Weekday Purple route trams cancelled indefinitely across Sheffield

Stagecoach Supertram has decided to temporarily axe Purple route services during the daytime on weekdays, which run from Herdings Park to Meadowhall via Cathedral.

Purple route services will not run before 7.37pm, except for two trams - a 5.35am tram from Sheffield Station to Herdings Park and a 5.55am tram from Herdings Park to Cathedral.

Replacement buses will be laid on between Herdings Park and Gleadless Townend, up until the final 7.42pm bus. After that, Purple trams will run as normal for the rest of the evening.

BUT, no purple trams will run to Meadowhall at any time, instead only going between city centre and Herdings Park.

On Saturdays, the service will run as normal, but departures from Cathedral will run earlier - from 23 and 53 minutes past the hour until 6.54pm, when normal service resumes. Services will only operate from Herdings Park and Cathedral, not Meadowhall.

Sunday services are not affected.

No date has been given for the return of the normal Purple service although Stagecoach said it was a ‘temporary’ change.

The reason for the change is ‘reduced tram availability’ after Two trams crashed at Shalesmoor putting them out of service.

Stagecoach said: “These changes will allow us to add more services to the Blue and Yellow routes where necessary to avoid delays and cancellations whilst providing an increased frequency replacement bus service to/from Herdings Park.”

In summary:

Stagecoach Supertram has announced that:

-The 0535 Purple service from Sheffield Station to Herdings Park and 0555 Herdings Park to Cathedral will operate as normal

-After this, Purple services will not operate. A more frequent bus between Herdings Park and Gleadless Townend will operate instead, connecting with Blue trams at Gleadless Townend.

-The replacement buses will start running at 0622 from Herdings Park (slightly earlier than the usual 0625 tram service) and continue every 20 minutes throughout the day. (As the replacement bus is more frequent than most trams, bus times will be different to the usual tram times).

-The last bus from Gleadless Townend will be at 1932 and from Herdings Park to Gleadless Townend at 1942. After that, Purple trams will resume as normal for the remainder of the day.

-The first trams will then be the 1937 Purple service from Cathedral and the 2002 from Herdings Park

-Purple services will not operate to or from Meadowhall at all Monday to Friday

On Saturday:

-Departures from Herdings Park at the normal times, as per the timetable

-Earlier departures from Cathedral at 23 and 53 minutes past the hour from the start of service until 1854, when the normal timetable resumes

-No changes to Sundays

A spokesman for Stagecoach said: “These changes will allow us to add more services to the Blue and Yellow routes where necessary to avoid delays and cancellations whilst providing an increased frequency replacement bus service to/from Herdings.”