystal Peaks and Waterthorpe and has also led to a revised service in operation.
The locations of the work underway means that no trams are able to run any further than Gleadless Townend on the Blue route to Halfway but rather than just terminating all trams from Malin Bridge there a revised service has operated to Herdings Park, the usual Purple route terminus.
Under normal service during the week, Herdings Park is served by one tram an hour which shuttles back and forth to Cathedral. But from 20th July until 2nd August the Purple route has been cancelled and replaced by a revised Blue route which sees trams travelling from Malin Bridge to Herdings Park at the usual Blue frequency of up to every 12 minutes. That means Herdings Park is enjoying its best frequency with five trams an hour instead of one!
Passengers wishing to travel through to Halfway are having to complete their journeys by bus with a dedicated bus replacement service in operation. The Yellow and Tram-Train routes are unaffected by this work.
Two further phases of work will follow during the summer, 3rd to 11th August work takes place at Hollisend and Herdings Park and then 12th August to 1st September will see more work undertaken on Middlewood Road.
VolkerRail are completing the work for the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and in this photo we see the compound created on White Lane which is enabling safe work to be completed on one of the tracks. Traffic still flows by on the other carriageway as work takes place on installing the new rails.
Close attention is paid to the new track in preparation of its installation.
Taken through the front cab of 121 we are on the Herdings Park line we see 104 heading towards Malin Bridge.
121 is seen here standing at Herdings Park. Its not often you are here and see a tram with the Blue route colour and Malin Bridge as the destination.
Herdings Park itself is on a single line section as we see here through the cab of 121. The terminus stop is on the left. (All Photographs by Stuart Cooke, 24th July 2024)
Someone correct me if I’m wrong… But whan supertram was originally built there was great fanfare about this new track system that coule be laid almost overnight. They dug out the road to a depth of a foot or so, then laid a concrete pad with two grooves where the rails would go. Next the rails went down and were held in exact place with some type of resin. Yes, the streets were famously disrupted for months, but that was mainly to move underground services from below the path of the tracks. the actual track laying was very quick. Has that system been abandoned and if so, why?
That was only a very short trial section. Whether it has lasted I don’t know. The major part of the embedded grooved rail track was constructed along a more traditional method with reinforced concrete slab supporting the track.