Work to replace track, including the crossover at Hillsborough, on South Yorkshire Supertram took place over the last week of October (which also happened to be the local school half-term holidays). With work taking place on the Blue and Yellow routes from Shalesmoor to Malin Bridge and Middlewood there were changes to services which, coupled with the ongoing issue at Birley Lane, saw a few unusual destinations on the trams. In this pictorial article Luke Goldsworthy provides some images from the city centre.
Blue route trams running to Herdings Park would once have been the most unusual destination to be seen but as they have been doing this for over months now its rarity factor has diminished! 113 is seen just approaching Castle Square on its way to Herdings Park.
116 is heading up to Cathedral in this photo. Its working a Yellow route service which will only run as far as Cathedral because of the trackworks. The Blue route was continuing to run through to Shalesmoor but except on the Sunday of the works the Yellow route was turned here.
And here we see 114 which shows us the Shalesmoor destination as it approaches Cathedral.
One of the replacement buses – YE1 to Middlewood – is seen on High Street. Anyone wanting to swap modes could do so from here rather than going through to Shalesmoor and then making the change there. Stagecoach had the contract to work the YE1 and BL2 replacement services with First currently operating the BL1 service to Halfway. (All Photographs by Luke Goldsworthy, 29th October 2026)