'Tram-train expansion will help rail capacity problems in South Yorkshire'

Sheffield City Region has outlined plans to extend the service beyond Rotherham Parkgate through Swinton and onto Doncaster town centre with the possibility of connecting the airport in Finningley.

SCR Mayor Dan Jarvis, said: “We have been working closely with TfN, Network Rail and our neighbouring regions in the North and Midlands to set out this programme of interventions, one that secures the optimum future rail services across our areas and beyond.

“It is vital that Sheffield City Region is not ‘left behind’ by investment focussed on other regions and lines, and that it is front and centre of the IRPMN (Integrated Rail Plan for the Midlands and the North).”

The comments from come as the Sheffield City Region submit a needs assessment for the Government’s IRPMN.

In 2018 a trial of tram-train services commenced between Sheffield and Rotherham Parkgate, utilising sections of both heavy rail and light rail networks.

This aimed to complement the existing stopping heavy rail service between Sheffield and Rotherham whilst providing ‘enhanced accessibility for locations in between’.

A new stop at Magna Science and Adventure Museum in Templeborough could be operational as early as 2022.

Transport for the North (TfN) plans to extend tram-train services through to Swinton and then onwards to Doncaster as part of the Northern Powerhouse Rail plans for the Sheffield to Leeds corridor.

Extending the tram-train service is dependent on the renewal of the Supertram network, for which a business case has recently been submitted to Government, and a study commissioned by SCR is also underway looking at extensions to that network within and beyond Sheffield to serve the future needs of the area.

These services would be complemented by the extension of tram-train services and connections between Sheffield and Doncaster, bosses said.

An extension of the tram-train network will ‘also assist with some of the capacity problems’ at Doncaster station, which are currently being examined by Network Rail.

The work to date has identified future capacity constraints at the station, even in the short term with additional LNER services planned from 2021.

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