From Halfway to Middlewood

Not exactly  ‘24 hours from Tulsa’ but to anyone who knows, Halfway and Middlewood are two of the termini on Sheffield’s Supertram or as ‘Stagecoach’ would put it,

 

 

Built in the early 1990’s and fully opened in 1995. The infrastructure is owned by South Yorkshire PTE whilst the system is operated by ‘Stagecoach’.

 

The system was originally operated by a subsidiary of the PTE but due to its perceived lack of popularity was sold to ‘Stagecoach’ in 1997.

 

‘Stagecoach’ instituted changes which have improved the system and at the time of writing, approximately 15 million passengers per year are carried.

 

The trams built by Siemans Duewag are three car, double articulated units and are currently painted in a livery derived from ‘Stagecoach’s  railway livery used in and around the South of England.

 

As the tram stop says, Halfway serves a large car park which is also served by buses of ‘Stagecoach Yorkshire’ (SY).

 

 One of its Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) hybrid double deckers  painted in the green livery of the normal ‘Stagecoach’ livery starting to move off.

 

The trams themselves are warm and comfortable and have both a driver and a conductor. These days I find the provision of conductors to be unusual but being of a generation that grew up knowing the value of conductors to the traveling public, I applaud the move. 

 

I feel that they would be a worthwhile introduction on some very busy bus routes where fare collection by the driver can slow down the boarding process with obvious knock on effects on running time.

 

The driver is presented with a large airy ‘cabin’ with excellent all round vision.

 

 

Four stops towards the city from Halfway, the large shopping complex at Crystal Peaks (CP) is served. In this image tram No.122 is approaching the CP stop. The shops can be seen behind the tram.

 

Also behind the tram and the trees to the left is a small bus station of 8 stands from which services connect into Sheffield and also into many smaller communities locally.

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An Optare Solo of ‘Stagecoach’ providing one such service to Killamarsh as route SL3.

 

In Sheffield city centre, tram No.110 is seen coming off the bridge that crosses Park Square. 

 

At the other side of the bridge is a ‘T’ junction. Turn left for Meadowhall and right for the railway station and eventually Halfway or to the other terminus on this side of Sheffield at Herdings Park.

 

Middlewood is one of two termini on this side of the city. The other one being at Malin Bridge.

 

 

Tram 110 again. This time standing at Middlewood terminus awaiting departure time on its next trip to Meadowhall.

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An ADL Enviro 200 on the dedicated ‘SUPERTRAMLINK’ service that serves Stocksbridge further up the Don valley.

The position of the pantograph above the bus implies that the bus is mains powered. Fret not, it’s just that the bus is parked in front of the tram !

 

 

This image appeared in ‘Buses’ magazine for March 2014 on page 58.